Sauna as healthcare at the 2025 British Society of Lifestyle Medicine Conference, Brighton

This September, Dr Kath Jones (Founder, Wild-Ness Health & NHS GP) and Polly Wilson (Social Prescribing and Outreach Manager, Community Sauna Baths) represented the UK sauna-for-health movement at the 2025 Annual Medical Conference of the British Society of Lifestyle Medicine (BSLM) in Brighton. They presented From Clinic to Sauna: Fostering Synergy for Whole Person Care, introducing GPs, health professionals, and conference delegates to the idea that sauna use can play a meaningful role in integrative, whole-person care.

Their presentation, From Clinic to Sauna: Fostering Synergy for Whole Person Care, explored how sauna use can play a meaningful role in supporting whole-person wellbeing — bridging community practice, prevention, and restorative health. Drawing on emerging research, clinical insights and lived experience from community sauna projects across the UK, Kath and Polly shared how sauna supports both physiological resilience and human connection — two key ingredients in sustainable health. If you’d like to hear the presentation for yourself, Dr Kath Jones will be sharing it again in our free webinar.

During the conference, Kath and Polly also engaged one-on-one with many practitioners — sharing the science, answering questions, exploring pilot ideas, and encouraging medical professionals to find their nearest sauna to set up a collaborative sauna-for-health projects.

Show and tell: GPs experience authentic sauna for themselves.

On the Thursday evening of the conference, Beach Box Sauna Spa — a pioneer in the UK sauna movement — hosted a special session exclusively for attending GPs. Guests experienced an authentic Nordic-style sauna evening complete with traditional rituals, guided cooling dips, aromatherapy infusions, and conversation around the fire. For many, it was their first encounter with sauna beyond the gym or spa context, and a vivid demonstration of how heat, nature, and community combine to create a restorative environment for both patients and practitioners.

What is BSLM and why does it matter?

The British Society of Lifestyle Medicine (BSLM) is a membership organisation and independent UK charity dedicated to promoting the role of lifestyle medicine in preventing, managing, and, where possible, reversing chronic disease.

Lifestyle medicine is an evidence-based clinical discipline that emphasises supporting behaviour change (rather than relying solely on prescriptions) across the siz pillars of wellbeing: mental health, nutrition, physical activity, sleep, social connection, and minimising harmful substances.

Each year BSLM holds a flagship conference that draws together clinicians, educators, researchers, innovators, and patients. This year, it ran from 18 to 20 September at the DoubleTree by Hilton Brighton Metropole. The theme this year was balancing the science and the art of clinical care — how evidence-based practice can coexist with empathy, creativity, and whole-person understanding.

BSLM offers a unique forum for rethinking how medicine is done — less about “fixing disease” and more about nurturing resilient, thriving human beings.


Continuing the Conversation

If you’d like to hear more from Dr Kath Jones and explore how sauna can support the coaching-based, whole-person approach she champions, join her and Gabrielle Reason, Director of the British Sauna Society, for a free online event:

From Clinic to Sauna: Fostering Synergy for Whole Person Care
Wednesday 29 October 2025, 18:30 (London time) — Zoom

Hosted by the British Sauna Society

Learn more & register
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