There's spa-induced serenity up in the East Bay as well. The Emeryville Health and Wellness Center just opened a couple of weeks ago on the second floor of a small office building on Powell Street, where you are greeted with subtle skylights and crisp chilled water with lemon and cucumber.

This spa Is a little different. It combines various practices from massage to ayurveda but all are independent contractors with years of experience in their Individual fields. And the center is already evolving, considering all-day packages and maybe even an ayurvedlc cafe.

Professional massage therapist Saskia Kleinert came up with the idea for such a collaboration, again with the Idea of wholeness - treating the entire person, not just one aspect of health.'

"So often in our Individual practices, we reach the limit of what our specialty and training can do, and the ideal thing Is to refer to someone else," Kleinert says. "Someone with chronic inflammation, I can't treat with massage. I'll suggest acupuncture. Or someone going through emotional turmoil which can show in the skin, perhaps eczema - I can't treat the skin.

"My idea was to have it all together, so a person can combine appointments, streamline the treatment and make i t more efficient," she says. "We want people to get better, to live better. To have overall wellbeing and contentment."

The Emeryville team includes Soizic Ausmus from France. Her lovely, accent soothes you before you even have anything done. Then her fingers slide over your face like a sculptor smoothing clay, gently rounding the nuances of the shape.

Customized skin treatments

She's the skin care specialist and she uses French products based on aromatherapy that work with the immune system. She customizes skin treatments and does the classic waxing, tinting and the European facial.

Lindquist is the acupuncturist and Chinese herb specialist. Barbora Moravkova performs the ayurvedic treatment. "I talk with people about health. problems, family history," she says. "How do you prepare food? Do you use enough spices in cooking? Is the food cooked it at home or a restaurant? Do you watch TV while you eat? All this affects the whole. If someone comes with a stomach ache, the body is trying to tell you something."

That's why yoga Is Important," says Karla Rodebush, the yoga Instructor. "It's a door In. You become more aware of the body. It's that first step In treating the body holistically."

Kleinert Is from Switzerland. She does orthopedic massage In addition to relaxation techniques and hot rock treatments. She traveled to Thailand last year to train In traditional Thai massage, and she's one of maybe 100 people In the United States who practice ashiatsu - massage with the feet. That explains the bars on the ceiling of her treatment room.

One might say it's the ultimate of balance.

"You can't stop life from happening around you," Kleinert says. "This is all about developing your internal self"

The Emeryville Health and Wellness Center is at 1240 Powell St., Emeryville. (510) 595-0302

September, 2003