The health and wellbeing sector is growing every year and is currently facing a shortage of qualified therapists.

A new spa consultancy based on Portland is aiming to help qualified therapists improve their skills and grow their knowledge and expertise.

Based at the Maritime Hotel on Portland, La Vie spa was recently awarded silver in the Dorset Tourism Awards Spa and Wellbeing Experience category.

This achievement, coupled with the booming global wellness sector and a need for more qualified spa therapists and spa managers, has propelled director and spa consultant Verna Haywood to create her spa consultancy. The aim is to help provide additional skills and experience to qualified therapists.

Mrs Haywood has more than 21 years’ experience in the spa industry and customer service. She said she has “always been interested in the training of therapists, boosting their skills and helping them to protect themselves from work-related injuries.”

The global travel and tourism industry is growing both internationally, and locally in Dorset - a fact Mrs Haywood can attest to, as she has recently treated clients from as far afield as Australia, the US and India.

Travelling for wellness in not a new phenomenon, people have done so for centuries. For example, King George the Third travelled to Weymouth on vacation to bathe in the sea, popularising the resort.

Director and spa consultant Mrs Haywood said: “Now more than ever, the spa and wellness industry is facing a global shortage of therapists and spa managers. Being a working manager and therapist myself, I know first-hand the experiences of spa therapists. The idea of the spa consultancy is to help grow the skills of newly qualified therapists, those qualified therapists looking to return to the industry after a break, or those looking to work on cruise ships.”

Mrs Haywood added she hoped the spa consultancy would not only help therapists, but also help boost health and wellbeing tourism in Dorset and beyond.

For more information or to book a training course, call Verna Haywood at La Vie spa on 01305 826000, email info@laviespa.co.uk, or visit the website via laviespa.co.uk