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Mii amo has 16 rooms, for a maximum of 32 guests at a time. The resort also serves as the spa for Enchantment’s guests. (Mii amo makes one-day packages available only in non-peak seasons, i.e., winter and summer, which includes two 60-minute treatments, one 90-minute treatment and lunch.)
As you might expect, most guests don’t come to Mii amo to “hang out,” says general manager Annika Jackson. “They generally come here with a mental need to make a change.” Guests are encouraged to make reservations early, ideally a few weeks in advance, giving Mii amo time to get in touch to “gather their intentions and tailor the program to the individual,” Jackson says. Still, it’s the guest’s program, so it remains adaptable should revisions be requested on the fly.
The facility is impressive. Opened in January 2001, it features 19 indoor treatment rooms, pools, massage rooms, Zen “spirit rooms,” couples suites, outdoor hot tubs, a restaurant (three daily meals are included in the package price) and, yes, even a bar because “we’re not here telling people how to live,” Jackson notes.
The resort’s signature is the Crystal Grotto (left), what Mii amo spa consultant Sylvia Sepielli calls its “anchor.” An opening in the ceiling focuses the sun’s rays on a “crystal mandala,” a petrified log with a marblized top. Seating runs all around the circumference of the Grotto, a soothing setting for meditation, contemplation, small discussion groups and more.
Myofascial Treatment
Therapy on the Rocks
Massage at Therapy on the Rocks is more purposeful than mere pampering. While massage therapist Lori Zeltwanger notes that the myofascial release she and others here specialize in will make you feel good, it’s not about indulgence. Most people who come to Therapy on the Rocks are looking for relief from chronic pain, tension, restricted movement or lingering effects of an accident. It’s not like a spa vacation; many patients, says Lori, show up thinking of it as their last resort.
Which is not to say the setting is clinical; far from it. It’s gorgeously situated over Oak Creek, with a view that is incredibly serene, especially from the treatment tables on terraces in the back.
In simplified form, myofascial release holds that fascia, a fully interconnected system of tough connective tissue in the human body, gets restricted through trauma or other means, and is responsible for much otherwise unexplained pain and restricted motion, which can be treated by therapists trained in Myofascial Release massage techniques of sustained pressure, stretch and motion. Lori says that she and others trained in the techniques can “read” the client by touch, and a sensitivity to what the body is telling them. What it’s largely about, she says, is facilitating the body’s own healing abilities. Lori says she finds that when working on one area of the body, another will “light up” _ for example, during an arm pull, you might feel something in your belly. “You feel how it works by the experience of feeling it working.”
