We’re thrilled to share our conversation with Halina Kowalski-Thompson, the owner and founder of Gather Sauna House – Central Oregon’s first public sauna and wild spa, offering authentic wood-fired sauna and thermal contrast experiences in nature. We LOVE Halina’s reverence for traditional spa heritage, her passion for health and wellness, and her vision for what’s possible! And if you’re new to sauna, (or even if you’re not) Halina provides an excellent run-down about the difference between various types of saunas and the science behind why they are so beneficial for our health.
Q: Hi Halina! We always like to start with a little background, because everyone’s path is so unique! We’d love to know more about YOU and the journey that brought you to where you are today with Gather Sauna House.
HKT: I spent 15 years as a mental health clinical-researcher in the Portland Veterans Administration Hospital studying and applying novel treatments for PTSD and cognitive disorders. I am also a trauma-focused equine-assisted psychotherapy expert and served for 6 years as the Military Services Director for the Equine Assisted Growth and Learning Association (Eagala), where I wrote, procured and managed large scale Federal grants and research that provided services free to charge to Veterans across the Nation – this is the work that I finally closed a chapter on this last June in order to focus full-time on Gather.
I have always been a lifelong student of the healing arts with a passion for studying the ways in which our ancestors have healed throughout time. This passion is what ultimately led me on a quest to discover and resurrect my Baltic heritage and the thousands of years old tradition and wellness practice of authentic pirts/sauna, incorporating herbal remedies and thermal contrast therapy. Having also experienced a lot of traditional sauna about 10 years ago in the Portland area, I became rather obsessed with opening a sauna business in Bend, particularly because I wanted to create something that didn’t exist yet in our area that I myself wanted access to!
I instinctively knew then that something really potent was happening to my own mental health after a traditional sauna session. With staggering proven benefits not only to mental health, but also to whole health, I was an early firm believer that traditional sauna is essential for addressing the main issues of our time – from detoxing environmental toxins, boosting immunity and cardiovascular health to addressing inflammation and chronic post-viral disease to relieving stress and balancing the traumatized nervous system – sauna is the medicine we need in this age of humanity and I’ve been honored to help steward forward in North America and out of previous obscurity, this very rich wellness ritual to be shared with my community.
Q: Could you tell us about the inspiration behind your first mobile sauna and what your vision was for making it transportable?
HKT: We built our first sauna which is the converted horse trailer and then needed to scale quickly so purchased a second sauna (called Fern). The horse trailer was my original inspiration because I’m a horse gal and I loved the idea of a little place-based Western flare on a 2000- year-old tradition. It has a very rustic and cozy feel that I personally love. We used both juniper and cedar on the interior so the aromas of the two woods blended are absolutely divine. It was created with so much heart and intention that people often tell us they can feel the difference and have had some of their most intimate conversations and heart-to-heart’s within it. I love hearing that as I couldn’t have imagined a better outcome from having built a tiny little space to heal on wheels.
The vision for the mobile aspect came from wanting to test the concept of traditional sauna in a place like Bend. I had already consulted in 2016 with Loyly Sauna in Portland on a brick-and-mortar style sauna business. We decided to first try a mobile and started building in late 2019. Then the pandemic hit and we were so grateful that we had not invested at that very moment in a brick-and-mortar, plus the mobile still gave us ways to support people since we would rent it privately to them at their homes. From there, we decided we would never put sauna back into a box so-to-speak. Traditional sauna is all about connecting with nature and the mobile aspect made the magic of that very clear in our ability to bring it to all kinds of different and inspiring natural landscapes. Plus, it allowed us to partner with other businesses in really fun and creative ways. Now we plan to keep it in nature but also open a permanent location in addition to our seasonal river spot.
“Sauna is the medicine we need in this age of humanity and I’ve been honored to help steward forward in North America and out of previous obscurity, this very rich wellness ritual to be shared with my community.”
Halina Kowalski-Thompson
Q: Before we delve further into your specific offerings here in Central Oregon, could you give our readers a brief “Sauna 101” rundown? For someone that has maybe never ventured into a sauna and is curious to try it, what is the difference between a dry sauna, steam sauna, and infrared sauna? What are the health benefits of the dry (traditional wood-fired) sauna that you utilize?
HKT: We always tell our guests that traditional sauna is typically wood-fired and is the most traditional form of sauna that has been passed down generations over 2000+ years for good reason. The wood-fired traditional sauna produces a softer, more even and deeply penetrating heat. The heat transfers through the thermal mass of the giant stove and the sauna rocks, which is more gentle, and allows one to stay in the heat longer without a stinging sensation that other heaters produce. You also have the added benefit of negative ions being released from the water on the rocks and the burning wood which is extra stress relieving. Many North Americans were introduced to “sauna” in a dingy gym setting with a sign that said: “no water on the rocks” – well this is blasphemy in terms of traditional sauna. In fact, a Finn will tell you that sauna does not exist without steam, or Loyly (pronounced: low-lu) – which translates to “soul of the sauna” – you cannot have sauna without the soul of the sauna and thus a dry sauna doesn’t actually mean that you aren’t creating steam with water. The dry and wet are usually more about differentiating between how MUCH water is being used within the sauna. In the cultures where sauna derived, it was common to fully bathe in the sauna and pour large amounts of water on oneself to cleanse (which is a fabulous experience of the senses) and thus we have the distinction of “wet” sauna.
Infrared is a very different thing altogether. Though it is touted for many health benefits, the reality is that the majority of studies and benefits of sauna that you hear about such as increased immunity, reduced risk of cardiovascular disease, reduced all-cause mortality, etc. are all based on long-term longitudinal studies which have all been done in the Finnish culture where these studies could realistically be done because of their ingrained heavy sauna use – as such, the outcomes are based on traditional sauna and the main mechanism involved in producing those benefits are heat shock proteins. You need to get to high heats in order to activate heat shock proteins – something that infrared saunas do not typically do. Additionally, there is a big difference between near and far infrared – most infrared saunas are far infrared which does not penetrate very deeply into the layers of the skin. Near infrared, however, is very beneficial via deeper penetration and photobiomodulation. It is basically red light – and you don’t really need a sauna at all to benefit from red light/near infrared – a simple light panel can get you all those wonderful benefits.
Therefore, traditional sauna is responsible for most of the benefits that we hear about these days. In combination with cold exposure (which is another aspect of traditional sauna – it’s always done with cold contrast – they are one in the same in the traditional practice), the benefits are so incredibly far reaching and SO well suited for the health challenges of our time! I believe that everyone should be working on detoxing and lowering inflammation in the body caused by our constant environmental toxin exposure and other pathogens by saunaing multiple times a week! It should definitely become a new part of our activities of daily life for optimal health.
Q: Walk us through a session with Gather Sauna House. How does the hot/cold thermal contrast therapy experience unfold?
HKT: What I love MOST about traditional sauna is that it is a simple practice with a huge impact. When something as simple as alternating heat and cold can make you feel as good as it does, it’s no wonder that it has survived for thousands of years as a folk healing practice. The traditional thermic cycle involves 3-5 rounds of heating, cooling, and then resting. You go into the high heat for 10-15 minutes and no more than 20 in a given cycle. You then take a cold dip – even a quick dip will give you some benefits from the contrast, but generally past 30 seconds with your core vital organs covered is going to give you the max benefits from the cold and we generally say not to exceed 4 minutes of cold exposure in a given cycle. Finally, you end with a rest and relaxation cycle of 5-10 minutes. This last all-important step is highly overlooked and not well known in North American culture (yet) and yet to me it’s the absolute best part of the experience! Functionally it’s about letting your internal core body temperature come down more slowly before hopping right back into the heat and allowing the body to adjust and gently neutralize before going back into extremes. It’s also a time to rehydrate! Experientially however, it’s also a time to really sit and take in the sensations of the body, get present and take in your surroundings! Your body has just done all this amazing work in the heat and in the cold and the rest period is a time to let that amazing feeling wash over you. You’re feeling really relaxed, but focused due the release of serotonin and norepinephrine after the plunge and that’s the perfect biochemical cocktail, if you will, to just get really present in connection with nature. That’s what we like to encourage our guests to experience in a traditional framework when they come to visit us!
Q. We love that you inspire people to “Gather in nature, Gather in community, and Gather the self.” What a beautiful and grounding sentiment. What have been your greatest learnings from this community since you began this venture?
HKT: I think one of my greatest learnings has been just how much we hunger to connect. I always wanted to create community with this venture, but I underestimated how well the “community/social” sauna sessions would take off as they did and therefore how much people really crave to be in community – even while sweating super close to total strangers! Many of my saunapreneur friends across the Nation still mostly offer private sessions in private groups – but here I let our bookings be dictated by what filled first – and our session largely booked (and still do) as community social sessions. I’m always amazed and inspired by how a group of six people can enter the sauna as total strangers and leave exchanging phone numbers and making plans for another meet-up – that happens all the time at Gather and I’m in awe of how organically it occurs and very glad that we get to support that.
Q: We know you recently stepped away from your full-time career in the mental health field to focus solely on Gather Sauna House. Congratulations! In light of that, which of the 8 Pillars of Inspired Health are you personally giving extra attention to right now?
HKT: I LOVE these 8 pillars! Well, I’d love to be doing great with ALL of them at once, but alas, I’m busy and human and it’s hard to balance them all! I’d say I’ve been very focused lately on removing sources of toxicity in my home – I finally gave up my fragranced detergents and got rid of all the endocrine disrupting substances which was hard for me to do when it comes to laundry! It’s challenging to find something that makes clothes smell clean but is non-toxic (I think I finally found a good one). And we’ve got clean air, all non-toxic clearing products, and we’re working on clear filtered water next etc. I also have been very focused on trying to eliminate seed-oils in our groceries. It’s a challenge to find snacks for kids in particular that don’t have seed oils but we’ve managed to really weed out a lot of products that we used to buy that have the bad oils in them – it’s a process! Other than that,I’m always focused on sunlight and time in nature! I find nature to be one of the MOST healing environments that I can possibly expose myself to – so beyond family adventures outside whenever possible, it helps to be out working at the sauna, in the sunlight, by the river with all the negative ions flowing!
Q. You teased some exciting news in a recent newsletter (sign up HERE to be in the know) about your new Driftwood Sauna and the prospect of a permanent outdoor wild spa location which has been a long-time dream of yours. Can you tell us a little bit more about what you envision?
HKT: Yes! My original dream and vision was always to have our own permanent location as a home base to really develop all the programming that I’ve always wanted to incorporate. At the river, in the park, it’s definitely a one-of-kind experience and it’s special because it puts you in such an intimate connection with the river at a time when that would not otherwise be typical. But we have to have such a light footprint and run a skinny operation there so we don’t get to express the full version of Gather. At our permanent location (currently in progress) we’ll have more cozy spaces for the relaxation cycles around a fire, and hammocks and other fun lounging areas. We’ll have indoor and outdoor showers and soaking tubs. There will be gardens growing wild herbs that we’ll utilize in the sauna. There will be kitchen space to prepare more of our herbal rituals so more offerings in that realm. There will also be more community space protected from the elements so that we can do more creative programming such as breathwork and sauna, yoga and somatic movement and sauna etc. And finally, I’m excited to bring my mental health background back in as I hope to create a kind of mental health clinic within our business, such that therapists (including myself) can work with their clients while utilizing the sauna and cold plunge in an embodied, somatic therapy practice that can take the benefits of sauna even deeper. I’ve started a project I’ve called “Sauna Somatics” in which I’m collaborating to create a trauma protocol involving somatic sauna therapy.
Q: You are also growing your collection of handcrafted curated sauna products, which look DIVINE! Was this also a passion of yours? Tell us more about the inspiration behind these products.
HKT: Yes, my relationship with herbs has been a growing passion of mine for a number of years now. I was always a passionate forager and during the pandemic I really started delving deep into herbalism. Through my long covid journey I also became a fervent proponent of autonomy in healthcare and there is no greater power in realizing that we have SO many potent tools at our disposal, growing out in nature, that we can use to make our own medicine. Inspired by my Baltic roots and the way that the Baltic traditions of sauna incorporate many different wild herbal remedies into the sauna ritual (thus where “Gather” came from and the double meaning of “gather in nature”, e.g. to forage our medicine”), I started playing with different herbal preparations and concoctions and I just find it really, really satisfying to create my own medicine from start to finish including the relationship that you develop with the plants themselves. I’ve made and incorporated many different herbal products over the years but I’m just now starting to produce them for purchase as they have been mostly offered complimentary in single use as part of our overall experience. As part of every experience with Gather, we always offer our wildcrafted rosehip facial oil that is made with roships foraged right on the banks of the Deschutes followed by one of our home-distilled herbal hydrosols! A crowd favorite is our “High Desert Rain” hydrosol or sometimes we call it, “Bend in a Bottle” which is just simply juniper and sage and smells like Bend after it rains – it’s very refreshing!
Q: Are there any books, podcasts, shows/movies or music that have inspired you lately?
HKT: I’ve been shouting from the rooftops for a long time now about the book, Good Energy by brother and sister, Casey and Callie Means. It’s an excellent paradigm shifting work on metabolic health as the cornerstone of overall health, longevity, and wellness and yes, sauna/cold plunge are just one tool mentioned in a whole array of practical advice for how to reclaim the health of our cells! I’ve also listened to a couple of podcasts now that are generally on the topics of epigenetics and the impact of fear and negative emotion on how the energy of our cells expresses into either health or pathology and I’m finding it extremely interesting. As a mental health professional who once suffered from long covid and then was very crippled by the fear of long covid for some time after that, I’m very interested in exploring the ways that the fear alone impacts the cells and expression of disease.
Q: And as usual, let’s share some Central Oregon love! Can you share a couple of your favorite local businesses?
HKT: A new local business that I’m jazzed about is Central Oregon Soup Company! I’m obsessed with soups and the owner makes all his own organic stocks and the soups are all so, so yummy! In fact, we’re going to collaborate on a new event we’re calling “Soup and Sauna” where we will bathe and then break bread together in community and I’m super excited about it!
I’ve gotta give Bend Breakfast Burrito a shoutout too because a) Their burritos are the best and b) they have been awesome supporters of us! I also want to shout out to Meg Westerberg who is a local artist who we collaborated with to make our signature Western wide brim sauna hats – they are traditional wool that she procures from her neighbors sheep and then hand dyes with natural plant dyes and then hand felts into our custom design! They are true works of art and we’re so lucky to have created such a heartfelt partnership that is really connected to place and the land here!
THANK YOU HALINA!
You can learn more and book your sauna session at the Gather Sauna House website. Follow Halina’s awesome posts on Instagram @gather_saunahouse and Facebook, and be sure to sign up for her newsletter!
