Programme 1 of the Thermalist® Recovery System
The Thermalist® Method
Science-backed contrast therapy, run the same way in every room. Offered by venues and Independent Guides.
Built on Dr. Susanna Søberg's published research. She has trained more than 300 Guides in more than 25 countries. Every session is led by a Thermalist® Guide, trained online and then in person with Dr. Søberg in Tylösand, Sweden.
Independent Guide training: 3,500 EUR. Applications are reviewed as they come in.
Inside the Thermalist® Method
Narrated by Dr. Søberg and filmed with Thermalist® Guides in the heat and the cold.
What the Method is
Contrast therapy, done the same way every time.
Contrast therapy means moving between heat and cold: time in the sauna, then cold water, in rounds. People use it to recover after training, to handle stress, to sleep better and to feel more awake in their own body.
Most places offer a sauna and a cold plunge and leave guests to work it out. But how long, how hot, how cold and in what order changes what the body gets from it.
The Thermalist® Method is a standardised contrast therapy session built on the research behind the Søberg Principle. It runs for one hour and follows the same protocol every time.
The protocol matters as much as the Guide. The protocol sets the dose. The Guide leads the group through it safely, in their own voice with the track carrying the timing, or alongside Dr. Søberg's recorded guidance.
The protocol is the standard. How it is guided is individual. A first-timer and someone with years in the cold don't need the same session, so Guides learn to read each person's adaptation level and lead the room from there.
Men and women don't respond the same way either. Most of the research on cold and heat has been done in men, and the Method doesn't ignore that gap. Guides learn how the menstrual cycle and life stages such as perimenopause and menopause can change how a woman responds to heat and cold, and how to guide her with that in mind.
The Method builds tolerance to cold and heat through graded exposure, with breathwork guiding each step. That's why every venue and every Guide starts here.
Two ways to offer it
One Method. Two ways to offer it.
At your venue
For contrast therapy studios, spas, clinics and clubs. Your venue runs Thermalist® Method sessions for guests and members, under a licence to the Thermalist® Recovery System.
Your own team trains as Thermalist® Guides, at least two per venue. Your Guides can join the next training in Tylösand, Sweden, or Dr. Søberg comes to your venue and trains your team there. Venue visits are limited each year.
You get a session your guests can book, the session tracks with music licensed by Thermalist®, ready-made marketing material, new tracks every six months, and a place in a network of Thermalist® Guides across many countries.
Apply as a venueAs an Independent Guide
For Guides without a fixed location. You run Thermalist® Method sessions in saunas hired by the session, at events, on retreats and with outdoor communities, under an Independent Guide licence.
If you later take a fixed location, through a job, an agreement or a venue of your own, the licence moves to a venue licence.
You get the session tracks with music licensed by Thermalist®, ready-made marketing material, new tracks every six months, and a place in a network of Thermalist® Guides across many countries.
Training: 3,500 EUR, including 18 hours online, six live online classes and three days in Tylösand, Sweden. Hotel and travel not included.
Apply as an Independent GuideAs a Thermalist® Guide
Who you become.
You lead the room
You take a group through a full hour of heat, cold and breath, calmly and safely, from the first round to the last.
You read each person
You see where each person is in their adaptation, and you can guide a first-timer and a seasoned winter swimmer in the same session.
You can explain it
You know what happens in the body in the heat and in the cold, and what the research does and doesn't support. You say what's true, and nothing more.
You're part of a network
You join a network of Thermalist® Guides across many countries, with new tracks every six months and new research shared every other month.
In their own words
Thermalist® Guides on the training
See you in SwedenWhat you learn
Built by a scientist. Taught in the room.
The Thermalist® Method was created by Dr. Susanna Søberg, a metabolic scientist with more than 15 years of research behind her. Her research on cold and heat exposure is published in Cell Reports Medicine, and she has taught the Method for four years to Guides in more than 25 countries.
The protocol and the dose
Why the order, timing and temperature of each round matter, and the research behind the Søberg Principle.
Reading adaptation
How to see where each person is, and how to adjust your guiding while the protocol stays the same.
Women and men
How sex, the menstrual cycle, perimenopause and menopause change the response to heat and cold, and how to guide with that in mind.
Breath and the room
How breathwork carries each step, and how to hold a group through an hour in the heat and the cold.
Safety
How to screen the people you guide, what to watch for, and what to do when someone needs to stop.
What to say, and what not to
What the science supports, what is oversold, and how to explain the difference to the people in your session.
Who leads it
Dr. Susanna Søberg
Metabolic scientist and founder of Thermalist®. She created the Thermalist® Method and leads the in-person days in Tylösand, Sweden, herself.
- PhD, University of Copenhagen. More than 15 years of research in metabolism and how the body responds to cold and heat.
- The Søberg Principle. Her research on contrast therapy, published in Cell Reports Medicine in 2021.
- Published in Cell Metabolism.
- Author of Winter Swimming, published in 14 languages, and of Hop i havet and Thermalist in Danish.
- Four years of teaching the Method to more than 300 Guides in more than 25 countries.
Becoming a Thermalist® Guide
Learn it online. Practise it in Tylösand, Sweden.
01 Apply
Venues and Independent Guides apply through separate forms. We review each one. If you are accepted, you get a link to book your place online.
02 Online
18 hours of self-paced video on the science behind the Method: cold, heat, breathing and meditation. Then six live online classes with Dr. Søberg, one a week from 1 February to 8 March 2027, where we discuss each module and get to know each other.
03 Tylösand, Sweden
In person on the Swedish west coast, where everything comes together. You train the full session in the heat and the cold, as a group, with Dr. Søberg, as a nervous system regulation protocol.
04 Start guiding
Back home, you get the session tracks and ready-made marketing material. The music in every track is licensed by Thermalist®, so you can start running sessions straight away. New tracks arrive every six months.
Every other month we meet online to share new research and talk through what Guides are seeing in their sessions.
Tylösand, Sweden
Three days in the heat and the cold.
Once you have completed the online education and the live classes, you join a small group for three days of theory and practice with Dr. Susanna Søberg.
- Practise the Method. You lead the full Thermalist® Method session yourself, in the sauna and the cold, until it is second nature.
- Ask the hard questions. Time with Dr. Søberg to work through anything you are unsure of before you guide on your own.
- Meet the network. Train alongside Guides from all over the world.
- Pass the test. The in-person days end with a test in the Thermalist® Method, so you start guiding knowing you are ready.
The aim is simple: that you can guide a safe, science-backed session with confidence. The Method is built on more than 15 years of research and practical work in physical and mental health.
The next group meets on 12-14 March 2027. Spots are limited, and applications are reviewed as they come in. The detailed programme is sent once your place is confirmed.
What you get
Everything you need to guide the Method.
- 18 hours of online education. The science and knowledge behind the Method, at your own pace. The modules cover cold exposure and contrast therapy, heat exposure and contrast therapy, the power of healthy breathing, and meditation.
- Six live online classes with Dr. Søberg. One a week, from 1 February to 8 March 2027, following the modules. We go through each module together, discuss it, answer your questions, and you get to know the rest of your group before we meet in Sweden.
- Three days in Tylösand, Sweden, with Dr. Søberg. Everything comes together. You train the Thermalist® Method in the heat and the cold as a nervous system regulation protocol, and finish with the test.
- The Thermalist® session tracks. Music licensed by Thermalist®, so you can run sessions from day one. New tracks arrive every six months.
- An audio-led session in Dr. Søberg's voice. The option to run the Method with Dr. Søberg guiding from the recording while you hold the room.
- Recorded Thermalist® sauna meditations.
- Ready-made marketing material. Images and wording to share your sessions as Thermalist® Method sessions.
- Online meetings every other month. New research, and what other Guides are seeing in their sessions.
- A yearly refresher.
- A network of Thermalist® Guides across many countries.
The Thermalist® Method is Programme 1 of the Thermalist® Recovery System. Programme 2 is on its way.
Practical information
Plan your trip
Where
Hotel Tylösand, Sweden, on the west coast just outside Halmstad.
When
Once your place is booked: 18 hours of online education, at your own pace.
1 February to 8 March 2027: six live online classes with Dr. Søberg, one a week.
12-14 March 2027: Tylösand, Sweden. We meet at the hotel at 13:00 CET on 12 March and finish at 17:00 CET on 14 March.
From 15 March 2027: you start guiding.
Spots are limited, and applications are reviewed as they come in.
Before you arrive
Complete the online education: 18 hours of video. It is self-paced, so you can fit it around your work.
From 1 February to 8 March 2027 you join six live online classes with Dr. Søberg, one a week.
Your stay
You stay at Hotel Tylösand, Sweden. Rooms include breakfast and access to the hotel spa.
Once your place on the training is booked, you get the Thermalist® Guide room price: 170 EUR a night for a single room, 238 EUR for a double. How to book at that price comes with your programme.
What we ask of you
Every Thermalist® Method session is led by a trained Thermalist® Guide with a valid first aid certificate, runs on the Thermalist® tracks and protocol, and is marketed under the Thermalist® name.
You confirm each of these in your application.
Travel
You arrange your own flights and transfer. The nearest airports are Halmstad and Copenhagen, and trains run from Copenhagen to Halmstad.
Many Guides travel in from abroad and arrive the day before or stay an extra night. Book whatever suits your flights.
What to bring
Warm clothing, swimwear, a swim robe, and swim shoes if you like them.
Language
The training is in English. Groups bring Guides from many countries together. Back home, you guide in the language of the place where you offer sessions.
Price
Independent Guide training: 3,500 EUR. This covers the 18 hours of online education, the six live online classes and the three days in Tylösand, Sweden. Hotel and travel are not included.
After the training you guide under the Independent Guide licence, 59 EUR a month from 15 March 2027, which gives you the session tracks, the marketing material and the online meetings. If you are accepted, you get a link to book your place, paid in full or in two instalments.
Venues, small and large, are welcome. Guide training is priced together with your venue licence, and the price is always set to the size of your venue. A science-backed method should be within reach of every kind of venue, at the same quality everywhere.
Questions
Before you apply
No. You pass a test in the Thermalist® Method before you start guiding, but nobody leaves as "certified", because the word suggests you're finished. A Thermalist® Guide keeps learning, keeps the training when changing jobs, and can use it wherever a Thermalist® licence is held.
Thermalist® Guides trained by Dr. Susanna Søberg, at licensed venues and as Independent Guides. Thermalist® Master Instructors assist Dr. Søberg in training new Guides.
Thermalist® is a registered trademark in the EU, the UK, the US and Australia. Only Guides trained and licensed by Thermalist® can offer sessions or training under the name. If you're unsure about a session or a trainer, get in touch.
About 18 hours of video, at your own pace. On top of that come six live online classes with Dr. Søberg, one a week from 1 February to 8 March 2027, before we meet in Tylösand, Sweden.
Dr. Søberg trains you until it clicks. In Tylösand, Sweden, you practise the Method until you are confident with it, and you learn what to say, and what not to say, according to the science.
No professional background is needed. The online training comes first, and your application tells us where you are starting from.
Yes. You need a valid first aid certificate before you can offer the Thermalist® Method.
Yes. The training is in English, but you guide in the language of the place where you offer sessions.
Yes, once a year. On top of that, every other month we meet online to share new research and talk through what Guides are seeing in their sessions.
A sauna, a cold plunge or cold water, sound that reaches both (portable speakers or installed surround sound), and floor space next to them for breathing and movement.
No. Sessions run on Thermalist® tracks, and the music licence is held by Thermalist®. New tracks arrive every six months.
Not in the same way. The protocol is the same for everyone, but how it is guided depends on the person: their adaptation level and, for women, where they are in their cycle and life stage. Learning to guide with that in mind is part of the training.
12-14 March 2027. Spots are limited, and applications are reviewed as they come in.
The Independent Guide licence is for Guides without a fixed location. If your business would run the sessions, apply as a venue.
Tell us in your application. We'll go through what applies to you, so you can offer the Thermalist® Method and the programmes that follow.
Apply
Start offering the Thermalist® Method.