About Fundamentals

A legacy of care.

Fundamentals Relaxation Spa has cared for Metro Detroit clients since 2000. Over the years, the location has changed, the service menu has evolved, and the wellness industry has grown—but the heart of Fundamentals has remained the same: creating a welcoming place where people can step away from the pressures of everyday life, relax, and feel genuinely cared for.

Our original promise was simple: Inner peace. Outer beauty. It reflected our belief that caring for yourself should support how you feel on the inside as well as how you look and move through the world. More than 25 years later, that philosophy continues to shape everything we do.

A spa with the character of home.

Fundamentals is intentionally intimate: three treatment rooms, three experienced therapists, and a setting designed to feel more like being welcomed into a comfortable home than entering a large resort spa.

Our Pleasant Ridge location occupies the lower level of an early-1920s family home on Woodward Avenue—a house where generations were raised and whose character still shapes the experience. You will not find marble hallways or grand fountains. You will find a clean, comfortable space with warmth, history, and a team that knows its clients.

That smaller setting allows us to provide personal care without the noise, scale, or formality of a large spa. It is part of why clients tell us that being at Fundamentals feels like being at home.

A business that became personal.

Our owner, Katrina Michele, began her journey with Fundamentals as a massage therapist. Through hands-on work with clients, she learned that people rarely arrive with only one concern. The tension in someone’s shoulders may be connected to how they work, how they sleep, how they move, or how much time they have allowed themselves to rest.

After becoming deeply involved in the spa’s operations and client experience, Katrina acquired Fundamentals in 2008. As her studies expanded into health coaching, nutrition, aromatherapy, skincare, and holistic wellness, the spa evolved with her.

Today, Fundamentals brings those areas together to offer care that considers the person—not simply the service on the schedule.

The Fundamentals experience.

A Fundamentals appointment begins with listening. We want to understand how you feel, what your days demand from your body, and what you would like to receive from your time with us.

Throughout your service, we communicate, adjust, and pay attention. Massage techniques, stretching, warmth, aromatherapy, skincare products, and other supportive elements are selected according to your service and your individual needs. When appropriate, we also offer practical aftercare recommendations to help you continue caring for yourself after you leave.

We are not here only to perform a service. We are here to partner with you in your wellness and help you make feeling better part of how you live.

Experience that works together.

Our core team has worked together for more than 14 years. That longevity has created a shared understanding of the Fundamentals standard and how we care for each person who walks through our doors.