Becoming a Wellness Practitioner
Bianca Lorage, our Head of Wellness at Nimmo Bay, grew up in Surrey, British Columbia, with a lifelong connection to creativity. Although traditional art forms like drawing and painting didn’t resonate with her, she discovered her unique expression of artistry within her wellness practice. Through years of exploration, Bianca realized that her true art form lies in the craft of bodywork and wellness, where she channels her creativity into helping others find balance and harmony.
We had the opportunity to sit down and chat with Bianca about her life before Nimmo Bay, her journey into wellness, and go behind the scenes of the wellness program at the resort.
The early Years
Becoming a wellness practitioner wasn’t always the path Bianca thought she would take. After high school, she went to university to get her degree in psychology and sustainable development. Her first position straight out of the program was as a caseworker with children at inner city schools. She still remembers her time with those kids as being beautiful. However, Bianca realized as she moved through the job that she didn’t have the capacity to properly care for her own mental health while helping them through their thoughts, feelings, and behaviours.
“I didn’t have the capacity to take care of myself in the way that I do now. So that job really weighed on me, because those kids have gone through a lot and had seen a lot, and I wasn’t in the space to cope with that.”
Yoga Teacher Training
So, in 2015, Bianca decided it was time for a change. She made the tough choice to leave the school system and the kids that she had bonded with. In the months prior to leaving, Bianca had taken up hot yoga classes and was enjoying her time there. On a bit of a whim, she decided to go back to school for yoga teacher training. At the time, she had a very preliminary view of the practice. Yoga was all about movement and physicality. The path she set herself on was about to deepen her understanding of both the mind and body.
Bianca did her first teacher training in Costa Rica. Shortly after arriving she realized just how much there was to learn, from both a teaching perspective and a personal one. Returning from the training, she picked up some odd teaching jobs here and there. But, she still felt nervous and uncertain about this version of her future.
To combat this uncertainty, Bianca applied to the Vancouver School of Bodywork and Massage. In the program, they got to see beyond the scientific teachings of the body. “You get to see the person as a whole, and they really take into account the emotional body and the spiritual body. You learn how emotions can be stored in the body”. Completing the program solidified that wellness was the path Bianca was meant to be on.
A 5-Star Spa
After graduating, she dipped her toes into working at a remote lodge for the first time. It wasn’t a good experience, and she very quickly realized it wasn’t the place for her. She returned to the city and joined the team at a 5-star spa in Vancouver. It was her first serious wellness position after coming out of school. This was an important experience for Bianca, as she learned how to provide a high level of service and care to guests. It was fast paced with quick turnovers and there was no compromising the quality within those time constraints.
While the experience was great, the offerings and what the practitioners were required to do during treatments was highly regulated and formulaic. Everyone received the exact same experience. Bianca was starting to form her own ideas about what wellness could look like for people. She always had a desire to go off-script and move with the intuition of a treatment. The dream she was creating in her mind was for everyone to have a customized wellness experience. Each session would be different, depending on their mood, their intentions, and how their body and mind feels in that moment. Working at a big city spa was not going to be for her long-term.
Wellness At Nimmo
Fast forward to 2019, and the time was finally right. Bianca found herself arriving to work at Nimmo Bay. This was the moment to put into play all that she had learned and to start to make those dreams of a new type of wellness program a reality. Alongside the head of wellness at that time, Sarah Gover, someone she’d coincidentally met back in massage school, the two got to work. “We really just got to create and play, and that’s how we got into it”.
Creating a Personalized WEllness Program
It was never going to be a traditional spa program. The goal was to craft a constantly evolving wellness program. It’s shaped by the people and practitioners that are working at Nimmo during that season. “I’ve been lucky to be given so much creative freedom here by Becky and Fraser and so much support working with Sarah, who developed the program with me. I feel like we were just given free rein to do what we wanted”.
The outcome is a full wellness menu with guidelines instead of prescriptions that allows each practitioner to let their strengths shine through. It leaves moments for creating deeper connections with guests, and that’s one of the aspects of Nimmo that makes it so special. There’s time to really listen and hear what our guests are saying and what their body is silently saying. In this way, each treatment and wellness experience is tailored to the guest. It is a subtle dance between the needs of the guest and the skills and passions of the practitioner.
Wellness is for Everyone
The priority at Nimmo is for wellness to be accessible; wellness is for everyone. To achieve this, our wellness team aims to discover what wellness means to each person. That may be morning yoga and a sound bath, or maybe wellness means playing guitar, deep in the forest. We’ll create the space for either situation. “So, I really want it to feel like we can support you in whatever you’d like, and we’re happy to bring in new experiences or maybe push your comfort a little bit”.
Accessibility also comes down to language, and the conversations that we have with guests. Some people want to know the physicality and science of a treatment. Some just want quiet, and some want to connect on a deeper emotional or spiritual level. It’s important for Bianca to take the time to get to know the guests and meet them where they’re at.
Bianca says that the learning she’s done through her bodywork training has helped her understand people more than her 4-year psychology degree did. Taking the time to understand the people you’re treating, they begin to feel comfortable, and you truly help them relax. Everyone deserves to feel heard and feel safe whether it’s their first treatment or they’re a regular.
Learn to Slow DOwn
One of Bianca’s mentors once told her about the rubber band metaphor. “We wake up, we feed the kids, we go to school, we do this, we do that, and then we crash at the end of the night. There’s no time for rest and slowing down”. We stretch and stretch ourselves, thinking we’re indestructible, but at a certain point, without rest, we’ll just snap. People often arrive at Nimmo Bay in this exact state. While we may think that sleeping at night is enough, but the body needs rest and relaxation while you are awake as well. As is a common thread in this story, rest can look different for everyone. It might be active, and involve going for a walk in nature, or maybe it’s passive, and taking 10 minutes to sit down and breathe deeply.
To combat this sense of pressure in our everyday lives, we avoid rushing and hurrying at Nimmo Bay. You’re not rushing through traffic to get to your treatment in the center of the city. You never feel like you’re running late, and our team are taking care of all the planning and decisions. You’re slowly making your way to your massage or facial from a misty morning kayak or an afternoon at the floating sauna. When you get to the Cascade room, overlooking the waterfall, or Cedar, taking in the view of the bay, you’ll get to sit down and chat with your practitioner. There’s no need to jump on the table in record time. “It’s really beautiful if you can take time and feel what you want to feel and show up for your treatment nourished”.
No Limit Learning
Bianca believes that the wellness space is made for lifelong learning. There’s no ceiling to what you can learn from bodywork. Each person on the team at Nimmo brings their own area of expertise and interest into the wellness program. They thrive off the desire to learn from each other and continue to find new practices to bring to the table. It’s also inspirational and pushes them out of their comfort zone. The Assistant Head of Wellness this season, Gerly, offers Thai massage and recently completed a course on Lomilomi massage. She’s come back to Nimmo Bay and shared her knowledge with the rest of the wellness team. This is one of the most exciting aspects of the job for Bianca. She’s currently in the process of learning craniosacral techniques to bring into her practice.
The future of Nimmo WellNess
When Bianca thinks about the program 5 years from now, “I hope it’s completely different, because I really want the team that comes in to take ownership of it and add to it. I hope my ideas become obsolete, and somebody’s like, we should do this instead”.
The wellness program has come so far in the last 5 years. At the beginning, they were simply doing 1 or 2 massages a day and would work in housekeeping during the rest of the day. Now, we have a 6-page wellness menu, and a full dedicated team of practitioners. If there’s one thing that Bianca could incorporate, it’s to see a new floating experience worked into the Nimmo Bay wellness offerings. The only limit to what’s possible is her own imagination.
Words by: Alexandra Janes
Photos: Jeremy Koreski