Unlocking ancient art of Pirtis (Lev1 Hungary)

Date: 2025-09-02, 10:00
Organizer : Lithuanian Bath Academy

Unlock the ancient art of Pirtis: your professional sauna journey begins in Hungary with cooperation with Homo Faber. 

Are you ready to transform your passion for sauna into a profound skill? In a world searching for authentic wellness, the ancient traditions of the Lithuanian pirtis offer a path to deep healing and connection. We invite you to step into the steam and begin a transformative journey with our intensive Bathmaster Level 1 Plus program—a comprehensive 4-day immersion designed to build the complete foundation for the modern sauna professional.

This is not just another short course. It is a powerful, hands-on experience, rooted in centuries of Lithuanian tradition and guided by the International Bath Academy's most experienced masters. This unique program combines two foundational pillars—Bathmaster Level 1 and Saunaguide Level 1—into one seamless learning experience. Whether you dream of guiding transformative group rituals or mastering the therapeutic art of individual treatments, your journey starts here.

This course is for the aspiring professional who wants to lead with confidence and for the dedicated enthusiast who seeks to deepen their personal practice to a level they never thought possible.

From the photoarhives of Lithuanian Bath Academy

Your 4 day learning journey

Day 1: The ABC of Lithuanian Pirtis – mastering your own experience

Your journey begins with the essential principles of a healthy, conscious sauna. Guided by a master practitioner, you will be introduced to the holistic four-fold structure of a traditional Lithuanian pirtis. You will learn not just the rules, but the feeling—how to listen to your body, trust your senses, and master the fundamental rhythm of heating and cooling that is the heart of all safe and effective sauna work.

Day 2: Introduction to the Bath Master's craft – working with steam & plants

Today, you step into the role of the practitioner. You will learn to work with nature’s most important tools: steam and plants. We will move beyond theory into the ancient bodywork art of leaf whisking, understanding the whisk (vanta) not just as a bundle of leaves, but as an extension of your intention. You will perform your first treatments, culminating in a deeply relaxing and nourishing honey application, learning the foundations of compassionate touch and care.

Day 3: The Art of light whisking – technique, rhythm, and flow

Building on the previous day's foundation, you will now refine your technique under the guidance of a top Bath Academy teacher. This day is dedicated to mastering the most effective and elegant whisking techniques. You will learn how to move with purpose and grace in the hot room, transforming simple movements into a flowing, therapeutic dance that can be adapted to any individual. This is where craft begins to transform into art.

Day 4: The Sauna Guide – leading with confidence

On the final day, your focus shifts from personal skill to guiding others. You will learn the essential principles of group facilitation, understanding how to create a safe, inclusive, and meaningful experience for a diverse group of people. We will cover the basics of microclimate control, group whisking techniques, and how to design and lead short, impactful sauna rituals. You will leave not just with skills, but with the confidence to hold space for others on their wellness journey.

This intensive program is your initiation. It provides the essential, foundational skills from which all higher levels of mastery—be it as a Sauna Guide, Sauna Healer, or Sauna Master—are built. Step forward and claim your place in a global community dedicated to the authentic art of sauna.

Themes covered

• Basis of bathing techniques
• Bodywork of the back

  In this practical theme, we learn the basic techniques of gentle body touch and massage. Soft, relaxing touch is included in all basic sauna techniques and treatments - light bathing, body scrubbing, and massage. The skills on this topic will benefit further training that are included in the Professional Sauna Therapist training program.

  Skills developed in the workshop

  • Preparation for bodywork, laying a person down
  • skin stroking
  • warming rubbing
  • oiling the skin
  • working on the deeper subcutaneous tissue
  • ergonomics and safety of movements
  • effective transverse work
• Healthy steam bath procedure

  The first practical theme(topic) of the Bath Masters course  is the Healthy Sauna Procedure. It is dedicated to learning about a healthy, bioresonant sauna. During the sauna, we go through a complete sauna procedure consisting of 4 stages:

  • introductory warm-up
  • sweating stimulation
  • Soaking in the steam and self-bathing

  This workshop is essential for those wishing to continue their studies and further their knowledge, but it is also available simply to try a healthy sauna treatment in a good sauna (often with a good gourmet sauna stove).

• Holistic whisking

  A practical theme to learn and test the work of a sauna master. The first steps towards a new profession take place in a safe environment, in a good sauna, with the help of an experienced trainer. This topic is usually taught in the form of a sauna evening (a practical session in the sauna), during which the teacher introduces and demonstrates the main points of practical work in the steam room and the students try it out in practice. In this way, they have the opportunity to test themselves as future sauna practitioners and get a better idea of the level at which they would like to learn the sauna trade.

  
  A student washes clients body in a steam room for the first time.

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  This theme has additional information available only to logged in users.
• Self whisking

  Important theme and one of major aspects of sauna education that is very often neglected by even prominent bath mastership teachers. Yet it is even more complex then whisking other person.

  This theme covers

  • initial warming of the feet
  • enhancing blood circulation
  • self massage with whisks
  • self whisking of shoulders, sides, back
  • ergonomics of self whisking
  • different postures: sitting, laying
• Whisking techniques

  
  Dry training  - individualized teaching of effective movements

  We teach a student the basics of warming: to warm the client's body safely and evenly and gradually cool him so he can safely and calmly leave the hotroom without the supervision of a bath master. Such treatment can also be performed as a full bath procedure in cases when the client is tired and wants to rest and relax.

  Content of the training:

  1. Basic whisking movement clacification
  2. Contactless techniques
  3. Light superficial techniques
  4. Warming of the underskin and muscles

  We work with small group and provide individual training.

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Rimas Kavaliauskas & Birutė Masiliauskienė - experienced international steam bath mastership coachers and instructors.