We sat down with the effervescent Ms. Tracey Poole, Director of Spa at Six Senses Spa to discuss her life, love of color, the company she’s with and what makes her the perfect brand ambassador for the first Six Senses outpost in India. She then went on to design our day at the spa, complete with scheduling our session with the Yoga Master, ordering us a light post-exercise lunch and recommending the Moroccan hammam. Here’s an excerpt from our chat.
1) Tell us about the concept behind Six Senses.
Six Senses is a global super-luxury Resort & Spa chain with over 15 resorts and 30 spas in over 19 different countries including Europe, Middle East and throughout Asia.
We are committed to delivering integrated wellness experiences in some of the most beautiful locations, inspired by our Asian heritage but influenced by the local environment and culture. Our local sensibility is evident in the products we choose, the treatments we design and the sustainable practices we implement. This approach enables us to maintain a closer connection with nature and the surrounding world.
Our global relationships with practitioners, healers, wellness leaders and experts allow us to go beyond the traditional spa offering and combine high tech and high touch approaches which blend the old and the new. We give our guests the tools to pursue a better quality of life.
2) This is Six Senses’ first spa in India. Is there any particular reason for choosing Greater Noida?
Globally Six Senses has a core philosophy to select locations that are very unique and different away from the traditional hospitality norms with high traffic and congestion seeking areas offering serenity and keeping in touch with a lot of natural greenery and surroundings. Jaypee Greens ultimately met all of those points and more offering such a magical Resort, close enough to the main New Delhi city amongst a well-planned residential infrastructure with expansive development and a lot of greenery otherwise not found in New Delhi NCR region.
3) You’re the Director of Spa. So tell us, how did it all begin? What was it that brought you here?
I have been working in the Spa and Hospitality industry since I graduated over 20 years ago and worked abroad in Asian countries for the last 10 years. I have always had a very strong interest in Indian culture and the people so I was really delighted when my job with Six Senses Spas allowed me the opportunity to live and work in India and to develop the Six Senses Spa brand in India.
4) An expertly created oasis in a massive 60-acre sanctuary sounds like the perfect spa-scape. Do tell us a bit more about the treatments and local influences, if any, on them.
We have an expansive organically inspired Spa Garden, which has been created to provide and support application of the local therapies. By utilizing ingredients, plants and herbs that are indigenous to the local area, we are able to treasure the local traditions as the very essence of what our Six Senses Spa treatment offerings are providing a truly natural and authentic Six Senses experience.
5) What are your thoughts on Indian healing traditions?
The system of Ayurveda is really good and steeped in thousands of year’s old science, offering long-term healing and preventative health. True authentic Ayurveda practice is a lifestyle choice and to fully benefit from it you need to build the system into your life through consultation, diet, nutrition, daily practices and regular treatment.
Globally Ayurveda it is gaining momentum and understanding. As the Spa and wellness industry grows, so too is the quality of the Ayurveda practices within the hospitals and the Spa environment throughout India.
6) What do you hope visitors to your spa will get out of the experience?
Total well-being and life style enhancement
Integrated healthy living and self-nourishment by taking care of oneself for a better quality of life
7) How have spa treatments affected your own way of living?
I believe wholeheartedly in the services that a good Spa can provide for “total well-being” and I highly recommend it. Spa Therapy is an investment in self-care, personal health and completely enhances quality of life.
8) Any advice you’d like to give to first timers?
First timers should always make sure that they plan there spa visits carefully to ensure that quality of service is being provided and pricing is in line with ones budgets. It always best to consult with the Spa and Wellness Managers within the facility to help select the best treatments for you personally.
9) Word out there is that the Company is set to double in size over the next three years. What does that say about its future in India?
Six Senses is already a well-established International Company with over 35 Spas and 15 Resorts worldwide in 19 countries and with many more projects coming up globally in the next 5 years. India is also included in that development strategy and we are delighted to be growing the Six Senses brand in such vibrant cities such as Pune, Mumbai and other key locations throughout India.
10) And lastly, aside from your own spa, what is your favorite spa in the world?
There are many beautiful and rejuvenating Spas in the World and it’s hard to single out just one, but right now the Six Senses Spa at Gstaad Switzerland has to be a favorite, set in one of Switzerland’s premier ski resorts, offering a premium wellness destination spa facility in a fabulous location with integrated International and Asian therapies; the treatment rooms also allow for flotation, colonic, Ayurvedic, and color therapy treatments.
There’s an indoor-outdoor pool, two whirlpools, a sauna, a hammam, a steam room, hot and cold plunge pools, sensory pods, a salt grotto, a yoga studio, a gym, and a juice bar. Kids can shoot down the water slide into a splash pool, as well as play on the grotto’s “salt beach.” The look: Echoes of a traditional chalet, with warm woods, natural fibers, and timber decor.
