GABRIELA ELENA GUG IPHM

GABRIELA ELENA GUG 

My journey into holistic wellness began long before it became my profession. Its roots go back to my childhood and to my grandparents.

My grandparents had a strong connection with traditional wellbeing practices and, over the years, spent significant periods of time in Hungary and Austria, where they had contact with thermal and spa environments. On different occasions, they had opportunities to spend time in these settings, helping, learning, working and deepening knowledge and practices that had already become part of their lives.

As a child, of course, I did not fully understand the importance of what I was witnessing. I simply observed — and I was fascinated.

I remember a home where there was very often someone being cared for. I watched my grandparents work with their hands and with knowledge acquired through experience, tradition and everything they had learned over the years.

My grandfather was a tall, strong man, and I remember being fascinated by the way he worked with the muscles and deeper tissues. But what remained most strongly in my memory was what happened afterwards: people would stand up, smile, embrace him and express how good they felt. At that age, I did not have the words to explain what I was seeing. I simply saw relief, gratitude and human connection. Those images have never left me.

My grandmother introduced me to another extraordinary world: plants, flowers, roots, bark and natural preparations. She taught me to observe nature carefully — that sometimes a flower was selected, sometimes a root, and sometimes the bark of a particular tree. I watched her select, grind and macerate botanical ingredients and prepare traditional poultices.

At the time, these were simply scenes from my childhood. Many years later, when I began studying these subjects for myself, those memories returned with an entirely different meaning. It was almost like watching an old film of my life: images that had remained quietly within me suddenly began to make sense.

For many years, my professional journey took me into another world that was also deeply connected to care, nature, creativity and the senses: gastronomy.

I worked extensively in the culinary field, with a particular passion for plant-based, vegetarian and vegan cuisine, including experience as a chef in different restaurants. I also had the opportunity to create and run my own restaurant in Rome, in the San Giovanni area.

Those years taught me a great deal about people, hospitality, attention to detail and the importance of creating an experience that involves all the senses.

The difficult period surrounding the COVID pandemic meant that my restaurant business could no longer continue as before. Yet what initially seemed like the end of one chapter gradually became the beginning of another.

During that period, I had already begun returning to something that had always remained within me. I started studying again, rediscovering the memories and influences of my childhood and feeling an increasingly strong desire to return professionally to the world of holistic wellbeing.

For me, it was not simply a career change. It felt like a return to my roots.

I chose to study seriously, retrain professionally and transform something that had accompanied me since childhood into a profession of my own. Through professional education and continued specialised training, I developed my practice in massage, holistic wellbeing and Spa & Wellness.

Interestingly, my years in gastronomy have never disappeared from the way I work today. They have become part of my personal approach to wellness and hospitality.

I love creating thoughtful details around the treatment experience — from atmosphere, aromas and botanical elements to natural smoothies, herbal infusions and carefully prepared wellness touches. Where appropriate, these may include a small natural or gourmet-inspired refreshment designed to complete the experience and leave the person feeling genuinely cared for.

I believe wellbeing can engage more than one sense. Touch, aroma, warmth, atmosphere and carefully chosen natural elements can come together to create a moment in which a person is able to slow down, reconnect and simply receive care.

Today, as a Holistic Therapist and Spa & Wellness Practitioner, I bring together the different chapters of my life: the traditional knowledge and human touch I witnessed as a child, my years of experience in gastronomy and hospitality, and my professional training in holistic, massage, spa and wellness practices.

My approach is attentive and personalised. I believe that every person is different, and therefore every wellness experience should be approached with respect, presence and genuine attention to the individual.

For me, this work is not simply a profession. It is something I genuinely love. It represents care, human connection, continuous learning and the privilege of creating a space in which another person can experience a meaningful moment of wellbeing.

Today, becoming an IPHM Accredited Practitioner has a particularly special meaning for me. It represents another important step in a journey that began many years before I could understand where it might lead me.

In many ways, I feel that I have not abandoned one world in order to enter another. Instead, I have brought together the most meaningful parts of my journey into the profession that represents me today — while continuing to learn, develop and honour the roots that first inspired me.