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Pam Peretz first experienced Thai massage near a beach in Bali, Indonesia, when a sign advertising the massage's two-hour-long session caught her eye.

For those two hours, Peretz felt like she was getting a massage combined with a chiropractic session, and she was sold on learning the technique herself.

In May and June, the Steamboat Springs day spa owner spent eight hours a day, six days a week studying Thai massage technique with a group of about 65 students at a massage school outside Bangkok, Thailand. She started offering the technique at All Season Wellness Day Spa earlier this month.

During her two-month course in Thailand, Peretz spent her time studying and practicing in formal classes, and she spent additional time practicing the 102 steps involved in Thai massage with her fellow students after hours, she said.

"Needless to say, when I came home I felt like a noodle," Peretz said.

Thai massage is done on a padded floor mat, with the client wearing sweats or other loose-fitting clothes. There's no massage oil involved, and the two-hour session includes stretching, Peretz said.

Each room at All Season Wellness is themed for a different season of the year, with massage tables in the rooms colored for spring and summer, a floor mat for Thai massage in the harvest-tinged room for autumn, and an aesthetician's setup in a white room related to winter. The spa offers services including Thai massage, Swedish massage, deep tissue massage, hot stone therapy, body scrubs, European facials, waxing and wraps.

Massage therapy wasn't Peretz's first career path. She spent more than two decades in marketing with Mattel Toys before moving to Steamboat Springs from the Los Angeles area in 2005.

"After 22 years with Mattel Toys, I was feeling a little burned out, and I knew I was too young to call it quits and retire," Pam Peretz said. She'd thought for years it might be nice to work in a day spa. In 2003, that thought crept closer to the front of her mind. In 2005, it took over.

"I think a lot of it was brought on because I was in such a stressful environment in corporate that I wanted the second part of my life to be a more relaxing and calming environment," she said.

Peretz spent 18 months completing her initial training as a massage therapist, signing up in California and finishing the course at Colorado Northwestern Community College in Craig. She opened her first day spa, A Calming Touch, with her husband, John, as a business partner about three years ago, she said.

"Getting into a lifestyle of health and wellness as opposed to corporate stress has made a significant, positive impact on our lives," John Peretz said.

All Season Wellness, the second branch of Peretz's Pamper Group spa business, opened earlier this month. Pam and John Peretz plan to open two new branches of the business - a house-call massage service called Allstar Mobile Massage and a nail salon called Artistry Nail Spa - in the coming months. They also plan to offer services in Aspen, Vail, Winter Park and Breckenridge this winter, John Peretz said.