By Jacob Mathias

She began in a tiny  downtown storefront, but Deborah Adams, owner of the Wellness Spa had bigger dreams for her business.

Adams opened the wellness spa in 1994 in a tiny, 400 square foot space in downtown Stevens Point where she had one spa treatment room and one massage room. Business quickly boomed and Adams’ business added employees and expanded twice over five years until finally in 1999 she realized a much larger, permanent space was needed.

The spa moved into it’s current space, a nearly 100 year old home surrounded by eight acres of land on the south side of Stevens Point. Adams remodeled the home and set up shop. In 2005, Adams added on to the spa with a large addition of more treatment rooms, hydrotherapy tubs and locker rooms as well as an open space for wellness classes and workshops.

Adams began her career as a massage therapist working in a medical environment working for a chiropractor. She started her in business in an attempt to encompass more aspects of wellness including their core massage business, skin and nail treatments, nutrition, fitness and spiritual wellness.

“I eventually decided there was more to massage than just massage, more to wellness than massage,” she said. “We finally are a place that creates healing experiences for people.”

Adams started in massage on a whim after a career as a dancer. She wanted a job where she didn’t have to sit and she could work with her hands. She didn’t know if she even liked massage but it obviously worked out for her.

“I didn’t know massage was going to be so unique as far as building relationships with people and having this uniquely intimate experience,” she said.

Adams said some massage clients talk to her, cry or go into a deep meditation. They all react differently. She said massage helps purge emotions and stress in addition to the physical benefits.

The newest addition to the Wellness Spa is a salt spa, an enclosed room encased with 20,000 lbs of salt covering the floor and walls. Even the windows are constructed of Himalayan salt blocks. Lamps of the same material adorn the entire spa.

Adams said salt is an integral part of her wellness treatments at the spa as it provides negative ions which help provide positive energy feelings. The salt spa is used to inundate the body with those negative ions. The air in the salt spa is filled with microfine dust salt which allows for respiratory salt therapy.

“The more you have of them in the air, the better people feel,” she said. “Happier more positive feelings come from that.”

The Wellness Spa is located at 3916 Water St. in Stevens Point. For more information the spa and its services visit www.wellnesssparesort.com. The spa is open Monday through Friday from 9:00 AM to 9:00 PM and Saturday from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM.