The blurb
Grace is an appropriately named oasis, occupying a Grade II listed building on West Halkin St in Belgravia. Part spa and part members club, it is a space exclusively for woman—maintaining ‘no feminist agenda, but a feminine agenda’. It is a rare, magical place, embodying and nurturing empowered femininity, the woman who lives on her own terms, who creates her own world, a world that is beautiful and functional, spacious and safe, stimulating and relaxed.
Martine de Richeville’s Remodelage process is born of a lifetime of passionate study, first in Chinese medicine and then in Rudolph Steiner’s movement meditation—Eurhythmy. It is a regenerative massage that goes so far as to call itself a manual ‘remodelling’—thus the name. It embraces, in a unique way, a woman’s desire to both have her body reflect modern beauty ideals and for that reflection to come out of a spiritual depth and stillness.
The process
Up a discreet black staircase is a welcoming open-plan atrium and bar, leading down some steps to the restaurant; the design is perfectly transparent, playful and cosy at once. I am directed through some doors to a tall, lush Alice in Wonderland corridor full of space and light, and on, up some stairs, the design so open and tactile that my mind is soothed before I even open the door to the Acqua Calda Spa.
When I do there is no one to greet me, but this doesn’t feel strange, I feel as though this space has been given just to me. I lie down on a relaxation couch, surrounded by birch trees (every design element in Grace is thoughtful, a balm for the senses) and fall into a sweet few minutes of meditation—just what I needed in the midst of a stressful day.
As if by magic, my therapist Pauline appears just as I sit up. She leads me gently into the treatment room and we talk for a few minutes about the treatment and its roots before Pauline, who is also a yoga teacher, asks me a few questions about my lifestyle: do I exercise? Not really. How is my diet? Consisting largely of avocados (does this make up for the no exercise…?).
She explains that the MdeRR protocol works at a deeper level than palpate and roll techniques, or mechanical LPG massage; it opens deep skin layers, targeting older cellulite deposits, draining toxins, immediately beginning to resculpt the silhouette of the body and allowing the natural flow of the system to be rebalanced so that I will more energised.
The manual manipulation of the skin is strong and medically precise, but also feels strangely nurturing. I am in a deeply relaxed state by the end of the hour—as well as feeling slightly bruised and stretched. It feels like the end of a good yoga class, my body light and spacious and also just touching the resilient edge of pain.
Pauline recommends some asanas for me to practise over the next few days as aftercare and warns me that sometimes clients experience some emotional release, as well as slimmer healthier bodies, after the treatment.
The result
I am a little skeptical about such a medically focused massage having an impact on my emotional state, but sure enough a few hours later I am crying in my partner’s arms, for no specific reason that I can name, but it feels good.
The details
