Our Team
The therapists at Lavana Spa
European and Russian, across three addresses
Our professional therapists come from Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Georgia, Bulgaria and Romania. It is the fact guests ask about most before booking, and it is why the spa calls what it does European massage rather than borrowing a name from elsewhere.
Each of the three branches keeps its own team and its own rota, so the sections below are split by address rather than pooled into one list. What a team can do depends on the rooms it has: Bur Dubai and DIFC have a heated hammam room and run the Moroccan Bath, Al Barsha works massage only and stays open the latest.
The Technique
What European massage means in the room
The phrase describes a training background rather than one fixed treatment, so it is worth saying plainly what it changes once you are on the table.
It is the family Swedish and aromatherapy massage belong to. Long strokes worked along the muscle rather than short percussive work, oil on the skin from the first minute, and an even pace instead of one that builds to a peak. That is why our menu leads with the European Aromatherapy Massage and the Purifying Swedish Massage rather than with anything sharper, and why a session runs unhurried even at sixty minutes.
It does not mean one pressure for everyone. Say more or less at any point and the therapist follows you rather than the other way round, and if you want something firmer than the description suggests, the Deep Muscle Massage sits on the same list and works into the tissue rather than over it.
Everyone works in English and Russian. Reception at each branch answers its own line, so anything worth passing on before the appointment, a preference about pressure or a reaction to a particular oil, reaches the therapist ahead of you rather than halfway through the hour.
Al Barsha 1 · Dubai
The team at Al Barsha
The Al Barsha team works the longest day of the three, taking guests until 1 am, and works massage only: there is no hammam room at this address, so everything here is done with oil and hands on a table. That narrower list is the reason the rota is built around the evening, when the branch is busiest and most guests arrive after work rather than before it.
A few lines about this therapist go here: where she is from, how long she has worked with us, and the treatments she is strongest at.
A few lines about this therapist go here: where she is from, how long she has worked with us, and the treatments she is strongest at.
A few lines about this therapist go here: where she is from, how long she has worked with us, and the treatments she is strongest at.
A few lines about this therapist go here: where she is from, how long she has worked with us, and the treatments she is strongest at.
A few lines about this therapist go here: where she is from, how long she has worked with us, and the treatments she is strongest at.
A few lines about this therapist go here: where she is from, how long she has worked with us, and the treatments she is strongest at.
Mankhool · Dubai
The team at Bur Dubai
Bur Dubai is the branch with a heated hammam room, so its team runs the Moroccan Bath and the Royal Hammam package as well as the massage list. Those are different skills from a massage: the black soap has to sit on warm skin before the kessa glove does anything, and the glove takes off more while pressing less. The same team also carries the Hot Stone Massage.
A few lines about this therapist go here: where she is from, how long she has worked with us, and the treatments she is strongest at.
A few lines about this therapist go here: where she is from, how long she has worked with us, and the treatments she is strongest at.
A few lines about this therapist go here: where she is from, how long she has worked with us, and the treatments she is strongest at.
A few lines about this therapist go here: where she is from, how long she has worked with us, and the treatments she is strongest at.
A few lines about this therapist go here: where she is from, how long she has worked with us, and the treatments she is strongest at.
A few lines about this therapist go here: where she is from, how long she has worked with us, and the treatments she is strongest at.
Trade Centre Second · Dubai
The team at DIFC
The DIFC team works from a menu that exists nowhere else in the network, with its own treatment names and its own appointment lengths running from a thirty minute back and shoulder up to two hours. This branch also has a hammam room, so the bath runs here too. Being on floor 45 of a hotel on Sheikh Zayed Road, it takes a lot of guests booking around a working day.
A few lines about this therapist go here: where she is from, how long she has worked with us, and the treatments she is strongest at.
A few lines about this therapist go here: where she is from, how long she has worked with us, and the treatments she is strongest at.
A few lines about this therapist go here: where she is from, how long she has worked with us, and the treatments she is strongest at.
A few lines about this therapist go here: where she is from, how long she has worked with us, and the treatments she is strongest at.
A few lines about this therapist go here: where she is from, how long she has worked with us, and the treatments she is strongest at.
A few lines about this therapist go here: where she is from, how long she has worked with us, and the treatments she is strongest at.
Good to Know
Questions about our therapists
Where are the therapists at Lavana Spa from?+
Our professional therapists come from Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Georgia, Bulgaria and Romania. That is the single fact guests ask about most often before booking, and it is the reason the spa describes what it does as European massage rather than borrowing a name from somewhere else. What it means in the room is a particular training background rather than a particular nationality on the door: long flowing strokes worked along the muscle, oil from the first minute, and pressure adjusted to the person on the table rather than to a script. Every branch is staffed from the same pool, so the accent you meet at reception in Al Barsha and the one in DIFC come from the same recruiting. If a specific style matters to you more than a specific address, say so when you message and reception will tell you who is on that day.
What languages do the therapists speak?+
English and Russian, at all three addresses. That covers the two languages our guests actually book in, and it is why every branch answers Telegram as well as WhatsApp: Telegram is the easier channel for many of our Russian speaking guests, and the reply comes back in whichever language you wrote in. Reception at each branch answers its own line rather than a central desk, so the person reading your message is in the building you are travelling to and can pass on anything that matters before you arrive. Two things worth mentioning in that first message even though neither is required: whether you have a preference about pressure, and whether you react to a particular oil. Both reach the therapist ahead of the appointment rather than halfway through it.
What does European massage mean at Lavana Spa?+
It describes where the technique comes from and where the therapists trained, not a single fixed treatment. In practice it is the family that Swedish and aromatherapy massage belong to: long strokes that follow the muscle rather than short percussive work, oil on the skin from the beginning, and a pace that stays even instead of building to a peak. It is the reason our menu leads with the European Aromatherapy Massage and the Purifying Swedish Massage rather than with anything sharper. The therapists come from Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Georgia, Bulgaria and Romania, which is where that training tradition sits. If you want something firmer than the description suggests, the Deep Muscle Massage is on the same list and the pressure there is worked into the tissue rather than over it.
Which therapists are trained for the Moroccan Bath and hammam?+
The teams at Bur Dubai and DIFC, because those are the two branches with a real heated hammam room and the treatment cannot happen without one. Al Barsha has no such room, so its team works massage only and the bath is not on its menu at all rather than being sold and improvised on a treatment bed. The difference is in the skill as much as the plumbing. A hammam is a sequence rather than a single technique: the room is hot and humid before you go in so the skin softens first, black soap is left to sit and loosen the outer layer, and only then does the kessa glove work, which is why it lifts more while pressing less. If you want the bath and a massage in one visit, the Royal Hammam package pairs them and runs at Bur Dubai.
Does each branch have its own team?+
Yes, and this page is laid out that way for a reason: each address keeps its own rota, its own reception and its own direct line. A time confirmed at one branch is a time with that branch team, and moving it to another address means asking that other reception rather than a head office that then has to check. What the teams do also differs, because the rooms differ. Al Barsha works massage only and stays open the latest, until 1 am. Bur Dubai and DIFC both have a hammam room, so their teams run the bath as well. DIFC works from a separate menu with its own treatment names and its own appointment lengths. Pick the address first and the rest follows from it.
Book with the branch you are going to
Reception can see that day's rota and will tell you who is working before you travel.