On Big Valley Road in Poulsbo, there’s a beautiful, blue farmhouse that sits on nearly 100 acres of land. Driving there in itself is a treat for the senses, but the property evokes an instant feeling of ahhh. Behind the farmhouse is a small, detached, unassuming building that is Dogfish Moon Spa and Sanctuary, where an atmosphere of relaxation, tranquility and peace welcomes each visitor.
Dogfish Moon Spa and Sanctuary offers many of the same services that other spas do, but the location sets it apart. Owner Frances Malone said she wanted a special place to bring her vision of a spa and sanctuary to life. She believes that the environment at Dogfish Moon can enhance the positive effects of facials, massages and saunas by immersing the patrons in such a peaceful, beautiful environment.
Malone is a nurse practitioner with a pediatric practice in Poulsbo, and she said her focus for many years has been on healthy living. She created her own skincare line, made up of a mixture of nutrient-dense, organic ingredients.
She’s also seen the research that shows how body work can help people heal, and paired with the peaceful surroundings of the property, she believes that there are clear benefits of what she provides to her clients.
Recently, Malone hosted a grief retreat, a daylong event where people came to let go of responsibilities and work through strategies and talk about grief. They also practiced some yoga and used the body to release what was stuck emotionally. Releasing the emotions, she said, can have a profound effect on blood pressure.
“That’s not part of what you hear when you go to a practitioner,” Malone explained. “You hear, ‘You’re overweight,’ not ‘How can I hold and support and hear what’s happened to you in your lifetime?’ Just having the opportunity to express that to someone, I believe can shift some of that, because you’ve lightened a little bit of what’s going on.
“When we keep past events of our lives locked in little spaces in ourselves that we don’t allow our mind or ourselves to access, it undermines our thriving in our health. How we handle stress impacts our immunity, and we have a culture of autoimmune diseases.”
To help clients learn more about themselves and their bodies, Malone has created an indoor and outdoor experience at Dogfish Moon. Clients who come for a spa treatment can also sit on comfortable outdoor lounge furniture before or after a session to listen to the wind rustle the leaves of the trees and bird sing as they flit from limb to limb, and just relax as they watch the grass in the vast field sway in the breeze.
“We’re a mile and a half from downtown Poulsbo,” Malone said. “Driving down this little road, you’ve already started to let go. Because we do so much work regarding the space and holding that for people, it’s a different level of care.”
The whole idea of going to a spa is to relieve stress, and Malone said that she searched for a way to offer a unique experience, away from the things that can cause the stress that clients are trying to alleviate. The spa employs six other practitioners who specialize in facials and massage.
Instead of renting a storefront in a busy downtown area, Malone chose to look for a haven, a place where people could shed the worries and demands of daily life, even if only for a short time.
“We’ve glorified, ‘I’m busy,’ ‘I can’t see you,’ and people keep running in circles,” she said. “I believe that our health and wellness depend on us just grabbing small pieces of time to breathe. That could be one or two minutes before you get out of your car at the grocery store; it could be taking a minute to breathe and check in with yourself.”
It’s something that Malone knows well. She admits that she was a “type A” overachiever and that she didn’t realize that it was negatively impacting her health. She was a nurse, then became a nurse practitioner, and also has a doctorate degree. Her coping skills were to analytically process everything, she said.
She worked in intensive care units and with transplant patients, and said she chose those because they are complicated and she could actively manage all of a patient’s systems that were not functioning properly at the same time. It was all about the adrenaline, being busy and always facing a challenge. And all of that is not only socially acceptable, but also applauded in our society.
“So, we all have these socially acceptable, horrible coping skills,” she said.
She was working as a nurse and researcher and suddenly had numbness in her leg. But she said that she was so detached from her body that she didn’t recognize there was a problem. She thought it was her posture and that adjusting the way she sat in her chair would fix it. However, it turned out to be five herniated discs in her back.
When a doctor told her she needed to have a scan, Malone declined, saying she didn’t have time for that. But when he acquiesced and told her to come back when she lost renal and bowel function, it got her attention. She had the scan, was referred to a physical therapist and avoided back surgery.
“At the time I didn’t know, but I was running from being me or just being,” Malone said. “So, I’m blessed to not be that woman anymore. And, I mean, I am, but if that overachieving thing shows up, it’s a red flag to me.”
With that in mind, Malone said the services offered at Dogfish Moon are not rushed. Those spa services also include a 15-minute infrared sauna, which she believes is an important part of the experience.
“That gives you 15 more minutes before, hopefully, you look at your phone or the rest of the world’s needs. And I think that maximizes what you just did for yourself in the massage or facial or the float.”
Rather than leave a spa appointment in a hurry, she encourages her clients to embrace time to just be for a while. Though our culture isn’t built around taking that time, she said we need to do it for ourselves.
The float tank is a unique offering, designed to remove as much sensory information as possible, Malone said. It’s a shallow tank filled with magnesium sulfate, which makes floating very easy.
“We’re trying to create in that float-tank room the opportunity for your body to be held by water in a way that it’s not in a pool or in your bathtub,” she said.
The air and water are warmed to body temperature, and Malone said you lose track of where the water line is on your body. The water never gets cold, so it removes as much sensory information for the brain as possible. The whole experience lasts an hour and half.
“That helps a person to get into theta brain waves, which is where we’re trying to go if you had a good meditation practice. We know that is very good for health, but most of us, including myself, can’t get a meditation practice going until we learn how to create space in our brains where nothing is going on. The float helps provide that, and then it’s kind of a hack for learning how to do that.”
The magnesium sulfate helps with muscle recovery and also stimulates creativity, Malone said.
“The reason I wanted a float tank here specifically is because if a person with anxiety or depression floats, the research shows us that they experience less anxiety, and after the third time, it’s even more profound,” she said. “So, for me, as a healthcare provider, it’s a way to reach the public that may be reluctant to sit and talk about things and to support those that are already seeking mental health support. You don’t have to verbally access it and explain it to someone here; you just lie in the water.”
Dogfish Moon also offers two different types of sauna: traditional and infrared. The infrared sauna uses light waves to penetrate and to activate the cells in the body and the fluid compartments, she said. It can also move lymphatics and increase circulation, she added.
Intravenous (IV) therapy is also available at Dogfish Moon, and the type is dependent on the client, with an individualized treatment that helps to heal, provide energy and improve immunity and metabolism.
“My favorite in the summertime is to do IV infusions for people out under the apple tree,” Malone said.
Even just being outside is beneficial, she said. Going outside can be an affordable first step to embracing self-care.
Massage therapies at Dogfish Moon include cranio-sacral, which helps a client to release traumatic injury in the body, regulate the parasympathetic nervous system and support the nervous and skeletal systems. Clients keep their clothing on for this treatment. Traditional massage is offered in 60- and 90-minute sessions.
Dogfish Moon can create a full day of self-care for the needs of a group, whether that’s a wedding party, a group of friends or a business owner who wants to treat employees to a day of relaxation.
Malone said that she has “walked her business off” social media because it’s noise, and she doesn’t want to be part of the noise. Constant reminders to do more, be more, post more, show this, do that don’t align with her vision for the sanctuary, the way she wants to live her life or what she promotes.
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