Harmony Massage & Spa at 3360 Chamblee Tucker Road, Atlanta, Georgia.

I treated my boyfriend for his birthday to a couples 30 minute foot massage, 60 minute body massage, and a 60 minute float. The floatation tank experience was 5-stars, the foot massage around 3-stars, but the body massage experience was awful and I would give it less than zero stars, hence the 2-star review.

The entire experience felt very rushed: we moved through 3 rooms during our visit and felt the relaxation jolted away as they rushed us from space to space. We made appointments over 2 weeks in advance and they weren't overly busy. We also had to correct the therapists during the session multiple times as their technique did not justify the pressure. (I love pressure, but deep massage without skill is dangerous) I gave feedback to the manager whose unapologetic response left me feeling like they didn't care.

Upon checking in we were asked if we wanted relaxation or therapeutic massage for the body massage, plus what areas to focus on. My BF wanted focus on his neck, shoulders & back. I wanted a full body massage with even focus across all regions.

They started with the feet soak in chairs in a room with a TV muted with music on. After the soak, the ~20 minute foot massage was next. No communication, they just grabbed your feet and put the recliner back. My boyfriend commented that he watched my toes being worked on while his toes were never touched. Both therapists used fast & repetitive strokes, with a lot of pressure on the arch of the feet. I had to tell the therapist to move to a different part of my foot. Other areas of the feet were almost completely ignored while some were over-worked. The hot stone portion at the end was nice until he put the hotter side of the stone on the top of my foot which burned.

Next up, body massage. Both therapists got onto the tables to increase their pressure. When the male therapist got on top of the table with his knees on either side of my ears straddling my head, I could feel his pants on the back of my head. In 20 years of receiving massages all over the US my head has NEVER been straddled.

After some amount of time, my back felt over-worked. I said I wanted to turn over. He told me to hold on & left the room. I looked at the clock & 36 out of 60 minutes had passed. I decided to turn over before he came back. I asked for my legs & arms for the rest of session. He said "head too?" and I said "ok" - After some very fast and hard strokes to my forehead, he started to put my head into a neck stretch & I stopped him. At this point, I did not trust him to be able to safely stretch my next and I told him to please focus on my arms & hands. He worked on 7 out of 10 fingers, which is a sign that he was NOT focused on what he was doing. He finished putting pressure on my thighs, but the buzzer rang & he stopped before finishing.

My partner said his therapist did not do the focus on the neck & shoulders as he asked for, spending most of the time on his back, with some work on the legs, head, and neck. He was not warmed about the host stones and he said the experience was jarring as they were very hot and unexpected. For him: 45 minutes face down & 15 minutes face up. For me 36 minute on back & 24 minutes on head, shoulders, arms, which would have been the same as my partner if I had not requested a change. I asked for full body & got mostly a back massage.

We will definitely go back for the floatation tanks. We plan to give the massages one more try, doing longer feet massages and asking for relaxation instead of therapeutic for a shorter time period, emphasizing not to spend 2/3-3/4 of the time on the back.

Full disclosure: I am a 10-year licensed massage therapist who uses hot stones in my practice. I have thousands of hours of training and special training for hot stones to secure liability insurance. I am concerned this staff does not have the adequate training and skill to be using deep pressure or hot stones. Straddling a client's head on the table is also a questionable practice.