What a Korean Spa Taught My Body
Umm seriously, here is my awakening to alternative therapy through exposure therapy via a Korean Spa
Written: June 21, 2026 @2155
I went to SpaLA in Koreatown for a birthday spa day, thinking I was just saying yes to something outside my comfort zone. But somewhere between the naked walk to the showers, the heat of the steam room, and the shock of being fully seen, experience turned into an unexpected lesson in vulnerability, body memory, and the kind of healing that lives far deeper than steam rooms and hot tubs.
First, this is not a review of the spa I went to, but it was great. I went to SpaLA in Koreatown in Los Angeles. I got scrubbed down from head to toe (fully naked) by an auntie – a Korean woman who provides the massage service. There were 4 different types of hot tubs, each for different needs, and various detox/healing rooms: salt room, mud room, cool room, infrared room and my fave, the steam room! It wasn’t crowded and nakedness everywhere.
Table of Contents
Now Onto The Story
To be or not to be,
Korean spa or therapy,
Naked or we’ll see . . .
Who knew a naked Korean spa was the exposure therapy I needed – let alone was ready for. No, I did not come up with the idea to go on my own – thought never crossed my mind. I was invited by a roomiefriend.
Definition
Roomiefriend (n.): a roommate who is turning into a friend, but isn’t officially your roommate, she’s your sister’s. However, I’ve been staying there on/off for 6 months, so… roomiefriend.
The roomiefriend wanted to go for her birthday. The moment I heard naked spa my insides froze. My breath deepened. My body immediately knew: we are not okay. For a week, I debated. Do I go? Do I Just show up for dinner? I want to celebrate her birthday, AHHH. In the end I went because mama didn’t raise a quitter.
It’s Spa Day! Here I go. Locker time. It is time to undress and just be naked.
Let me paint the scene for ya. There are 3 of us. I’m by my locker 105. My roomiefriend is across from me and the 2nd roomiefriend is on a different row of lockers. There’s a see through glass view of the showers and hot tubs. I can see the distance I’ll have to walk: locker —> cubbies —> open showers.
My body is physically there but my mind must have been stressed. Then it happens: a deep, long sigh escapes me. Unexpected, but necessary. A small release. A signal of both stress and surrender. I tell myself f*** it and go for it. I strip, throw on my robe, and walk to the showers to turn the water on — because I’m not about to be naked and cold. While I let the water warm up, I walk to the cubby, take my robe off, and stuff my robe in the cubby. I make the quickest calm walk back to the shower. I shower and my roomiefriends follow. Cool, done.
Next, the sauna.
Except… I panic and detour into the nearest hot tub. After 2 minutes I’m boiling, so I had to get out which means I’m about to be on a naked runway to the wet sauna.
Runway #1
I get out and I am on full display. Buns out, coochie out, and I haven’t been this exposed since I was a baby. But we made it to the wet sauna and I’m by myself to bask in the steam. Then here comes my roomiefriend informing me they called my number to get scrubbed.
Runway #2
From sauna to the scrub room. This place is just testing me all over, literally. I made it down the runway and into the room. And here’s the ironic part of this story: I didn’t mind being naked for the auntie. Maybe, it is because she’s a professional. A stranger who does this everyday.
So, why is this a big deal for me?
Spoiler alert: I don’t like being naked in front of people, and I discovered it is even worse for me to be naked in front of people I know.
That realization has roots.
My past sexual trauma – abuse by family member(s) — taught my body that familiarity is not safe. That closeness can be dangerous. That being seen, especially by people I know, can trap me in an invisible cage.
So for me, nakedness has never just been neutral. It has often been performative. Conditioned. Born out of violation, not choice.
Some Rules My Body Lives By:
- Main Rule – I don’t change in front of my family. I don’t care who you are.
- I don’t change in front of my friends. Only one person has been an exception – my ex.
Logically, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with being naked. But my body doesn’t always agree. Hopefully, one day, it will.
That’s why this experience mattered.
Recently, I’ve been exploring somatic therapy and have been researching practitioners to visit. Somatic therapy uses breathwork, physical movement, and awareness to help regulate oneself and is a body-centered approach to healing trauma between the mind and body.
I’ve done talk-therapy. It helped. But I need additional modalities to overcome the emotions trapped in my body. And somehow, this birthday invitation came at the perfect time.
Thank You
Once again, life proved to me why it is good to make and explore connections of all kinds. Allowing myself to be open and inviting helped me to explore a therapy I would have kept ignoring – the spa. This spa – this unexpected, uncomfortable, vulnerable experience – became a form of somatic practice. It asked me to stay present in my body, to notice my reactions, to breathe through discomfort, to move through fear without shutting down.
It gave me a small glimpse of what freedom could feel like.
So, thank you roomiefriends and especially to the birthday girl. You’ve done more for me than you realize. Thank you to SpaLa, for holding space in every crevice, lol.
On my way to find a somatic therapist
and, slowly, finding my way back to my body,