Tucked away in a new shopping mall in a growing part of Minneapolis, Woodhouse Maple Grove Spa offers an oasis of wellness and beauty, a place that strives to be the spa where everybody knows your name.

Spa Profile: Woodhouse Spa

In fact, Woodhouse has honed in on how important a person’s name is to them and their service to their guests begins by using it—they greet guests with it, they put special occasions on a sandwich board at the entrance to the spa treatment areas, and every locker room has a chalkboard hanging from it with the guest’s name and wishes for a happy birthday or congratulations on an impending birth. Spa attendants, therapists and receptionists all make a point of using guest names when interacting with them. It’s a personal touch in a crowded world.

Here’s what you’ll love about The Woodhouse Spa in Maple Grove: 

• The entire spa is a carefully crafted delight to the senses with delicious scents wafting through the space, colors and décor offering peaceful visuals, spa music filling the halls, cushions offering a gentle respite, and infused water and sweet snacks pampering the tongue.

• Woodhouse has many spas around the country so if you like the service you receive (and you’ll be hard-pressed to NOT enjoy it), you can get it elsewhere on your travels.

• Spa services are created and designed with an eye to outcome rather than treatment protocol. Services are tied to such moods as connected, resilience, calm, confident, energized, and balanced.

• The emphasis is on providing luxury service at a day spa, a place where you can come in and have not just a treatment, but an experience.

• There are several water-themed treatments from Vichy showers to a meditative, mood soak in a large claw-foot tub.

I arrived on a Friday morning and was welcomed by Caitlin who told me she would be my host for the day. She provided me with a cool washcloth infused with their signature scent of sage and lavender, a scent that floated throughout the spa, a therapeutic aroma that followed you on every step of your journey.

The lobby includes a delightful retail area with products ordered not just by type but by gift ideas, with a center table focusing on gifts for grads as my visit was in June. Products included personal use ones for face and body treatment (Babor is their main product line) as well as gifts, robes, sleep aids, candles, and aromatherapy items.

After a tour of the spa, I returned to the locker room where the locker with my name on a chalkboard hung along with a robe in the size I had provided them before my visit. Slippers were placed on the floor in front of my locker and a small candy was inside. The lockers included large walk-in showers with a bench and a eucalyptus mist that guests could spray for a self-guided steam aromatherapy shower treatment.

I settled into the VIP relaxation room, a place where groups can gather and converse without disturbing the guests who are seeking a silent respite. Both relaxation rooms were filled with books, flowers, soft lighting, deeply cushioned chairs, and ottomans for stretching out on. The wood theme was expressed with many subtle touches from the gnarled stump propping up a table to ladders from which soft blankets hung.

A name tag was on the table next to my chair (as they were for all guests) and I was able to restfully enjoy some lemon and cucumber-infused water along with macarons and ladyfinger cookies before Travis came to bring me to the treatment room.

The ritual I was receiving was called the Restorative Sleep Massage, a treatment designed to provide deep relaxation and better sleep after leaving. Travis presented me with four choices of Woodhouse’s proprietary blends of essential oils. I smelled each one before choosing a restorative blend that was used throughout the service.

The service began with me lying face up on a bed that had deep cushions. It was as if my entire body was resting on one large pillow.

The initial focus was on my head, face, and neck. Travis was able to find the spots of tension in my scalp and led me into the service by releasing those points of stress, inviting me to fade into the service and into a state of deep relaxation. It was an invitation to a state of bliss, one where it became difficult to focus on the specifics of the service as I found myself floating in a state of restfulness, the rest of the world fading away.

Travis wrapped my feet in hot cloths, washing and drying them. The massage was filled with mostly light to moderate touch, though he would gently check in with me to make sure the pressure was what I was seeking. The focus was on relaxation, on getting my body to let go of its tension and stress so that it could get the healing sleep that restores and maintains health.

Travis expertly led me into a state of deep relaxation, one that did, in fact, provide me with a deeper sleep that evening despite sleeping in a bed that wasn’t my own. Afterward, he greeted me with a glass of water and escorted me to the relaxation room where I was able to rest next to a fireplace, letting the bliss suffuse my senses before I had to return to the bustle of the outside world.

The visit to Woodhouse truly was about an overall experience, one that started the moment I entered and continued until I stepped out the door, with Caitlin sending me away with a refreshing lemonade to sip as I waited for my Lyft driver. I was impressed with all the staff members, each contributing to the overall sense that you had entered a place of joy at the Woodhouse Spa, a place where everyone there wanted to be there and wanted to return.

Cost: WH Signature: Restorative Sleep Massage, $130/50 minutes

Insider Tip: Explore their menu with an eye to choosing an outcome rather than a specific treatment. Take advantage of their packages that do such things as help you have a day of digital detox or to reset your moods and revitalize your body.

Hours: 9:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. (Monday, Wednesday through Saturday), 9:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. (Sundays), closed on Tuesdays

Address: 12425 Elm Creek Boulevard North, Maple Grove, MN 55369

Phone: 763-237-3772

For more information and to book a service at Woodhouse Maple Grove, visit the website. Follow on Instagram: @woodhousespa_minnesota

[Photos by Bridgette Redman]

Bridgette Redman, who is a second-generation journalist, fell in love with spas and travel while working as a writer and editor for 16 years at the Educational Institute of the American Hotel & Lodging Association. As a freelancer for the International SPA Association, she co-wrote two textbooks, nine workbooks and numerous case studies on spas. Her freelance career began in the 80s and she has written for publications in Michigan, Arizona, California, and Texas along with several regional and national publications. She is a committed storyteller who loves sharing narratives which improve people's quality of life and build community. Born and raised in Michigan, she currently lives in Lansing with her husband and son. See more of her writing at www.bridgetteredman.com