WOMEN’S HEALTH

WIDENING THE LENS

As the conversation around health shifts towards whole-person care, Vicky Eldridge asks what a more holistic approach to aesthetic practice could look like and how practitioners can support patients without stepping beyond their scope.

When the Princess of Wales completed the National Three Peaks Challenge in June, her achievement made headlines for obvious reasons. But alongside the physical feat was a wider message about health and recovery.

Reflecting on her own experience of cancer, Catherine spoke about the impact of serious illness across every dimension of life: physical, emotional, psychological and spiritual. She also highlighted the importance of holistic healthcare and of supporting people beyond diagnosis and medical treatment alone.

This is a conversation that extends far beyond oncology and one that has been increasingly shared within the aesthetics space. We are beginning to realise that health and ageing are not about isolated concerns. That, to get the best outcomes, we need to think about the whole person rather than take a fragmented approach.

Sleep, stress, nutrition, movement, and hormones can impact everything from energy and confidence to skin, weight, sleep and emotional resilience. Aesthetics has traditionally been about treating the endpoint – the way these things manifest as ageing in the skin – but now clinics are focusing more on the root cause and how to optimise outcomes by supporting patients across these key pillars of health.

EMBRACING CHANGE

So how do aesthetic clinics embrace this movement without stepping outside of their scope of practice?

For some clinics, it may involve formal training in lifestyle, functional, or integrative medicine, diagnostics, or women’s health. But embracing a whole-person, holistic approach doesn’t have to mean ordering complex blood panels, interpreting hormones, or adding a lengthy menu of wellness treatments. Nor does it mean an aesthetic practitioner attempting to act as a nutritionist, psychologist, physiotherapist or menopause specialist without the appropriate qualifications.

Sometimes it starts with a better conversation during the consultation.

How is the patient sleeping? Are they under unusual stress? Have they recently experienced a major life change? Are they moving regularly? Do they smoke? What is their relationship with alcohol? What is their diet like? Have they noticed other symptoms alongside the aesthetic concern they are presenting with?

None of this makes the underlying issue the aesthetic practitioner’s responsibility to treat. But ignoring the wider context may mean missing information that is relevant to treatment planning, expectations and patient wellbeing.

TALK ABOUT THE FOUNDATIONS

Sleep is an obvious place to start. Rather than promising that better sleep will transform an aesthetic outcome, you could start by explaining that sleep forms part of the broader environment in which the body functions and recovers.

The same applies to nutrition. Advice should remain appropriate to training and scope, particularly where a patient has medical conditions, suspected deficiencies, disordered eating or complex dietary needs. However, general conversations about eating a varied diet, consuming adequate protein and avoiding extreme pre- and post-treatment restriction may be relevant in many settings.

Stress and nervous-system regulation have also become prominent wellness topics. Simple practices such as breathing exercises, tapping or meditation may help some people create moments of calm, reflection or emotional regulation. Depending on the clinic, that could mean making the treatment environment feel less rushed, allowing adequate consultation time, encouraging a patient to breathe slowly before a procedure or signposting to appropriately qualified support.

It might also mean practitioners exploring practices for themselves before deciding whether they have any place in their patient journey.

Movement is another area where aesthetic practice can broaden the conversation without becoming an exercise clinic. Regular physical activity is associated with physical function, cardiovascular and metabolic health, mood, confidence and maintaining independence as we age. Yet for many women, particularly during periods of hormonal transition, the language of exercise can become yet another stressor: burn more calories, fix your body, lose weight, just work harder.

A more supportive conversation may focus on finding movement that is enjoyable and sustainable.

That could mean walking, dancing, strength training, swimming, yoga or simply rebuilding confidence after a period of illness, pain or inactivity. The practitioner’s role is not to prescribe exercise beyond their competence, but they can challenge the idea that movement only “counts” when it is intense.

This is one of the ideas being brought to life at PAUSE Live 2026, at the Convene Sancroft, St Paul’s, London on October 10. Broadcaster and longstanding advocate for active ageing Angela Rippon says, “The body is a machine, and like any other machine, if you don’t keep all those moving parts moving, they seize up. Treat your body like a machine and make sure that you keep everything moving.

“Dance is the finest exercise you can do for the health and wellbeing of your mind, your body and your social connections. If you stop looking at dance as just wonderful entertainment and start thinking of it as moving to music, then it becomes one of the best forms of exercise you can possibly do.

“Nobody is ever too old to dance. Think of going to a dance class as making an investment in your wellbeing pension plan.”

AVOID TURNING WELLNESS INTO ANOTHER TO-DO LIST

One thing worth noting is that, as wellness becomes more commercialised, patients are increasingly presented with long lists of things they are told they must do to be healthy: track sleep, count steps, meditate, cold plunge, take supplements, optimise glucose, journal, strength train, walk 10,000 steps and follow a perfect morning routine.

Nobody is ever too old to dance. Think of going to a dance class as making an investment in your wellbeing pension plan.

For someone already overwhelmed, this can become another source of stress. A truly holistic approach should be individualised and manageable. Patients don’t need to start biohacking every inch of their lives. It could start with not looking at their phone before bed or getting out in daylight before switching on their devices in the morning.

Master holistic health/life coach and wellness expert, Lauren Vaknine, who is one of the speakers at PAUSE Live 2026, says: “What the wellness world itself is often failing to understand is that getting someone who is already overwhelmed with life to follow another protocol or to-do list is not just illogical, but also irresponsible. While our nervous systems are dysregulated (this could be due to the general demands of modern life, irrespective of adding in further traumas or illnesses), the human brain will not allow us to adopt new measures, because it will see this as distracting us from surviving, which is what the brain thinks is a priority while we are operating from the dorsal state.

“If we want to support people in becoming healthy, we must do two things: first, support them in regulating their nervous systems so they are no longer operating from fight or flight, and subsequently the brain will start making space for new methods and protocols, and secondly, encourage them to introduce things back into their lives that give them joy and pleasure – for many people something that is last on the list of priorities. Remind them that creativity and joy allow our nervous systems to feel safe, and from this space of feeling regulated, calm and joyful, we can start looking towards deeper healing.”

BUILD A TRUSTED REFERRAL CIRCLE

If you are not sure where to start when it comes to offering health and wellness advice, perhaps the most helpful step you can take is to accept that you cannot provide everything.

You don’t need to become a nutritional therapist to build a relationship with one. You don’t need to manage menopause, pelvic health, complex weight concerns, mental health, or musculoskeletal problems if these sit outside your competence.

Depending on the clinic and patient population, a trusted network might include GPs, menopause specialists, registered dietitians or nutritional therapists working within appropriate boundaries, physiotherapists, psychologists, counsellors, personal trainers and other regulated or suitably qualified practitioners.

Signposting patients to events where they can find community and get support can also help. Midlife women navigating menopause can sometimes feel anxious about getting out there. By displaying leaflets, stickers or flyers for supportive and trusted local or national health and wellbeing events, you can help guide them towards support. Attending these events may also be beneficial to you and your team to find out more about holistic and wellbeing practices.

FROM CORRECTION TO SUPPORT

Aesthetic clinics will always be a place where people come seeking visible changes to their appearance but perhaps the opportunity now is to see treatments as part of a wider picture.

Aesthetic practitioners do not have to become experts in sleep, stress, hormones, or nutrition, but understanding how these factors coexist and impact ageing may be an important part of treating the person in front of them.

PAUSE Live takes place on Saturday, October 10 2026, at Convene Sancroft, St Paul’s, London. For more information and tickets, visit pauselive.com.