WASHINGTON 鈥擡ach week, dozens of the capital region鈥檚 stressed out and work-weary head to Hope Floats in Bethesda, Maryland, where they hope to make聽their cares聽float away — literally.
The spa聽is one of a growing number of locations offering what’s known as聽flotation therapy. In the name of relaxation, practitioners spend at least an hour floating聽naked (bathing suits are an option) in a pod filled with salt-infused water. The pod is completely dark and silent.
“I kind of felt like I was entering my mother’s womb again,” said Bethesda resident Kimberly Boone, describing 聽how it felt聽the first time she got in the tank.
Boone started doing flotation therapy back in聽2012. She says she was in a dark place at the time,聽recovering from alcohol and drug addictions. She was looking for an alternative way to deal with anxiety and depression. She opened the business in 2013.
鈥淒octors prescribe pills or whatever just to get you to feel, deal — get through a day,” said Boone. “For me it became floating.鈥�
Flotation therapy is聽getting more national attention thanks to high-profile endorsements from elite athletes 鈥� Steph Curry and Tom Brady are known floaters. A float spa has recently set up shop in Frederick, Maryland. There also are spas in Baltimore and Annapolis.
Costs for an hour-long session at D.C.-region spas range between $60 and $80.
鈥淧eople are looking for holistic methods to disconnect,鈥� says Lynette Darco, business manager at Hope Floats. “We’re all so connected 24 hours a day.”
The inside of the聽tank is small, about twice the width of a typical bathtub. But it’s tall and long enough to enable a single person to float without feeling smothered.
It’s filled with a mixture of water and Epsom salt 鈥攋ust enough for buoyancy, since you鈥檙e not completely submerged.
The temperature of the air and water are meant to match your body temperature — which can wig out first-timers.聽鈥淭hey鈥檙e like, 鈥榠s my arm in the water or not?鈥欌�� Darco said. 鈥淥f course they look, but they鈥檙e in darkness and can鈥檛 see.鈥�
Darco and Boone said that the disorientation eventually subsides. You’ll leave the tank feeling like you got聽a complete mind reboot, they said.
鈥淔or me, it鈥檚 a way of life at this point,鈥� Boone said.
