In this Houston hotel spa massage, 3 people work in harmony

Introduced mid-August, the $1,500 Trio Luxe massage is the crowning jewel of the menu of wellness services at the spa, which is part of the luxury hotel Thompson Houston. For three straight hours—with a small break in the middle to shower and snack—three providers scrub and massage your whole body from your scalp all the way down to your toes. "It is what I call a once-in-a-lifetime experience," spa director Megan Fitzpatrick said. "It's really beautiful."

The treatment begins with a full body exfoliation, then comes the massaging. Two people work on your legs in coordinated left to right movements, while a third is "working from the head down toward the waist," Fitzpatrick said. You're stretched in multiple directions to alleviate pressure. You flip over, and the whole process is repeated on the other side of the body. Eventually you’re cocooned in a body wrap, and an esthetician performs a 70-minute facial while another provider gives you a foot scrub and massage.

The Trio Luxe ends with just one esthetician performing a scalp treatment. "It becomes a very quiet experience," Fitzpatrick said. "It just finishes with a single touch, and then sound therapy."

The mind cannot focus on multiple parts of the body at one time, Fitzpatrick said. "Think of when you stub your toe; you might bite your finger or something to take your mind off of the pain."

But when two people are working on opposite ends of your body, the mind "lets go" into a rest phase. When you add a third person to the mix, like in the Trio Luxe, "you hit that even quicker," Fitzpatrick said. And "when it's synchronized, that's when it becomes really special."

There are several spas across Houston that offer four-handed (two-masseuse) massages, including at River Oaks Thai Massage and Serenity Thai Massage in Upper Kirby. But only the Thompson’s Trio Luxe has three providers working at one time.

Fitzpatrick said the Trio Luxe was inspired by three different multi-provider massages she has had—two in the U.S. and one in Bali. The experience was very ritualistic, Fitzpatrick said, but "what I experienced was total relaxation."

That total relaxation was her ethos for this service. It took five months to plan and to train six providers for the massage, Fitzpatrick said, and not many spas can offer something like this. But when she was creating the Thompson Spa's menu, this kind of unusual luxury was her plan.

The full-service spa officially opened one month after the 15-story Thompson Hotel opened in February, across the way from Buffalo Bayou Park. It takes over the entire sixth floor and includes a fitness center, six treatment rooms, two saunas and a grounding room overlooking the park. The space's Japandi interior with muted colors, stonework and wood finishes, means "it's void of influence," Fitzpatrick said. "So you're allowed to have the experience that you want to have."

Fitzpatrick, who has worked in the wellness field since 1989 and specializes in ayurvedic practices and luxury spa openings, was brought in to create a suite of services that would stand out in Houston.

The challenge with opening a hotel spa in the middle of a city versus a destination resort spa, to which people travel specifically for the experience, is offering something that will keep the client engaged, Fitzpatrick said. "You are having to create something that's so interesting and unusual and special because you are competing with maybe 100 spas within 30 miles."

Besides the Trio Luxe, the spa has more than a dozen other massages on offer. The "Therapeutic Fusion," which is a blend of Swedish, deep tissue and Himalayan salt stone massages, is a staple, as is the "Magnesium & Infrared Pain Release Massage" and the "Texas Starry Night," which is a "sleep remedy massage," Fitzpatrick said.

In its first six months, the spa focused on wellness treatments. Now Fitzpatrick is expanding the offerings. In late September, the Thompson opened a salon that can accommodate bridal looks and men’s Italian shaves. It's building out more clinical skincare services, such as a microneedling-like treatment, and in November it's debuting a collagen- and skin renewal-forward luxury skincare brand, Fitzpatrick said.

Many spas do luxury well, Fitzpatrick said, but with each new service the Thompson adds, such as the Trio Luxe, the focus is on making sure each guest feels welcomed, accepted and pampered. Fitzpatrick wants it to be “a really special experience. It's not just expensive or nice.”

No matter what, she'll ask, "Did we create a memory?"

Catherine Wendlandt