The Great Escape
Tucked away in a Frome garden, The Retreat is offering a rather lovely escape from everyday life. And now founder Laura is giving one person every month the chance to experience it for free. Daisy Steel went along to discover more.
Hidden away in a leafy Frome garden, there’s a place where the aim is to do something many of us have almost forgotten how to do: absolutely nothing.
The Retreat is a beautiful, intimate treatment cabin created by Laura, who welcomed friends and guests through its doors for its official launch in August.
“It’s so exciting,” she says, looking around the little space she has created. “I can’t actually believe we’re here and it’s all come together. It’s quite emotional really.”
And since we first visited Laura for the launch issue of Fabulous Frome, she has come up with a rather lovely way of giving something back.
The Gift of Escape
To mark her birthday, Laura has launched The Gift of Escape, offering one complimentary treatment at The Retreat every month to someone who could really do with a little time away from everything.
“I’d like to gift a complimentary treatment at The Retreat to someone who could really do with a little time to switch off, be looked after and simply have some time for themselves,” she says.
And she’s asking local people to help her find them.
It could be someone who has been through a difficult time, someone who is always looking after everyone else, or simply someone you feel deserves a little kindness.
To nominate somebody, send Laura a private message with their name and a few words about why you think they deserve The Gift of Escape.
All nominations will go into a monthly draw, with the first recipient due to be announced next week. And if your nominee isn’t chosen this time, they won’t be forgotten. Their name will automatically go back into the draw the following month.
It feels particularly fitting for a place that was created with switching off at its heart.
Head first into relaxation
At the heart of The Retreat is a treatment you may well have spotted appearing on social media recently: the Japanese-inspired head spa.
If, like me, you’ve never had one, imagine the best bit of going to the hairdresser, when someone massages your scalp at the basin, then take it to an entirely different level.
“It’s a beautiful scalp massage,” Laura explains. “It’s like when you go to the hairdresser and it’s one of your favourite parts, but much more intense.”
Treatments combine massage with a variety of specialist tools and the rather wonderful-sounding “halo”, a ring of warm flowing water used for water therapy around the head.
“It creates a completely different sensation,” says Laura. “It really does tingle all the nerves. It’s a really powerful treatment and I use lots of different tools, so it’s quite unusual.”
There are hand and arm massages too, all designed to encourage that increasingly elusive state of complete relaxation.
A retreat in every sense
But The Retreat is about more than introducing Frome to a new beauty treatment.
Laura has deliberately kept the space small and personal, creating somewhere that feels less like a salon and more like stepping briefly out of ordinary life. Outside the cabin is her garden, complete with planting and the gentle sound of water, and that connection with nature is very deliberate.
Laura knows from her own experience how important it can be.
“Struggling myself with mental health and anxiety, being in the garden is something that helps me so much,” she says. “Having the water feature and being surrounded by these things really helped me. I wanted to create something doing what I love, helping other people and creating something that people are really going to enjoy. My heart’s really in it.”
And it shows.
Small, personal, welcoming
There’s something particularly appealing about the fact that this isn’t a vast, intimidating spa. Laura wants people to come with a friend or loved one, spend some time in the garden and feel immediately at ease.
“I want them to feel completely welcome,” she says. “I want them to walk in and think, ‘Wow, this is a really nice space. I feel at home.’ I want them to enjoy a lovely treatment and just feel relaxed.”
The Japanese-inspired head spa is only the beginning. Laura is completing further training and plans to introduce holistic facials and full-body massage, gradually expanding the treatments available without losing the intimate feel at the heart of the place.
The ultimate compliment
And there is one particular reaction from clients that Laura has quickly learnt to take as the ultimate compliment.
“A lot of people fall asleep and then they say, ‘I’m so sorry!’” she laughs.
No apology necessary. In a world where most of us spend far too much time rushing, scrolling and thinking about the next thing on the list, an hour in which you manage to forget about everything else sounds like time rather well spent.
Laura’s ambition for how people should feel when they emerge back into the real world is wonderfully simple: “Refreshed and rejuvenated.”
And now, through The Gift of Escape, someone who perhaps needs that feeling more than most will get to experience it every month.
Frankly, we can’t think of a nicer birthday present to give away.
The Retreat Frome
To book a treatment, find out more, or nominate someone for The Gift of Escape, contact Laura:
Instagram: @theretreatfrome
Telephone: 07712 242300
For The Gift of Escape, send Laura a private message with the name of the person you’d like to nominate and a few words about why.
The first recipient will be announced next week. All nominations go into the monthly draw, and anyone not selected will automatically be entered again the following month.
Head Spa • Wellbeing • Self-Care
A little time, just for you.
Written by Daisy Steel
Journalist, columnist and podcaster
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