The inside of Salt Mine, which can be found at Medford’s Village at Taunton Forge. Photo Provided
MEDFORD—A “wellness studio” where you can “breathe, connect and recharge” through halotherapy, or what is more commonly referred to as dry salt therapy, is now open in the Village at Taunton Forge in Medford Township.
Karen Tennant, founder of Salt Mine, previously practiced as a board-certified massage therapist prior to this new venture, having helped her clients find “relief, restoration and balance,” and as her “understanding of healing continued to evolve” and she was looking for “something else to do,” Tennant said she came across halotherapy.
It is an “evidence-based modality that merged ancient healing wisdom with modern science,” she describes on her website, “a practice that can support respiratory health, skin conditions, stress relief and so much more.”
And while halotherapy is “mainly for respiratory and skin health,” Tennant told this newspaper, her bigger goal in pursing the venture is to “have a community place – a place where people can come in a health setting.”
Halotherapy is “a type of dry salt inhalation,” according to Tennant. How it is administered exactly is that “someone sits in an enclosed space and there is a halo generator that crushes salt and blows fine particles into the air.”
“You breathe it,” she declared. “You get it on your skin.”
Those living on the East Coast this past winter had their fair share of encounters with road or rock salt, but halotherapy doesn’t use the same sodium chloride that is applied to roads and sidewalks, rather it makes use of “pharmaceutical-grade dry sodium chloride.”
“A lot of people who have respiratory issues will want to do this kind of therapy,” said Tennant, attesting to improvement seen in patients contending with COPD, colds, flu and COVID.
Halotherapy, she said, “also helps with sleep” and “it helps athletes” by “giving them more energy” and “opening up their lungs.”
“It allows more oxygen to get where it needs to go inside the lungs,” Tennant explained. “In turn, there is more oxygen getting to the blood.”
When Tennant, who has lived and worked in Medford for 18 years and raised both her kids here, first encountered halotherapy, she said it “sounded like something that could be its own thing,” with her operation the first in the area to offer halotherapy in a studio setting.
But halotherapy, she noted, is “pretty prevalent out there” and “there are a lot of places across the country that are doing this kind of thing.”
According to Tennant, “it is really big in Eastern Europe” and that is “where the actual salt mines are located.”
“We have been using it for over 100 years,” she said of halotherapy. “Doctors actually prescribe it to people to go sit in salt mines.”
Most of the places offering halotherapy, according to Tennant, are “more like a booth or a cave,” usually “really small” settings that are
“made for one or two, maybe three people.”
But at Tennant’s studio, “we will fit eight, and possibly more, depending on what is going on.” She also has a “separate family room that will host up to five people,” more like a children’s playroom designed for “little kids, so they can get halotherapy, too.” This particular room has “salt on the floor like a sand box, toys, books, and is made up like a playroom.”
Sessions span 30 to 45 minutes long.
Tennant also plans to offer classes at her studio, what she describes as “a big component of the studio.”
“I have 10 local practitioners who will host events like meditation, tai-chi, sound bowls, IV therapy and much more,” she noted.
As for why she sought to open her studio at the Village at Taunton Forge, Tennant observed “there is a lot of synergy going on” and “it is a pretty popular spot.”
“And I like the other businesses that are there,” she declared. “We all seem to be a good fit with each other.”
The exact location of Salt Mine, which also offers PEMF & Red-Light Therapy, making use of targeted, low-frequency electromagnetic waves to stimulate and recharge the body’s cells, thereby supporting the body’s natural healing processes, is Unit 7 at 200 Tuckerton Road in Medford. It is “on the side where Tacos El Tio is located,” according to Tennant, “but on the opposite end,” next to the shopping center’s known gazebo.
“I know it is an odd thing,” said Tennant of what she is offering. “But if you want to get a better understanding of the business model, our website (mysaltstudio.com) has a lot of information.
“It will be beautiful. It will have a lot of calming Zen feel to it. It will be bright and airy – really welcoming. I am going to have a whole retail section that is heavily geared towards salt, like all things salt. So, that will be kind of fun! But mainly, it is going to be a place where people can come and just relax.”
