Amrit Davaa Wellness Center: Better Than Therapy

Amrit Davaa Wellness Center is located inside the serenely upscale surroundings of Golden Bridge Yoga in Hollywood. In keeping with the studio's philosophy, this mini spa focuses on both physical and spiritual well being, offering services such as Ayurvedic medicine, Reiki, acupuncture and nutritional counseling, in addition to typical spa services like massage, facials and pedicures. Of course, a pedicure at Amrit Davaa is much more than your typical pumice and polish, as we learned when we experienced the 90-minute High Healer Pedicure treatment with Kristi.

Kristi combines years of experience in the beauty industry with strong yogic influences, and her confidence in her craft, life-affirming energy and immense warmth are evident in her work. "High healing" is more than just a cute play on words; Kristi has an incredible touch and she knows the pressure points of the feet like the back of her hand. Her reflexology skills, combined with her natural intuition, made for an exceptionally relaxing and revelatory session – Kristi's insight into both our emotional and physical state was remarkable. After 90 minutes, we felt like we'd had a particularly enlightening visit to the therapist.

Kristi has developed her own essential oil-based (and mantra-infused) pedicure products, which she uses exclusively in her treatments. Her Narayan Sacred Healing Beauty line includes a foot soak, scrubbing butter and shea butter moisturizer, each crafted out of only the purest ingredients (it's all there on the labels – no nasty chemicals or fillers). She sent us home with one of each, and we've been using them all over, as they're way too delicious for just the feet.

We followed up our High Healer with a massage from Julian. We could definitely detect a pattern in Amrit Davaa's staff, as he too emanated a caring energy that made us feel all warm and fuzzy. Julian gave our whole body some much-needed TLC, paying special attention to a stubborn knot in the lower back. Afterward, he gave us some advice on how to work out tension in our problem areas.

Our visit to Amrit Davaa left us with a feeling of immense gratitude to its healers; we will definitely visit again soon. Maybe we'll even work in a yoga class next time.

Review originally published 3/6/2008.