Good Neighbor Podcast Live

If Italians Get Weekly Massages, No Wonder They Smile More

• Garfield Bowen and Shirley Garner & Deborah Harrison

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What if a spa wasn’t a splurge but a lifeline? We sit down with Shirley Garner and Deborah Harrison of Spa Boutique and Wellness Lounge in Harlem to explore how consistent, affordable care can transform everyday stress into a sustainable rhythm of health. Their origin story weaves holistic street fairs, Italian hydrotherapy culture, and Caribbean soaking rituals into a clear mission: bring touch, rest, and skincare to the community not once a year, but once a month or more.

We talk through the services that anchor their approach—massage, facials, body scrubs, mud wraps, and acupuncture—and why frequency matters for lowering anxiety, easing pain, and resetting the nervous system. Shirley and Deborah share how they designed memberships and pricing to meet people where they are, turning wellness from a luxury signal into a practical habit. They serve kids grappling with social media stress and sports pressure, caregivers juggling jobs and aging parents, baby boomers who postponed rest for decades, and elders who may only experience human touch in clinical settings. The result is a multigenerational space where granddaughters book massages for grandmothers and neighbors pass along real results.

We also dig into the quiet power of word of mouth. While clients nudge them to start a podcast for skincare tips and guided relaxation, these founders spend most of their time in treatment rooms, letting trust and outcomes drive growth. Their message is simple and urgent: you matter, and self-care is not selfish. If you’re ready to rethink wellness as a steady practice instead of an annual treat, this conversation will give you practical ideas and a compassionate push to begin.

If you found value here, follow the show, share it with a friend who needs the reminder, and leave a review to help more neighbors discover community-centered wellness. For more information on Spa Boutique and Wellness Lounge, visit spabnwl.com.

SPEAKER_00:

This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Garfield Bowen.

SPEAKER_01:

Welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast. Are you looking for a day spa? Whoa, one may be closer to you think. They have the pleasure of introducing your good neighbor, Shirley Gardner and Deborah Harrow Harrison with the Spa Boutique and Walnuts Lounge. Shirley, Deborah, how are you doing today? Fantastic. Thank you, Garfield. We're doing great. Listen, you're gonna have y'all tag team with me today, so I'm gonna need y'all to hit me one at a time. Now tell me about your business.

SPEAKER_02:

Deborah, you want to start? It's uh a day spa where uh we offer massage, fish, body serv body service like uh scrub, uh mud wrap, and acupuncture. It's uh located in uh heart of Arlen, and here we are in about uh 13 years in this location.

SPEAKER_01:

So uh Deborah, how did you two get into this business?

SPEAKER_02:

Oh we both uh wanted to open a spa.

SPEAKER_01:

I'm sorry, that was actually for Shirley. I was trying to get her into conversation. Shirley, how do you how do y'all take into the business?

SPEAKER_03:

Well, it's it was a a long time in the making. Um, I personally started uh working with holistic practitioners. We would share our products with folks at street festivals, home parties, and it was just a way for us to bring healing and self-care into our community and um really helped to de-stress our elders, our road warriors, and we consider those people or those that are working nine to five, taking care of children, taking care of grandparents, um, and aging parents. And um, we just wanted to share our skills that we've learned over time with the people in our community. So when I went to school to study, I bumped into Deborah, who was here from Italy, um studying aesthetics because she and I found out that we wanted to do the same thing, which was bring self-care and wellness and massage and into our community and let people know it's not something that you do once a month. I mean once a year on your birthday. Typically, that's what it was for us in our community. People would come on their birthdays. So we wanted to let people know this needs to be a part of your monthly, your life. And we started a membership program where our clients would come in once a month to experience the self-care and wellness that we so truly needed in our community. So we linked up in uh aesthetics training and said, you know, let's do it together. You're coming from Italy, I'm coming from the Caribbean, and we just let's you know, meet in Harlem. And we bought, we bought what she's accustomed to is, you know, I'm from the Caribbean, so we do a lot of um soaking in the sea and sulfur springs and hot springs. They have the same thing in Italy. So um they, on the other hand, would do it on a monthly. How often would you all do massages in Italy? Weekly. Weekly. Meanwhile, like I said, here in America, we do it once a year as a special treat on our birthday. So together we said, you know what? Let's put this together at a price that people can afford. Because again, once you set the price on certain items, you tell from the price who you want your client to be. So we situated our prices to meet people where they are. We have a lot of people that say, we don't want the membership because I can afford to pay full price. And those people, they come once a month, twice a month, and they've kept us going. And then we have our members that come in once a month. Sometimes they're coming in twice a month now. But at least we have people in our community taking better care of themselves, de-stressing, getting that anxiety level down, actually experiencing love in touch on a regular basis in our community. Don't we deserve that? And then some.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I heard you say um weekly. I guess that's why those Italians be smiling so much, huh? They're getting that love. Happy people on a weekly basis. You kind of touched on this a little bit more, but uh, we know uh marketing is a key to the heart of all businesses, and you you know, you have um a great strategy there. Um, how would you define your uh target audience? You started to address them a little bit, and how you are currently um reaching them.

SPEAKER_03:

Okay, well, um we're we're dealing with everyone. Um, people like to tighten their market, you know, keep it tight and keep it even, but we are addressing a community. We have children that are more stressed out than oftentimes a lot of adults with social media, AI, bullying, and all the things that they have to deal with, sports, trying to excel and getting all the great grades. Our children are stressed out. She has two, she knows. But we're also dealing with, again, our warriors that are taking care of husbands, children, jobs, aging parents. So, you know, our baby boomers, you know, I'm in that category where we worked hard all our lives and really didn't have the resources nor the time to really take a moment to breathe and do some self-care. So we have those people, the baby boomers, and then we have our silent community, our aging communities. You know, one client just left here, she'll be 90 next year. And oftentimes, I I kid you not, some of these people only interact with others when they go for their doctor appointments. That's the only care or the only touch that some of our silent people in our silent community receive. So we welcome them here. You know, you you come in here, you're going to feel the love. Our nonprofit loves touch. That's why we're here. People need to feel cared for. And we're starving for self for care, for self-care, for touch from other human beings. People, you know, even on the subway, you're afraid to touch people, they get angry. Here, this is what we live on. Come here and feel the love, get touched, get loved on, get cared for. And that's what we need right now, especially with all that's going on in the world. So we have our children, we have our warriors, we have our baby boomers, we have our silent community. You know, we want to take care of our people. That's why we're here. And it's not, you know, we're where people's like, oh, money, money, money, money. I keep telling people that want to work with us, don't come here looking for money. Come here, yeah, to care about people. When you care about people, everything else will fall into place. The money will come. And what money do you need? To have a roof over your head and food in your stomach. Bottom line, that's all we need. And we're here for our people.

SPEAKER_01:

Um I'm feeling the love over here.

SPEAKER_03:

I'm feeling the to pay our bills, and that's what we get these bills paid, but at the end of the day, I don't live in a mansion, nor do I own a yacht. Nope.

SPEAKER_01:

Listen, you're here today on on my show. Have you ever thought about doing your own podcast?

SPEAKER_02:

They ask us a few times, our client, you know, to give uh some of the how do you call news or like some notion about the skincare, massage, maybe a little mediative, meditation, meditation and self-care.

SPEAKER_03:

We're it's something to be considered, yes. However, Deborah and I, the skincare, the scrubs, the massages, you know, we are in the back room. We take care of our clients. We're not on the podcast, you know, we're not behind the scenes, we're in the treatment room, physically working with our clients. So it's a bit challenging to the podcast and all the advertising and so on. So that's how it ends up being that our clients become uh our best promoters. Yep. You know, because we have from the grandmother down to the granddaughter, we have little girls now that are working. When they got here, they were in like fifth grade, and now they have jobs and they're treating their grandmas to massages here. It's amazing.

SPEAKER_01:

I know you have from Italy to the Caribbean, and y'all seem like they're doing a fantastic uh job over there. Uh, we're about out of time, but we want you to leave our listeners with one thing. What is the one thing that they should remember about Spa Boutique and Wellness Lounge?

SPEAKER_03:

Well, the one thing to remember is that we care and we're here and we're not going anywhere. And the one thing that we want you all to know is that you matter and that you come first. Self-care is not selfish. Take care, better care of you so that you can care for everybody else. And we're here for you.

SPEAKER_01:

And there's one word on everybody list now that's listening to this, and and that is how how can you get more information on small boutique and wellness lounge?

SPEAKER_03:

Well, you can visit us online at spabnwl.com, or you can reach us at 212-234-4769.

SPEAKER_01:

Listen, uh Shirley, Deborah, it's been a pleasure having you on the show. I wish you and your business the very best looking for it.

SPEAKER_03:

Thank you, thank you, wish you're the same for you. Happy holidays, everyone.

SPEAKER_00:

Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnplive.com. That's gnplive.com or call eight seven seven nine three four three three zero two.