Anyone who doesn’t know our founder, Camille Pierson’s, story of how she came into the world of wellbeing would think she had always been part of it due to her depth of knowledge and passion about the subject.ÂHowever, this isn’t actually the case and, in fact, it took a traumatic event in her life to make her give up her unhealthy ways and embrace self-care.ÂHaving seen the effect that long term stress and not looking after your wellbeing can have first hand, she has now devoted herself to helping people manage stress and practice self-care to save them from going through what she did.ÂHere is her story.
Corporate Beginnings
Camille was a highly focused career-oriented individual working for a busy marketing firm.ÂLike many people working in the corporate world, she spent her time managing deadlines and being under constant pressure to perform.ÂIn addition to this, she was a mother with a young daughter.ÂHer 60 hour work weeks and parental responsibilities meant she had absolutely no time for herself and was actually living with extreme stress constantly.
Family Trauma
This was clearly unsustainable but it was compounded when her daughter became ill and she had the extra strain of caring for her and worrying about her.ÂAfter taking time off work to look after her little girl, Camille returned to work feeling like something had changed.ÂThe environment was exactly the same but something about her was different.ÂShe was soon diagnosed with PTSD, anxiety and depression as she was constantly feeling guilty about what her daughter had been through (which was in no way Camille’s fault), found herself under performing at work, struggling mentally and even finding it very hard to get out of bed.ÂHer doctor wanted to prescribe anti-depressants but she knew that wasn’t the path for her.
The First Float
A member of Camille’s family suggested she try floating as an alternative to medication and, although she was initially worried about being alone with her thoughts like that, she gave it a try.ÂShe can’t, in all honesty, say that the first float changed her life but it did set her on the path to recovery as she felt the tension beginning to leave her body and mind.ÂAfter three or four floats, she became convinced that she could do the whole floating experience better than the provider she was visiting.
The Float Spa is Born
On 24th October 2014, Camille left the corporate world forever.ÂFive months later, she opened The Float Spa.ÂShe felt it was her duty to share what she had discovered about the need for self-care and what an incredibly tool floatation can be in helping people tackle stress.ÂProviding floating and other services like massage and the infrared sauna is the main function of The Float Spa but Camille also wants to use it to spread her message about the importance of self-care in our lives right now.ÂShe wants people to find ways to deal with the stress in their lives now before they burnout and it becomes a very serious issue.
Camille wanted to get her story out there to warn people against doing what she did and letting stress wreck their mental health.ÂObviously, she’d like people to use the services at The Float Spa but her main motivation is to get people to take action, whatever that may be, to look after their mental health and address their stress now without needing a traumatic event to trigger a change.ÂThere is much more information on The Float Spa website about tackling stress and what burnout is so please feel free to have a browse.ÂIf you would like any further information, call 01273 933 680 or email reception@thefloatspa.co.uk.
