At Hinesville Day Spa, every day is another chance to keep those New Year’s resolutions by taking care of skin, health and wellness through the customizable services offered, from hair and face to muscles, bones and bodies.

Owner Sheela Eichhorn, who moved to Hinesville in 1998, began her practice with one massage table in the back of a beauty shop, she said.

“It was pointed out to me that the other beauty shops would refer people to me, but they didn’t want to send their clients to another beauty shop,” Eichhorn said. “It’s better if you’re stand alone. We did that from 1999 to 2008, when we moved downtown, and included a beauty salon with me.”

Eichhorn moved to Hinesville to be closer to family and grandchildren, she said. The massage therapy was a skill she possessed, and a service she could provide to others. At the time, there was only one other massage therapy business in Hinesville.

“There was another single massage clinic going on,” Eichhorn said. “But competition is good. She got ill and backed off, and wanted to sell me her business, but I was already getting some of her clients.”

Eichhorn waited for three months after the competitor closed, and took her phone number, making her feel a part of the history of massage therapy in the Hinesville area. Nearly 20 years ago, massage therapy wasn’t as popular as it now, and Eichhorn has loved watching the practice grow, and see people realize the health business.

“I started it, because that’s what I know,” she said. “It supported me, and I knew it was something people liked and supported.”

Now, Eichhorn partners with chiropractor Dr. Monica Gilbert, and the Salon at Hinesville Day Spa. The spa, located off of Elma G. Miles Parkway, offers an assortment of services and massages, including a relatively new therapy called cupping.

Eichhorn believes in treating the body holistically—body, mind, and spirit, she said. It enhances meditation and quiet, creating a sense of balance and grounding to relieve that stress and maintain health.

“People lay on the tables getting their muscles treated, but their mind is also calming,” Eichhorn added. “Through the quiet music, lights, and relaxation. You hit muscles people didn’t realize were tense, because the body is connected. We’re able to help them incorporate their whole body, and see that taking care of themselves affects their job, their family relations, their sleep, and they feel better about themselves. Physically, it helps the muscles, but mentally and emotionally it’s a real boost.”

Therapeutic benefits include stress reduction, Eichhorn said. Stress manifests through sleepless nights, tension headaches, weight gain, mood swings and other things that we don’t necessarily attribute to stress, she continued. Massage is able to target and alleviate those symptoms in many ways.

“It’s helpful for injuries, muscles that are overstrained, car accidents, and other problems,” Eichhorn said. “By combining with the chiropractic, we’re able to complement each other. She works with joints and adjusting the bones, and we work with the muscles. We try to work together.”

Cupping, a relatively new form of massage, creates space in between the muscle tissues so that the lymphatics can clean out the toxins and stagnant blood, Eichhorn said. The spa team travelled to Atlanta, Texas, and Florida for training on the technique.

“Cupping is a way to help the body heal itself,” she said. “It’s a new thing we’re doing, and people have a natural curiosity about it. We do the fire cupping and the vacuum and suction cupping. It’s very effective, and you can feel the lifting and openness it creates.”

People seem to like the deep tissue massages, Eichhorn added, but a firm Swedish massage works the same to address the tension areas of muscles in the body and giving a release without having to dig too deep.

At the end of the day, Eichhorn measures success by bringing former clients back to refresh them on the ongoing benefits of massage therapy, and bringing in someone new through the front door.

“We get the benefit of footsteps through the door,” Eichhorn said. “We have new footsteps that walk through the door, making it helpful. Many, many times on a Saturday, half of clients are new people.”

Eichhorn emphasizes that there are other ways to incorporate self-care into a daily routine. The 912 Recharge Lounge utilizes lights, sounds and massage techniques from Germany to relax and rejuvenate in smaller sessions, ranging from 10 minutes to an hour or longer.

“This helps people to take care of themselves,” Eichhorn said. “For me, I don’t often have an whole hour of my life I can stop to take care of myself, but that 10 or 15 minutes that I stop there to let my mind shift and unwind is very helpful. It helps your mind and body.”

Hinesville Day Spa offers a wide variety of spa services, and can be found at hinesvilledayspa.com.