Newspaper Stories
A Relaxing Return
By: Ken McEntee
Original PDF (Right Click and select "Save As")
Driving on Pearl Road near Idlewood Trail, past Today’s Touch Massage Therapy and Dinner Spa, you may feel that you’ve gone back in time. It’s been five years since licensed massotherapist Bill Hansen moved his offices from that location about a half mile south to a shopping strip. But the new sign at the old location doesn’t suggest time travel. It just means Bill has returned home. “It does feel like I am back home,” says Bill, relaxing before the fireplace in the gorgeous lobby of his new office. “I’m very excited to be back here.” From 1999 to 2002, Bill shared the quaint brick building with a chiropractor. But with his growing business in need of more space, he moved to a larger location down the road. It wasn’t the best move. “It was a commercial setting that didn’t quite offer the peaceful ambiance that we have here,” Bill says.
The therapeutic massage and the dinner spa areas of Today’s Touch were inconveniently separated by a restaurant. “The stand-alone building here is much more appropriate for the atmosphere we wanted to create,” Bill says. “When you walk in here it’s like walking into a living room.” A greeting from Pumpkin, Bill’s friendly Golden Retriever, completes the home-like setting. Pumpkin is training to be a therapy dog for hospitals and nursing homes. When Bill learned that his old building was available—all of it—he made the move back last month without hesitation. After considerable renovating and redecorating to create an environment of peace and relaxation, he now has his entire operation under one cozy roof.
Today’s Touch offers a variety of therapeutic and relaxing massages along with its signature package—a romantic dinner-massage for couples. The popular two- to three-hour package features a special dinner prepared by the Macaroni Grill and served in the spa’s private bistro. Through a partnership with a local hotel, you can expand your dinner-massage package into an overnight getaway. A great idea considering that of Bill’s clients come from as far away as Pittsburgh and Detroit.
Everything about Today’s Touch, from the elegant décor to the quiet background music to the massage therapy itself, is aimed at the elimination of stress. In fact, it was the stress of a high-pressure career in retail management that moved Bill into his new, peaceful occupation 10 years ago. “Once I got my first massage I knew this is what I wanted to do,” Bill recalls. “The majority of the problems we have in our lives come from stress, which builds up the point where our immune systems shut down. We live with such a fast pace that we don’t take the time to relax and breathe properly.” The relaxation of massage therapy, he says, not only feels good, but also improves “tomorrow’s health,” as the Today’s Touch tagline suggests. “We want to educate people about why massage therapy is so beneficial to your body as well as to your mind and spirit.” Bill explains. “We offer services that you would find at a day spa, but at a more affordable cost. We provide an elegant, stress-free sanctuary where you can unwind and enjoy your experience.”
Today’s Touch offers relaxation massage therapy to reduce physical and mental stress as well as deep tissue massage for people with chronic pain and extreme tension. Among the specialty therapies offered at Today’s Touch are hot stone therapy, raindrop therapy, herbal body wraps, ionic detox foot spa session, aromatherapy massage, maternity massage and reflexology. “A lot of customers call this their weekly vacation,” Bill says. “It gives them a chance to forget about the world for an hour.” The spa packages at Today’s Touch are perfect for ladies’ day out. But, Bill says, massage isn’t just for women. “At one time 80 percent of my customers were women,” he recalls. “Now half of them are men.”
