Healing Water Spa offers form of therapy

SOAP LAKE — When Bridgett Oie bought the Healing Water Spa three years ago, she didn’t do it just to own a business. She believed in the ability of Soap Lake’s water to heal.

Oie’s confidence is based in personal experience. She was living and working in Moses Lake in the 1980s when she was hurt in an industrial accident and Soap Lake water played a role in her recovery.

Oie, who grew up in Soap Lake, was working at a self-help community cannery when she was injured. She ducked under some piping to do something and forgot to back out of that situation before standing up again, and she slammed her head.

“I basically crammed the vertebrae in my neck and pinched them together,” Oie said.

Oie ended up with temporary paralysis of her left arm and leg. Her boss, who was a patient of Moses Lake Chiropractor Rudy Dabalos, took her to see him. After three weeks of intensive treatment, Dabalos suggested Oie undergo massage therapy with Rosetta Hazan of Soap Lake to help with the recovery

“He actually drove me over to Rosetta’s and introduced me,” Oie said.

For the next six weeks, Oie received massage therapy three times a week and chiropractic treatments twice a week. She reversed the routine the next six weeks, doing chiropractic three times a week. And she took a Soap Lake water bath every time she went to Hazan.

“Working together, Rudy and Rosetta were able to restore my injured body,” she said.

Oie’s left arm and leg were back to limited function after the twelve weeks. As she progressed, she started to think about a career as a therapist and acted on the notion. She took instruction from Hazan and, in 1990, attended a Body Balancing class with her.

“Body balancing is a form of kinesiology, and that’s what Rudy does, kinesiology,” Oie said.

Oie met another Soap Lake massage therapist, Maria Schurman, at the class. That encouraged her even more. She eventually took massage classes at the Inland Massage Institute in Spokane.

After graduation, Oie worked two years in the office of Dr. David Ellis, two years at the Basin Fitness Center in Ephrata and five and a half years at Heritage Massage in Ephrata. In April of 2007, Kathy Trantham and Don Johnstad offered to sell Healing Water Spa to Oie, and Oie didn’t hesitate.

“I’d been looking for a place to put in a spa,” she said. “It was a good time of year to buy. Spring and summer were coming, and that’s when people start to move around.”

Oie noted residents of Soap Lake and the surrounding area come to the spa on an occasional basis. The most frequent local users come weekly. Visitors to the community often use the spa on consecutive days.

Such recent customers were a Ukrainian man from Bellingham, his wife, his daughter and three sons. They negotiated with Oie for both bathtubs and the sauna for the entire family for one hour a day for five days.

“He was so stiff and exhausted when he arrived. He left here with his spirits lifted,” Oie said. “He said: ‘I’m never coming back to Soap Lake without coming here.”

Oie had lived in Soap Lake from the age of 14, represented the community as part of the Soap Lake royalty and graduated from Soap Lake High School. But, aside from brushing up on the history of Soap Lake for her royalty year, she didn’t know a lot about Soap Lake water until her injury. She has improved here awareness.

Soap Lake has roughly 25 different minerals at varying levels. Some levels are very high, such as 5,760 milligrams of sodium per liter of water, 2,480 of bicarbonate, 2,540 of sulfate, 3,840 of carbonate and 2,290 of chloride.

“If you’re going to drink it, it’s very salty,” Oie said.

Oie believes early city leaders found value in Soap Lake’s water. They laid lines to homes and installed the pumps to transfer the water to those homes. Although fewer homes receive the water today, the lines and pumps still function.

“We have fresh water lines and Soap Lake water lines. We have fresh water hot-water heaters and Soap Lake water hot-water heaters,” Oie said.

She upgraded from one Soap Lake water bathtub to two and has added a fresh water steam sauna. She has remodeled the floors and grown from two treatment rooms to five. She has added Biofeedback, Cranial-Sacral Therapy and Iridology to the services.

“I’m not going anywhere,” Oie said.

Oie does not do all of the work. Jesse Hannaford, a licensed massage practitioner is employed full-time. Employed part-time, on a by-appointment basis, are CranioSacral Therapist Ken Pond, Biofeedback Techician James Overman and Certified Iridologist Jan Pearson.

Soon Oie will open Healing Water Resort in a building across the street from the spa. The one-time clothing store will accommodate 12 people with three baths and a full kitchen.

Healing Day Spa is located at 318 Main Ave. E. in Soap Lake.

For more information, call 509-246-1660.