BATH MASTER TRAINING
Cedar Grove Sauna is hosting
May 1 - 3 for a series of Sauna Trainings.
Lithuanian and Baltic sauna traditions incorporate steam, leaf whisking and various natural bathing practices.
Lithuanian Bath Masters Rimas Kavaliauskas & Birutė Masiliauskienė conduct trainings all over Europe.
This is their first North American training.
Interested in deepening your relationship to the practice of saunaing, from plant treatments to cultural history to construction? We have a slew of offerings each day.
The main event will be the Level One Bath Master training, taking place each day from 10am - 2pm. Each night there will be 1-2 additional Evening Trainings from 5-9pm. Individuals can sign up for the three day training, and/or just an evening. Do note, the daytime training is an intensive, your mind and body will be tired, and the instructors don't recommend pairing it with the more physical evening trainings (Meeting with Whisks). All classes are taught in English.
Class information and links to registration below. Reach out with any questions.
May 1 - 3 (three-day training)
10am - 2pm each day
$350 total, including $50 deposit.
This is an intensive and fun introductory course of healthy sauna basics and whisking. It is targeted to zero-experience users but also suits the more seasoned sauna goer. Lithuanian and Baltic sauna traditions incorporate steam, leaf whisking and various natural bathing practices.
A sauna attendant is not only a back rubber but, at the very least, a sauna guide and sometimes a bit of a shaman. A good master considers the person's state of mind - he tries to make him feel better, relieve pain, and drive anxiety away. A good sauna should be organized so that the person is central and the sauna is secondary. Sometimes people bring too many rules with them when they go to the sauna - even about the sauna itself.
Believe us, this excessive knowledge and regulation could be better. Instead, he needs to learn to improvise how nature improvises - the season's change but do not repeat themselves. A good bath-taker can go on a separate journey with each person, which can be one thing but also be another... A bath-taker must avoid injuring the human body with too much heat or the mind with too much verbal intervention, and he must allow the person to be in the bath... We will teach you how to work in the sauna by combining technical skills with a holistic understanding of the sauna ritual.
During this course, you will learn how to work individually with your sauna guest during a classical sauna treatment with a few simple tools, helping them to adapt to the sauna environment and open up to a transformative sauna treatment.
Bath Master Basics Training Registration
Meeting with Whisks
May 1
In Lithuanian tradition, whisks and particularly birch has long been associated with spring, youth, protection, and positive transformations. It is the quintessential plant used for bathing and promoting physical, emotional, and mental purification. In this evening, we will employ birch and some other plant whisks in the sauna to cleanse our bodies, leaving us feeling younger, revitalized, and joyful. This is a great introduction to Lithuanian pirtis (sauna) culture. Come prepared to sauna and participate in the treatments.
Meeting with Whisks Registration
Sauna Construction with Microclimates
May 2
This one evening class will be very useful for those who are planning to build their own sauna, as we will talk about what kind of atmosphere should be provided in a sauna, and also for practicing sauna owners, as we will learn how to create the right regimes for treatments with a continuous-heating stove.
This workshop is an excellent complement to the training in bathing, giving the bathers an understanding of steam dynamics and management, and is therefore a must for those wishing to become professional bathers. We'll learn how design and thermodynamics influence the space, explore smoke sauna, wood-fired sauna and more. While we will be visiting the saunas, this is a hands-on classroom experience.
Sauna Construction with Microclimates Registration
May 2
Steam sauna is an ideal place to take care of your skin. Perspiration, whipping with brushwood and rubbing cleans the skin, opens it pores, activates blood circulation and removes old layer of cells. During the procedures natural inexpensive locally sourced materials are used and the effect is stunning!
We will encourage you to use the widely available local resources in your sauna rituals! We will play and improvise with the most common yet often neglected local materials and stuff that you can find in your kitchen. The sauna, culinary and experimant come together! Come prepared to sauna and participate in the treatments.
May 3
In traditional Lituanian bathing culture, men and women were strictly separated. Men would bathe first, followed by women. Once everyone had left the sauna (or "Pirtis," as it's called), the wild goddess Laumes would enter.
Laume was an archaic goddess of nature, earth, water, and plants, associated with work, the body, birth, fertility, and bathing. Regardless of how civilized we may be, we still carry within us a longing to return to the realm of the Great Goddess, reconnecting with our primal roots and wild nature in order to feel free and truly alive. Come prepared to sauna and participate in the treatments.
The evening will be supervised and treatments offered by prominent pirtis sauna artizan and master Birutė Masiliauskienė.
This is a women's session.
Awakening the Wild Goddess Registration
May 3
In this group session we will make your critical mind fall asleep, and overwhelm it with pleasant emotions. The configuration of our personality will change with fewer blocks caused by everyday stresses, embarrassments and anger. After the bath, the sense of reality will return, but you will experience a much richer perception of life.
In the warmth and humidity of traditional sauna, the hunger for sensation will be satisfied and you feel like a baby that has been loved and discovered the new world.
Experience renewed energy, physical and emotional relaxation, and a sense of joy and inspiration. We will be making friends, meeting new people, feeling supported in the closed and friendly space. Come prepared to sauna and participate in the treatments.
This is a men's session.
Recharge Your Brain in Sauna Registration
Evening Programs
May 1 - 3
5 - 9pm
$100/person/class
These are separate from the Bath Master Training
Meals and Accommodations are not provided. All classes are conducted in English. Registration is via Internatinal Bath Academy's website.
Registration is through International Bath Academy's website. If you have issues with making an international payment, please reach out.
For those traveling from away, find out more about local accomodations/ groceries/attractions here.
Questions? Send us an email.