By Colleen Gundlach
Photo by Bruyce Frisch

Imagine relaxing in a sun-drenched room overlooking the hills and valleys of Norfolk while a trained therapist works on revitalizing your spirit and relaxing your body. Soft music envelops the room while you recline in soft white linens. This is the reality to be found at Mountain View Green Retreat now that their spa services are officially open to the public. 

When Wendy Roberts and her husband, Mike, opened the resort close to a year ago, they looked forward to adding spa services to the offerings of the Mountain View. This year they followed through with this promise after remodeling a cozy room on the third floor of the inn into a sanctuary of peace and quiet, devoted to holistic healing. 

Bio-magnetic therapy, massage, reiki and facial rejuvenation are some of the services available to the community—staying as an overnight guest at the resort is not required. All spa services are available to the public and are staffed by licensed therapists from the local area, including Norfolk massage therapist Eileen Fitzgibbons. 

Spa participants can take advantage of services ranging from an express massage designed to relieve tension from body parts (such as neck and feet) to a full hour-long Swedish relaxation massage or deep tissue massage. The bio-magnetic treatments are described as a natural, painless and noninvasive means of healing, targeting the root cause of pain and disease.

Meanwhile, Roberts and her staff continue to provide a home away from home for travelers and locals alike. One Norfolkian is staying at the retreat while her house is being restored after a fire. Cars in the parking lot have license plates of many different colors—people who have come not only to spend the night but also to take advantage of a breakfast made of locally sourced, organic foods, prepared to order. In keeping with the environmental commitment of the retreat, most of the leftovers are fed to animals at a Northwest Corner farm.

When the retreat was first opened, people came to Norfolk for an event such as a concert at Yale or Infinity Hall and found Mountain View in a search for a place to stay. Now, however, “we are finding that people are coming to Mountain View Green Retreat because they have heard about us by word of mouth or on our website,” she says. “People come here and ask me what there is to see and do in the area.” Mountain View has become a destination in itself. “People often book an extra day just to relax and enjoy their rooms and this town,” says Roberts.

Looking ahead, Roberts is working on opening a restaurant as well. She is still working out the legalities and other details, but hopes to be able to offer dinner at the retreat in the near future.

While running the Mountain View is a full-time endeavor, Roberts still has time to focus on her other business, Five Elements Robotics, currently located in Winsted. Five Elements builds personal or socially adaptive robots such as a nanny robot, a robot that will carry things for you, one named Rosie (remember the Jetsons?) and shopping cart robots, currently in the works with WalMart. She is hoping to move the business to Norfolk in the near future. “We would be open for people to work interactively with the robots, and schoolchildren could come and have some hands-on learning time about robots and robotics,” she says. She hopes to be able to move forward with this by the end of the year.

In the meantime, appointments for the spa at Mountain View Green Retreat can be made by calling 860-542-7941 or by email at proprietor@mountainviewgreenretreat.com. For more information on the available services or the rooms available, go to their website at mountainviewgreenretreat2.com.