Oohs, Aahs and Yesses

From my first glimpse eight months ago of LXR Corp.’s chic, newly transformed Naples Grande Resort & Club, I guessed that the new spa would be Feng-Shui-ified by Barry Design Associates. Indeed, it is a glorious 16,000-foot, indoor-outdoor spa village made of teak, slate, light and water, complete with floor-to-ceiling white mesh curtains draping tall teak pillars and pasha-esque chill-out lounges. I further imagined that it would feature rich and healthy food from the kitchen at Aura. And I also expected that Naples’ take on the Golden Door concept would include a lovely natural setting, well-trained technicians and first-rate herbal lotions and potions. The spirit of the Golden Door, in fact, does live and breathe in Naples.

Sure, you’ll be gentled, restored and petted at the fifth Golden Door, the first of its kind on the East Coast, but then you’ll be challenged to learn how to bring the spa mentality with you as you re-enter the world beyond the spa’s gates.

Spa director Robert Vance, 30, has led his team in a variety of experiments involving everything from the treatments and the music to the décor. The overarching style seems to be “abundance in simplicity.” For instance, small Tibetan prayer chimes serve as art and a form of communication. Through them, therapists inform guests that treatments have ended without ruining the mood with spoken words. Guests may choose from 10 different types of music piped through Bose speakers, or have their own iPods.

My treatment journey began when I put myself in the hands of a smiling Brazilian concierge named Juliana Magalhaes. She was the first person to give me the signature hand gesture everyone at the Golden Door Naples uses to greet a new guest: an intriguing double-palm twist, a movement from within to without, from self to other. It’s quite settling and a must for anyone used to a very different sort of hand gesture and accompanying feeling on the roads of Southwest Florida.

I slipped into a soft, white, never-before-worn robe and brand-new slippers, and allowed myself to be passed over to Dohl Przybyla, who guided me gently to a lovely, minimalist treatment room. I usually travel at the breakneck pace of neurosis. Yet just a few minutes into my 80-minute Golden Door massage ($180), I was functioning at a very different, more relaxed tempo.

Now the real highlight of the day came in the form of the locally inspired, 80-minute Tsah-Tee Oho-Nee Restorative Facial ($175), performed by a truly gifted woman named Melissa Bruce. Bruce said she would be placing high-energy Seminole red stones on various parts of my body that might benefit from their healing properties, such as the heart. She dropped a red stone in the palm of my left hand with these words: “I place this healing stone in your hand with love.” For the next 80 minutes, I did feel profoundly loved as she bathed and massaged my skin with various Phytomer products. When she first turned a bright light on and examined my skin, I flinched; some facials feel like gang warfare. “You have beautiful skin,” she murmured before turning the hot light off and resuming her treatment. By the time she wrapped my face in thin gauze and painted a mask over it, I was floating. My radiant skin was just a bonus. The real restoration had taken place much deeper inside me.

I was escorted to an adjoining villa for my final treatment, the Golden Door Signature Pedicure (50 minutes/$80). Denise Smith offered me my choice of frankincense, geranium or eucalyptus bath salts. She sprinkled mandarin orange tonic into the water and sprayed some lavender mist in the air between us. We talked about a variety of subjects and agreed that there would be no more war and misery in the world if everyone could have the Golden Door experience.

After taking my Aura lunch in the private luxury of the Couples Villa, my renovation was almost complete. Juliana handed me a cookie for the road, and placed a gold-colored elastic bracelet on my wrist. I paused before the stone labyrinth. “What does it mean?” I asked.

“It’s a meditation tool,” said Vance. “You could even recreate it at home.” We shared a good laugh at the thought of my husband mowing intricate patterns into the front yard. “There’s only one way in and one way out,” he said, “but anything that happens in between is OK.” He invited me to take a stone from a bowl and walk the labyrinth with it in my hand. When I got to the center, I could leave it behind as a symbol of some concern, pain or worry.

Like a good graduate of Golden Door University, I followed every twist and turn of the labyrinth with diligence. When I got to the center with the stone in my hand, I knelt and released it. Yet I couldn’t think of a single concern, pain or worry to leave behind. After a day at the Golden Door, neither will you.

Golden Door Spa at Naples Grande Resort & Club, 475 Seagate Drive, Naples. (239) 594-6321, www.naplesgranderesort.com and www.golden doorspa.com. Spa hours: 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.; hair and nail spa: 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.