AGE GENTLY

I’m Hannah, a Complementary Therapist based in Bromley, London. I believe in a woman’s right to age in whatever way she chooses, but it saddens me when women feel pressurised into having aesthetic cosmetic treatments. I understand though, before I began using Gua Sha I definitely considered them too.

I am here to suggest another path, to guide you towards a kinder acceptance of ageing and also, fundamentally, to help you make the connection between how internal health (physical, mental and emotional) is reflected in our external appearance.

I had been searching for a ‘beauty’ treatment to add to my holistic offering for nearly a decade when I found Facial Gua Sha. As a former magazine Health & Beauty Director, I had a wealth of knowledge about anti-ageing treatments but none resonated with my ethos as a Women’s Wellbeing Reflexologist and Facial Reflexologist working with the body on a layered, holistic level.

My treatments are not ‘classic’ facials, they are an expression of working with the physical and energetic movement and health of the skin and body to create visible, immediate results both in the way clients look but also in the way they feel.

Skin is nourished, radiant and more contoured and there is a sense of being drained of tension, lifted from within and at peace. At 48, I genuinely feel good about growing older and normalising ageing. I enjoy sharing the unfiltered, real-life results of my practice on Instagram.

Beyond the mirror, my hope for you is that through Gua Sha you will come to learn self-compassion for ageing, gain self-awareness surrounding your own wellbeing and be inspired to learn about and experience Traditional Chinese Medicine practices.

Facial Gua Sha treatments can be booked at The Goose Green Clinic in East Dulwich, South East London. To book an online Gua Sha Self-Care Lesson click here.

I’m glad you’re here and I’m excited to share this skin-tissue energising treatment with you: I know it’s transformative and not just superficially so. My regular routine has made a significant difference to my complexion’s health and vitality and brings mindfulness, stress reduction and allows small pockets of self-care to just ‘be’.

Although Gua Sha is often referred to as an ancient beauty secret on social media, treatment listings and in the press, it isn’t a trend recently rediscovered by Western practitioners and beauty therapists. It is instead, a healing and preventive medicine that has been carried by East Asian people for generations and is still widely used in families and by practitioners today.

Stone medicine and forms of Gua Sha date to the Palaeolithic era where it was employed as an easily accessible folk medicine for all. Aesthetic facial use is believed to have evolved over time amongst Chinese aristocracy and royalty.

It is difficult to pinpoint the precise journey of Facial Gua Sha from East Asia to the Western world, but in the 80s/90s TCM practitioners began teaching their understanding and evolvement of Facial Gua Sha in the U.S, initially to acupuncturists and later beauty therapists.

Without a level of understanding about Gua Sha as a whole, we scrape only the surface of its inherent wisdom. I invite you to learn more about Gua Sha below. My treatments encompass both Traditional Facial Gua Sha, Body Gua Sha and Gua Sha Facial Fusion, an integrated holistic skin health and facial massage method.