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Discover • Expand • Flourish

Co-Creating Memorable and Meaningful Immersive Experiences

Meet Your Steam Sauna Guide
& Wellness Experience Designer

Bonjour, hello, my name is Josée

Would you like to optimize your thermal cycle of hot and cold exposure and sauna experience? I’m excited to support your wellness journey and to help you with your goals!
 
As the Founder of Steam Space, I offer services as a Sauna Guide, Wellness Designer, Consultant, Organizer, Facilitator, Host, and Bodyworker. I’m also the Founder and Director of Circulate, a non-profit dedicated to creating accessible and affordable pathways to thermal cycling for anyone interested in experiencing the health benefits in a community group setting.
 
I work with individuals, communities, organizations, and companies in settings such as saunas, thermal spas, health and wellness spaces, retreats, festivals, and institutions.

How I can help

Facilitation and hosting are experiential, sensory-based, and grounded in embodied approaches to deepen and raise experiences.

Facilitation services offer learning opportunities on the thermal cycle and intentional connection, which could include rituals, workshops, mindfulness/awareness meditation, contemplation, movement, and activities.

Hosting offers a supportive role that ensures the details are taken care of. Services can include light support and guidance with the thermal cycle, ensuring materials are replenished, monitoring for safety and comfort, and an available presence for your event or session.

With over a decade of designing, planning, and coordinating experiences and events, I offer a thoughtful, grounded, and innovative approach that ensures a memorable and meaningful experience. If you’re looking to improve on or design new pathways for a smoother and more efficient flow, let’s talk! If you want to create quality, memorable experiences, let’s connect! Get in touch, and let’s explore how we can align with your goals.

Coming soon!

My Background

I’m based in Mi’kma’ki (Nova Scotia), and I’ve travelled the world to experience and understand sweat bathing practices, traditional thermal spas, and public bathhouses
Learn more
Pictou Island Yurts

Josée provided us with a unique experience in our wood-fired sauna. Her gentle approach, knowledge of sauna as a healing method- both for the mind and soul--guided us through a unique multisensory wellness experience we will never forget

Youth participant from the Youth Climate Retreat at the Thinker’s Lodge
Pugwash, NS, July 2019

“The conversations I had within Steam Space were some I will remember for years to come. This experience is hard to describe, as it was something that was felt. I am so thankful I had this opportunity and can only hope I can take part in this again some day.”

Nathan Goudreau

I highly recommend Josée from Steam Space for her outstanding consultation service on my sauna project. Her expertise and attention to detail were invaluable in helping me make informed decisions. Josee's friendly demeanor and willingness to go the extra mile made the entire consultation process a pleasure.

Rosemary McKeman
Organizer for a bachelorette

“I can’t begin to describe how incredibly amazing that whole experience was. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for everything you do. You made tonight so memorable for us. I will be eternally grateful for that experience.”

Mary Campbell

I have participated in several STEAM SPACE sessions, sometimes with a group of friends, at other times with a mix of people I know and people I am meeting for the first time. STEAM SPACE is a complete experience, all the elements coming together in a balanced and harmonious way that both relaxes and invigorates. Beginning with the heat, the body warms and relaxes deeply which allows the mind to settle and relax. There is conversation and quiet, the sound of the water being ladled on to the fire, the rising steam infused with the fragrant scents of the essential oils that have been added to the water, and the alternation between warming up and cooling down. All in all a wonderful experience that feels so very nourishing.

Sabrina Janick
Registered Massage Therapist

“I have found the experience to be very relaxing, grounding and a welcome break from the usual busy pace of life. I enjoy the sense of community that’s created by having the shared experience with other people. Josée has a wealth of knowledge and passion that she brings to Steam Space. Her gentle and kind spirit comes through, in the way that she leads her sessions and she makes the space feel welcoming for everyone.”

Elizabeth A. Berlasso
MEd, RCT

The experience at Steam Space was the detail that Josee brings to her treatment. The integration of nature in the space, the purest forms of the oils she uses, the pacing of steam, and the extra touches that she brings such as scrubby mitts, water, and tea offers a very caring and gentle atmosphere. I felt open, fresh and sparkling clean after the session, and as someone with respiratory issues, this was very important to me. Josee pays particular attention to privacy, ensuring safety at all times. She is a master at curating a specialized sauna treatment. I highly recommend Steam Space saunas. I’ll do it again and again.

Odessa Spore
Artist, Halifax, NS

“All of my experiences at Steam Space have been special. The unique atmosphere created from the use of aroma essences takes an ordinary sauna experience to a deeper restorative level I have never experienced before. I always leave with a feeling of radiance and heightened aliveness in my body that only comes from the combination of heat, steam and aroma! The leader of Steam Space was very attentive to my experience. She offers each individual guidance and has extensive knowledge of sauna cultures best practices! The Maritimes is a special place. The combination of forest and sea, fog, wind and dampness makes Nova Scotia a most appropriate place to experience the restorative benefits of warmth created from wood fire and natural aroma essences. These two elements create the beauty and magic of Steam Space.”

Amberlee Boulton
MSW/RSW(c), PhD(c), Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary

I had the privilege of attending four of Josée’s Steam Space sessions last summer. Steam Space is a uniquely invigorating, inspiring, and sensuous journey in sauna culture. Josée’s gentle leadership and consummate knowledge of bathing practices establish an environment that relaxes participants into sumptuous immersions of natural scents and steamy heat. Josée’s ability to create spaces where all people, regardless of their experiences with heat and contrast-bathing, can come together and sink into a shared community is powerfully informed by her empathy and exacting attention to detail in her craft. As a health professional, I can attest to Steam Space being one of the most powerful experiences in self-care I have experienced in my career. I believe Josée’s work is an essential adjunct service in mental health, supporting individual and community space for conversation, and somatic relaxation.

Audrey Barber
Registered Massage Therapist

Steam Space is a transformational space. It is like entering a secret vortex in the forest. Josee creates a magical environment by bringing nature into the sauna through aromatherapy, trees and candlelight. You can breathe deeply, feel safe and cocooned by the warmth. Josee is highly knowledgeable. Having her personally guide a session is phenomenal. You feel so cared for entering a session with someone you know you can trust. What I love about these sessions is that aside from feeling your skin breathing, sweating out toxins, expanding your mind during this reflection time, and inhaling the medicine of essential oils, you also get to connect with others. I’ve made new friends in the safe space of the sauna. You may feel vulnerable to share, but then you also feel everyone is holding space and there to support you. It is healing in so many ways! I truly believe in the power of hydrotherapy, aromatherapy and self-care. The experience you enter during a sauna session is true holistic wellness. Thank you Josee and Steam Space!

Sidath Rankaduwa

There are few local businesses that manage to target well-being with the same warmth and charm as Steam Space. Josée creates an environment that is both welcoming and hospitable – your comfort is her top priority, and she manages this (and much more) with grace and real kindness. Some of the most memorable moments I have with my closest friends were in Steam Space; I can recall the scent of citrus and pine, as I bring these evenings to mind. Although the main event consists of a steaming tent (and aromatic tea), the highlight is always cooling down in-between and at the end of sessions – it just so happens that extreme heat and cold showers can do therapeutic wonders for the body and mind. Booking a session with Josée has always seemed the most natural thing to do, especially in periods of stress, and during times where I have needed some serious grounding. Every session, without fail, has left me feeling light as a feather, and better equipped to approach the day in healthier ways. Steam space is perhaps the closest thing I have found in Halifax to the proverbial reset button – one that manages to address one’s physical, mental, and spiritual needs, all in one gentle and effective sitting.