Sauna Rituals, Aufguss, and Thermal Experiences
Badii’s founder, Sarah Spoto is a certified Sauna Aufguss Master and Connecticut’s first. Rooted in European bathing culture and shaped by modern wellness practices, her work as an Aufguss master blends heat, storytelling, and sensory experience. She creates sauna rituals designed to help guests slow down, reconnect with themselves, and experience the transformative power of sauna.
Trained in both the UK and Germany-based sauna traditions, she is certified through the Anada Wellness Sauna Foundation program and the Deutsche Sauna Akademie Sauna Meister course, which focused specifically on sauna science, ritual design, and guest experience and was hosted under the guidance of sauna leaders Nate Daubert, Alycia Wong, and Grace Edmunds.
Today, Sarah works as a freelance and guest Aufguss master across the Northeastern United States, bringing sauna rituals to bathhouses, wellness spaces, festivals, and cultural events. You can find Sarah regularly leading sessions at DRYPP Sauna in New Haven, CT and Hideout Sauna Club in Stamford, CT. She has also hosted rituals at KOS Sauna — New York’s first floating sauna.
Sarah’s recent appearances include the first-ever Vermont Sauna Festival, NYC’s first sauna village hosted by The Culture of Bathe-ing, and the Great Northern Festival in Minneapolis. She is also competing in the 2026 U.S. Aufguss National Competition in the Show Aufguss category.
Whether in an intimate sauna setting or at a large-scale cultural event, Sarah’s ritual approach centers on creating experiences that are immersive, welcoming, and guest-centered.
Experience a Ritual
Want to know where Sarah will be hosting Aufguss next?
Join the newsletter for upcoming sauna rituals, guest appearances, workshops, and thermal bathing events across the Northeast and beyond.
Bring Aufguss to Your Space
Sarah partners with bathhouses, saunas, wellness retreats, festivals, and hospitality brands to create memorable thermal experiences for guests.
Available offerings include:
Guest Aufguss residencies
Signature sauna rituals
Festival programming
Wellness events and collaborations
Educational workshops
Custom sensory experiences
If you’re interested in bringing sauna rituals to your space, let’s connect.
Upcoming Retreat
Thermal Retreat with Kathryn Flaschner of The Truth Is
This October, Badii is co-hosting a retreat in upstate New York alongside Kathryn Flaschner from the Truth Is podcast.
Reconnection to self is the prerequisite for aligned action in a world and system that was not designed with everyone in mind — and that, for many, is no longer working as promised. In 2025 alone, more than 455,000 women exited the U.S. workforce, not because of a lack of ambition or capability, but because the cost to their well-being, values, and sense of self was too high. That data point reflects a broader truth: many people are quietly stepping back from systems that demand too much and give too little.
This retreat is not about serenity for its own sake or ambition for its own sake. It is about creating the conditions to return to yourself — so you can move forward with clarity, integrity, and agency.
What we’re gathering for:
To slow down and hear what’s true
To acknowledge what’s no longer working
To name the gap between who we are and the life we’re living
To rekindle self-trust
To experience community as a corrective to isolation
To leave with a grounded sense of where you are and what comes next
More details will be announced soon.