The Well is located at 381 South Market Blvd. in Chehalis.
The inside of The Well in Chehalis is seen Friday afternoon.
Karla Nelson, left, and Sarah Willow of The Well pose for a photo Friday afternoon in Chehalis.
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The Well wellness spa in Chehalis was born out of Karla Ann Nelson’s need to take care of her three kids.
Now, 10 years after Nelson started running her own business in northern Washington — and just over a year since that business relocated to Market Boulevard in Chehalis — Nelson’s youngest daughter is getting ready to start working at The Well’s front desk.
“It’s not only helping me, it’s also teaching my children really valuable life lessons in how to deal with and work with people,” Nelson said. “Family is important to me. I don’t have a lot of it, so I really cherish the family that I have. So I really try to make my business very family-oriented.”
Nelson and her family live in the back of the business, located in a house that Nelson bought, gutted and refurbished before officially moving in November 2019.
While state COVID-19 restrictions shut The Well down from February until the middle of May, Nelson said that she has been able to adopt all the recommended health protocols and that business has been good since she was allowed to reopen.
“It’s been actually a blessing,” Nelson said. “It was hard, during that period that we were closed, but I was really able to dial in what we wanted to do with our business.”
Nelson personally specializes in women’s wellness, with nearly 20 years of experience as a masseuse, nine years of experience as a fitness and nutritional coach and seven years of experience as an esthetician. She primarily works with prenatal and postnatal pregnant women and women going through menopause.
“It’s really nice to be able to help women with more than just their muscles and the massage, and help what’s going on with their skin,” Nelson said. “Especially menopausal women and pregnant women. I don’t know what it is, but those hormones really do a number on the skin.”
She also offers waxing services to women, and said there’s high-demand for her Brazilian waxes.
Sarah Willow, who has a little over 10 years of experience as a massage therapist, began working at The Well in January and specializes in targeted medical massage and cupping.
The two work opposite hours, as the Market Boulevard location only has one treatment room; but that limitation turned out to be a benefit when The Well got ready to reopen with COVID-19 sanitation protocols.
“I was already really particular about how I went about cleaning stuff, and the nice thing about my business is that we only allow one client in at a time,” Nelson said.
Cleaning time between each appointment was extended from 10 minutes to 20 minutes to give Nelson and Willow time to thoroughly sanitize the space, and while that reduced the number of clients they were able to fit into a day, Nelson said that limit also turned out to be a blessing.
“It’s actually been really good because I really try hard to give that one on one attention to my clients and really get to know what their needs are … so I can really look at a person and their wellbeing.”
Willow is set to move up from part-time to full-time hours later this year, and Nelson said she intends to hire a third therapist by June.
“It’s the first time I’ve ever had an employee,” she said, “I really want to build a business where I had employees that are valued, that are earning a good wage, that are getting benefits, and so that’s where I’m trying to go with my business, so therapists can come in and know that even in a small town, they can make a good wage and they’re going to get taken care of. I didn’t have that when I first started.”
To learn more about services and to schedule an appointment, visit The Well’s website at thewellcenter.org or call 425-202-5210.
“If you don’t find something online, it’s always good to call — especially for waxing, because oftentimes I do sneak waxing in when I’m working in between my massage clients,” said Nelson.
Official business hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Friday.
More Information on The Well
Owner: Karla Ann Nelson
Location: 381 South Market Boulevard, Chehalis
Phone: 425-202-5210
Website: https://thewellcenter.org/
