Meet Cristina Bastianelli of Frost and Float Spa in Newton

Today we’d like to introduce you to Cristina Bastianelli.

Cristina, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
In the summer of 2015, I was a 28-year-old intern still working for free because I had been struggling with chronic health issues due to a vast amount of allergies that affect my immune system. That august, I hit a sort of rock bottom and asked my parents if they would pay for me to cross the country and try an alternative treatment center out in Arizona, The American Center for Biological Medicine.

At ACBM, the doctors use naturopathic medicine, which is essentially health care that utilizes natural methods and substances to support and stimulate the body’s inherent self-healing process. This really resonated with me, because over the years as my immune system became weaker and weaker, I began to feel like it couldn’t fend for itself without the use of prescriptions medications. I was really interested to find out how my body could learn to balance and strengthen itself on its own with the support of alternative medicine treatments.

Anyway, it was at ACBM that I was introduced to Whole Body Cryotherapy and FAR Infrared Sauna beds, along with a great deal of other life-changing treatments such as IV Therapy, Sound Bed Therapy, Colon Hydrotherapy, Electronic Foot Baths, Ozone, EWOT Therapy and many more. After two and a half weeks of treatments, I returned home to Boston with a self-treatment plan but I immediately started researching to see if I could continue my Cryotherapy and Infrared Therapy treatments in our area, but unfortunately there weren’t any places in Boston offering these treatments yet.

One thing that has been very evident over the years is that it is difficult to hold a steady job when you are chronically ill, because it takes away your ability to be dependable and be persistently productive. So as I got situated after returning from my trip and began weighing my options for the future of my career, it dawned on me that, what if my career and my desire to focus on my health could be intertwined? So I started to look into opening a Whole Body Cryotherapy spa. As a 28-year-old intern, you can imagine that I didn’t quite have the financial means to support this idea by myself; this is where my parents came in.

Obviously, I am one of those extremely lucky children who was blessed with parents who are willing to do anything and everything they possibly can to see their child live a healthy and happy life. (My very expensive treatment in Arizona included). When I came to them with the idea for opening our own facility to treat people with Cryotherapy, they were immediately on board. My mom, Dina Bastianelli, had been in Arizona with me for part of my treatments, and she was able to see how many people came in and out of the facility every day for Cryotherapy and how much people enjoyed the treatments and trusted the process.

We began our process into starting this business in September of 2015 and we did not open our facility until March of 2017, so it has been a long road. Although we began with only Whole Body Cryotherapy in mind, when we came across Float Therapy in our research, we were so intrigued and felt that it would be another great treatment to offer alongside cryotherapy. Eventually, we added Infrared Sauna Bed therapy as well. All three of these therapies are something that I deeply believe can help every individual, whether you are the epitome of health, or someone who is chronically ill.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Not at all, we ran into many structural setbacks during our build-out and many setbacks came before that during our process of finding a location. We also had to change the name of the business in the fall, after being threatened by a business across the country using a similar name to our previous choice. We had gone through the process of checking the Massachusetts registry before choosing the name and all the legal processes, but felt that the legal fight to keep that name would not be worth the hassle and expenses. So we went from “Ice Box Boston” to Frost and Float Spa, a change I am very grateful we were forced into making, as I find that Frost and Float is way more fitting to our dynamic at the spa.

My father, David Bastianelli, is a carpenter and he built most of our facility with his own two hands and oversaw all of the other structural and electrical work for the build out, but during the winter he began feeling ill and ended up in the hospital for cardiac treatment. This was a very stressful and scary period of time for us and for a moment, it really put the business on the back burner. It was during this time that my mother, Dina Bastianelli, and I realized we were going to need help if we wanted to open by the spring like we had anticipated, especially with so much work that still needed to be done before we could open

My brother, also David, was living in Nashville, Tennessee at the time, pursuing a drumming career when we asked him to come home and help us start the business. Luckily, he spent much of his adolescence and teen years working as an apprentice under my father so he was able to finish the few construction jobs left in the spa and we were able to open on March 11th, 2017.

Although David still has plans to return to Tennessee in the future, he is staying in Boston for now to help us run the business. I think he was surprised by how much he enjoys meeting new clients and getting to know our regulars. Whenever he’s not at the front desk, our regulars want to know where he is, so he’s clearly the favorite thus far.

Please tell us about Frost and Float Spa.
We are a spa that specializes in treatments that emphasize the self-healing process. We offer Whole Body Cryotherapy, Float Therapy and Infrared Sauna Bed Therapy.

Whole Body Cryotherapy (WBC) is an advanced method of cold therapy, which involves three minutes of body and skin exposure to temperatures as low as -120º Celsius (-184º Fahrenheit). The liquid nitrogen acts as a cold stimulus that significantly lowers the skin’s temperature which activates the nervous system and causes the blood vessels to constrict, reducing inflammation while sending the blood back to the body’s core where it is re-oxygenated. The activation of the nervous system stimulates the body’s organ regulatory functions resulting in energy increase, cell rejuvenation, immune system boost, and overall system self-healing. It is not considered a medical procedure, but rather, a non-invasive option for any person seeking health and wellness benefits.

Float Therapy is a relaxing way to soothe the body from life’s daily stressors. Our pods offer the ultimate relaxation experience by allowing our clients to float in an isolated pool of silky skin temperature water which has been saturated with the purest quality Epsom salt. Also known as a sensory deprivation therapy, floating creates a tension-free experience that encourages the mind and body to relax to the utmost of their abilities without distraction. Conditions known to improve with the use of Float Therapy are chronic pain, stress relief, fatigue, insomnia, migraine headaches, anxiety, improved circulation, muscular pain, jet lag and so on.

Infrared Sauna Bed therapy consists of spending 30-40 minutes laying down inside one of our sauna beds, which are heated with FAR Infrared light. The heat inside our infrared sauna bed is well ventilated and extremely comfortable, not unbearably hot like some conventional steam saunas. The body’s core temperature is increased inside an infrared sauna, which allows for a more detoxifying sweat at the cellular level. Far infrared saunas have been shown to have a positive effect on stress reduction, pain management, skin purification, detoxification and weight-loss, amongst other things.

At the moment I would say that we are most proud about the fact that our regular clients are the ones advertising for us. Most of our regulars are utilizing all three of our therapies a few times a week and telling their friends about the personal benefits that they have experienced from using the cryotherapy, float therapy and sauna beds. When you research these therapies you’re met with a handful of articles that claim that the benefits associated with many of these therapies have not been concretely proven yet (although many of them have been proven in separate studies all around the world). So to see that our clients are feeling the positives from these treatments as much as we are is really inspiring. We don’t quite have the “sell sell sell” mentality here at Frost and Float Spa. I don’t want to talk anyone into anything, (and I was a communications and journalism major in college, so I could if I wanted to), but really I like to let the treatments speak for themselves and let people make their own decisions.

Part of what sets us apart is that we are the first spa in the New England area to offer all three of these treatments in one place. I would also say that the way in which we began this business which was a bit selfish in a sense, because I wanted to have access to all of these treatments for my own health and well-being, sets us apart because our belief in these therapies came from a personal perspective first, before it developed into a business perspective.

If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
There’s always things you wish you had done differently, but we have high hopes for our business and what we can bring to the community, so for now we will continue with our therapies and possibly look to add on some other treatments down the road.

Pricing:

• “First Time Freeze” – First Cryotherapy Session – $45
• “First Time Float” – First Float Session – $49
• “First Time Sweat” – First Sauna Session – $30
• “Freeze and Float Beginner Pack” – 1 60 min Float and 1 Cryo Session – $90
• “Freeze, Float and Fire Beginner Pack” – 1 60 min Float, 1 Cryo Session and 1 30 min Sweat – $110

Contact Info:

• Address: 1201 Washington St.
  West Newton, MA
  02465
• Website: www.FrostandFloatSpa.com
• Phone: 617-795-5444
• Email: frostandfloatspa@gmail.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/frostandfloatspa/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FrostandFloatSpa/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/FrostandFloat
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/frost-and-float-spa-newton

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