On the work-life balance spectrum, Susie Ellis’s job as spa guru appears to have what burned-out working stiffs hunger for: a job that requires desk time at the spa. A world of lavender-scented eye pillows, Swedish massage, foot soaks, bubble baths and all the chi and Zen a person could ask for.

But despite Ellis’s pleasant demeanor, you can’t help but sense that the woman is a quiet tiger. She has, after all, worked alongside both Arnold Schwarzenegger and Donald Trump. (The Donald, she says, didn’t deliver his now-trademarked “You’re fired,” although he did hear “I quit” from Ellis—merely her decision to rejoin her husband in California after helping Trump launch his first spa at Mar-a-Lago in Florida.)

She’s the head of Luxury Spa Finder magazine and spafinder.com, both global portals to spas and spa trends worldwide. She developed the industry’s first readers’ awards to encourage a global spa dialogue, spearheaded the first directory of spa lifestyle real estate offerings and oversees Spa Finder’s Visionary Awards, given to celebrity gurus like Deepak Chopra. She’s the visionary behind Spa Finder’s Top 10 Trends, making her the default go-to person when the media wants a peek at what’s to come. There’s no rest for the spa guru it seems, as even her staff were on round-the-clock duty for this writer—Ellis’ assistant delivered me backgrounders throughout the weekend and late into the evening. The spa life, it would seem, gives you what it takes to get more done in a day than the average person.

Ellis certainly draws on a long history with the industry. She’s the daughter of German immigrants who took regular jaunts back to the motherland, where the European spa is as much a part of life as corner pubs and football matches. A stint spanning nearly 20 years at the Golden Door spa in California eventually led her to Spa Finder, then a small travel agency. She and her husband purchased it five years ago and transformed it into the global concern it is today.

To remain relevant at a time when environmental degradation, stress, anxiety and depression are dominant themes—according to JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association, between 15 and 30 million Americans will be diagnosed with depression this year—the spa industry needed a shift. Spas have long suffered from a reputation for being playgrounds for the very wealthy and privileged classes. “Years ago, spas were considered places for pampering, where all the elderly women went,” says Ellis. “I remember when we had women in their “pinkies”—pink warm-up suits, with oil in their hair for a week.”

You’ll still see women soaking in milk baths and buffing their nails, but health and wellness is the driving force in the modern spa, notes Ellis. Now, you’re just as likely to find men frequenting the spa as they, too, are beginning to recognize the overall health benefits. Yoga, exercise, meditation and stress-reduction treatments dominate spa menus, all to foster a healthy mind-body-spirit connection.

It’s showing itself on the home front, too. While the restaurant world influenced home kitchen design in the 1990s, it’s the bathroom that has become the focus of attention now. “People were starting to ask: ‘Where can I buy this showerhead; where can I buy this tub?’” says Ellis. “But it’s more than the bathroom. It’s about sanctuary.”

Ellis doesn’t see a home spa in fuzzy slippers and scented candles anymore. Much like an integrated health care regime, a home spa works when it incorporates more than just the bathroom—when exercise, healthy eating, relaxation and therapy are an integral part of home life. Space is set aside for movement and exercise, for meditation and quiet. The kitchen is centered around healthful food—fresh herbs growing on the windowsill, organics in the crisper. Hydrotherapy is found in the bathroom—in fact, the word “spa” is an acronym for sanitas per aquas, or health through water—where baths or showers with contrast therapy (both warm and cool water) have therapeutic benefits. Spa products with good skin care and wellness in mind contribute to an overall sense of well-being.

“If you have addressed all five senses in a very supportive way, you’ll then experience what we call the sixth sense,” says Ellis. “It’s a spiritual transformation, where we gain some insight and something shifts within you.” It’s those spiritual shifts that enable you to see the world in a different light and to then ultimately change it. It may be that the end result of incorporating spa culture into the home isn’t to get more done with your day—it’s to make a difference.