Indianapolis Salt Cave and Halotherapy Center Boasts Relaxation & Added Health Benefits For Guests
Photographer: Michael Durr
Have you been looking for a new setting to relax and get away from daily distractions? Interested in trying a new approach to help with health issues like inflammation or respiratory issues? Maybe it’s time you tried salt.
Indianapolis Salt Cave and Halotherapy Center, Central Indiana’s first salt cave facility, opened in March, and Co-owner Stefanie Patterson says the benefits of even one session inside her unique facility are manifold.
“It’s like a holistic spa — it helps with things like allergy symptoms, respiratory infections, COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) and sinusitis,” she says. “We’re getting great feedback so far. There are a few salt rooms in Central Indiana, but we’re the only salt cave business that recreates what it’s like in a real, actual salt cave with ionized water cascades trickling in the back.”
The cave was constructed earlier this year with nine tons of Polish salt. Customers simply enter the room and relax in a zero-gravity chair letting the salt do the work, while a machine called a halogenerator grinds up and aerosolizes pharmaceutical-grade salt.
“We keep it cool just like a cave would be,” Patterson says. “You’re relaxing in there and breathing in the salt particles which are drying up and breaking up any gunk or mucus in your lungs and airways. So it’s doing a lot of great things for your respiratory system.”
She adds that salt naturally helps with serotonin production, helping customers to unwind and relax. And since salt helps skin retain moisture, sessions in the cave can also kill bacteria that can cause skin issues like eczema and psoriasis.
The facility also includes two infrared saunas as well as a hand and foot detox room, in which patrons put their hands and feet on heated salt blocks that pull out toxins and heavy metals through sweat.
“We highly recommend the hand and foot detox for anyone experiencing joint pain, arthritis and inflammation,” Patterson adds. “It’s also very relaxing and meditative like the salt cave.”
All ages are welcome in the salt cave, and Patterson offers children’s sessions where kids get buckets and shovels to play in the salt.
So why open a salt cave in Central Indiana? Patterson says she took inspiration from a few family members in Vermont who have their own cave facility and learned about the benefits years ago.
“I really fell in love with the facility up there and what it brings to the people in that community, she says. “I saw that people really felt benefits from the treatments. We decided it was something Indianapolis needed and doesn’t have.”
In January, Patterson purchased what she describes as the perfect building for her concept on Kent Avenue and opened her business up to Indy less than two months later.
“The building was used down through the years as a firehouse and a hospital, so there’s a lot of healing elements of the building that we wanted to revive,” she says. “We thought it was the perfect space for what we wanted to do.”
All the salt that customers are surrounded by is imported from Poland, and Patterson even hired a Polish builder to construct her custom salt cave.
“We wanted to recreate the environment of the Polish salt mines because that’s where salt therapy began,” she says. “The builder grew up going to the Polish salt mines, and he did the salt cave in Vermont for our family so we had that connection with him. He knows how the salt mines are run in Poland and we wanted to make it as authentic and as realistic as possible.”
Patterson says most of her business thus far has been through word of mouth, which she sees as a testament to the health benefits the salt cave is providing for locals.
“People are seeing the benefits and coming back to bring their friends,” she says. “We have people saying they used to take Mucinex and haven’t had to take it since they started coming to the salt cave. That’s why we’re here — so people have more options to take charge of their health or to just relax.”
The Indianapolis Salt Cave and Halotherapy Center is located at 8899 Kent Avenue in Indianapolis. For additional details, including pricing info and a FAQ, go to indysaltcave.com or call 317-991-4921. Memberships and packages are available for purchase.
