More and more high-end spas are looking for training to help them understand how to treat clients with cancer, according to Julie Bach, founder of Wellness for Cancer, a non-profit education organisation.

Wellness for Cancer has recently been made a Global Wellness Institute initiative, something Bach said has helped create momentum for the organisation.

“It’s been beautiful to see how it’s been received,” said Bach.

Bach has also created a task force within the initiative to help those in the spa industry understand how to look at their own products, or what to teach their aestheticians to say.

“There’s an opportunity to help identify the challenges and opportunities,” she explained. “...We want to help (spas) with these clients who are healing.”

Bach said she’s looking for brands that want to roll out the training. She has recently signed on UK-based Center Parcs, which operates five resorts and spas, as well as The Eden Rock in Miami Beach.

“As an industry, we’re all about wellness, but the fact of the matter is that we’re a diseased society, so we can’t only treat people who are well,” said Bach. “I’m trying to flip it for the industry to understand that this is a part of wellness.”

Bach suggests that the industry needs to ask itself “How do we treat people who are trying to get well?”

One way is to stop using the term ‘oncology massage,’ she says, which, while meant to be a helpful identifier, instead has the effect of reminding clients of their cancer.

“You have a client who’s trying to escape cancer for an hour,” said Bach. “...I want people to see that we can create something really exciting, rather than just oncology.”

Bach says the spa industry needs to create the magical journeys that it’s known for – but for clients with cancer.

“We can learn so much about wellness from these clients,” she said. “Don’t be afraid of it – let’s learn how to find wellness and wellbeing.”