What is perineum smoking – and should you try it?

I’d only booked in for a massage, but as I walk towards the cozy treatment bed, my therapist Shilpa Vadlamudi gently steers me towards a corner of the room: “First, we smoke your perineum,” she says quietly. My perineum? Smoked – like a salmon? We all know about Gwyneth Paltrow and her vaginal steaming, but that’s LA; this is a little village in Oxfordshire.

I sit in apprehensive silence – surely I’ve misheard? – as Shilpa lights a small lump of resin as though starting a barbecue. “We burn Black Storax to energize and frankincense to calm and purify,” she explains. Energize what, exactly? The smoldering resins are placed in a bowl, which is then put in what looks like the crate my organic vegetables are delivered in.

“Please remove your underwear and sit on the box,” asks Shilpa, as she lifts up the towel covering it, revealing a round hole through which a wisp of smoke appears. “And please keep it covered, or you could set off the smoke alarm,” she adds, before leaving me to smoke alone. A heady waft of frankincense fills the room, giving it a festive holiday feel (this takes fragrance layering to a whole new level), but to be honest, that’s all I ‘feel’, as the smoke is room temperature.

In fact, there’s no sensation whatsoever – or at least, not yet. But as I sit, breathing deeply as instructed, a profound sense of relaxation comes over me; Black Storax promotes sleep, I later discover. I try to bring my perineum into mental focus, but it’s not an area I often think about or, I realize, have ever seen. Known as the Earth Chakra, it’s said to be the center for grounding and strength, but mine just feels, well, normal. Fifteen aromatically scented minutes later and I’m done.

“Traditionally, it’s an Indian Ayurvedic treatment for new mothers,” explains Denise Leicester, an experienced holistic therapist and founder of Ila Spa and products, who runs excellent retreats around the world. “After giving birth, women have this medicinal smoking treatment every day for six weeks; the frankincense is anti-inflammatory while the Black Storax is calming and good for insomnia, but overall it’s about gathering back energy and strength.’”

The perineum is also apparently “a very strong psychic area” – according to Ayurvedic medicine, the treatment is also used to give more energy to those who characteristically move fast and have a lot of vitality but can get exhausted or burnt out.

While experiencing nothing beyond a lovely feeling of calm relaxation at the time, over the next ten days I get a definite dull, heavy ache in exactly the spot that was treated, a feeling I’ve never had before or since. Leicester reassures me that this could be a symptom of ‘letting go’ – of what, though, I have yet to discover.