Now Open: EQ Is the New South Melbourne Spa with a Rotating Roster of Semi-Guided Wellness Treatments

Most Melbourne spas tend to set up cool spaces full of wellness technologies and then simply leave you to choose your own adventure. You're free to relax and escape however you like.

But learning how to best use these wellness tools can be daunting for those who might be new to the spa life. It's like visiting a gym for the first time and trying to use all the machines on your own — you're just not going to get the most out of your workout.

This is why the team at EQ, a new wellness space in the Domain Precinct, is changing things up.

Open Wednesday–Sunday, EQ is home to a hammam, sauna, rain room, ice-cold plunge pools, a social lounge, and a light and sound therapy dome. But the team here hasn't just built a wellness playground for stressed-out folks to run wild within.

Instead, it's curating seasonal three-hour semi-guided wellbeing and spa experiences designed to address specific wellness needs. It's like a classic workout split at the gym — you're not visiting EQ to magically fix all your problems in one go, but rather, there will be a different focus every few months. The first of these experiences is called Welcome Chaos, and is said to help you find and create calm within your hectic life.

But how does this actually work in practice? Well, guests get three hours to explore the facilities in a specific order, working through each of the rooms like a circuit training class. They will move through the light and sound therapy dome (the colours and soundscape will change for each experience), a series of hot and cold therapy zones and the rain room, plus participate in communal mediative breathwork.

There will also be an educational room that's meant to give guests the tools needed — like basic breathwork and meditation skills — to create and sustain healthy wellness habits at home. For the EQ team, the spa acts as a circuit breaker to stress, which is why guests are encouraged to make long-term changes for their physical and mental wellbeing even after the session has finished.

Once the next seasonal campaign begins at South Melbourne's EQ, you'll be invited to return and work through a different mind and body program.

And even though there will be a prescribed order to EQ's wellbeing experience, you are free to go rogue and move through the space however you like. If you just want to lay in the hammam and dip in the plunge pool, go for it. But the semi-guided aspect is what makes this wellness site so special. It would be a shame to totally abandon it.

EQ is located at 22 Kings Place, South Melbourne, open 9am–8pm, Wednesday–Sunday. For more information and to book a session, head to the wellness venue's website.