At Healing Waters Mind & Body Float Studio, putting a lid over a swimming pool isn’t only good for pulling a prank on the swim team. At the center, this experience involves floating atop 10 inches of warm, sterilized water mixed with 850 pounds of healing Epsom salts. The sessions completely quiet all stimuli, depriving the senses for an experience the owner Lisa Kay Lopez called life-changing. Sensory deprivation’s benefits include improving focus and creativity, alleviating pain, and decreasing anxiety. Committed to helping people get the most out of the float-tank experience, Lisa keeps the studio open seven days a week and allows 24-hour service by appointment.

Her staff preps clients for each float with prefloat therapy, which begins with an introduction to flotation and a session on the inversion table; in a private room, clients are situated at an inverted angle, which helps circulate blood flow and oxygen, and clients are given headphones that softly play binaural beats to synchronize brainwaves into a state of relaxation. After 20 minutes, guests rinse off in their own private shower, which is stocked with shampoo and conditioner, body wash, and towels.

Clients then enter the tank, deprived of sensory input including light, sound, smell, and gravity. Afterward, they can relax with a cup of tea or lemon water in the studio’s relaxation room and reminisce about their watery therapy session or the first time they actually drank 64 ounces of water in one day.