“No-one leaves feeling worse than when they came”.
The powers of heat and cold have long been used for healing bodies and minds, and in recent years there has been a huge shift back towards it as people navigate increasingly busy lives.
Whitby Well-being, run by Danny O-Connor, is now offering free sauna sessions to community groups which support people with mental and physical health issues.
He holds them up and down the coast from Saltburn to Hornsea, including Sandsend, Whitby and Runswick Bay with the cold water provided by the North Sea or the River Esk.
Groups working with special educational needs, suicide and grief support, for example, already benefit from his sauna sessions and he is encouraging Whitby charities and groups to get in touch and explore the power of sauna and cold water.
Danny said: “I recognise the power of the sauna and also that space. There are gaps where people can get together without it being drinking, or football, the heat is relaxing and it is a nice group experience. We have both mens and womens groups.”
While the sauna is relaxing and warm, getting into the cold water requires overcoming barriers which promotes mental resilience.
He added: “The heat and cold is a hormetic stress, not acute. It is like a microdose and makes your system more resilient to day to day stress.
“I absolutely love seeing people come and then leave like a different person.”
To find out more about a free sauna, contact Whitby Well-being on alex@whitbywellbeing.com
