More than a facial.
A ninety-minute treatment that combines traditional Chinese facial techniques with the cranial and abdominal release work of Gentle Release Therapy. The story of how it came to be, what it draws on, and how it works.
How EnerQi came to be.
For years I noticed a pattern. Women would happily justify the money for nails, lashes, gel brows. They could always find the budget for what the world saw. But ask them about regular sessions for the work that would actually support them, and the answer was often that they couldn't afford it. Their own health and wellbeing played second fiddle to how they presented themselves to the outside world.
I had trained in Facial Rejuvenation Acupuncture before I founded Gentle Release Therapy, and it never sat quite right with me. I would put it on my treatment list, take it off, put it back. Something about the protocol-led approach didn't fit how I work.
Their own health and wellbeing played second fiddle to how they presented themselves to the outside world.
Over the years, we noticed that clients often looked brighter after a regular Gentle Release session. Skin softer, eyes clearer, the whole face a little more itself. Just before the pandemic, I started to wonder what would happen if I built on that, by combining the Gentle Release techniques I had been using for years with a luxury facial and a few of the traditional Chinese facial tools. I tried it on a handful of clients. The results, even after one treatment, were beyond what I had expected. The skin, yes. But also the things Gentle Release Therapy has always supported: stress, anxiety, menopause symptoms, aches and pains.
EnerQi is what came of it. The branding and the language took longer than the work itself.
Helen Robinson
Founder, Gentle Release Therapy & EnerQi Facial Rejuvenation
Two pieces of work, held in one ninety-minute treatment.
Traditional Chinese facial techniques.
Tools your skin knows the language of. None of them new (some are centuries old), all of them used with a slow, deliberate hand. Intuitive and gentle.
- i.Dermal rollerAcu-pressure, for muscular tension.
- ii.Jade rollerFor lymphatic flow.
- iii.Gua shaFor the fascia.
- iv.Facial cuppingFor circulation, tone, and the reduction of fine lines and puffiness.
The Gentle Release work.
This is the part most facials do not include. Cranial release at the head and jaw, where the muscles of the face hold the day, the month, the years. Abdominal organ release on the belly, where deeper tension settles.
Both held softly. Both deeply restorative. Both the reason EnerQi changes the face from the inside.
The face holds what the body holds.
A clenched jaw remembers a hard year. The eyes show how the sleep has been. The skin glows or doesn't depending on how much qi is moving through it.
The Gentle Release work that runs underneath EnerQi softens the nervous system. It allows the muscles of the face, the jaw, the shoulders to let go of patterns they have been holding for months or years. It supports the lymphatic and fascial systems the facial tools are also working on. It gives the body permission to rest, which is when most of the actual change happens.
Even on its own, a Gentle Release session tends to leave people looking brighter and more alive. EnerQi adds the facial work that builds on that.
There is no protocol of three strokes here, ten strokes there. Each treatment is paced to you.
When I created the treatment, I expected it would take ten weekly sessions to do its work. The results after the first one I gave changed my mind. There is no fixed expectation now. Some clients come for a course of weekly or monthly sessions, looking for deeper change or release. Some come monthly to support hormones, perimenopause, or the menstrual cycle. Others come when they feel like it. Whatever the rhythm, the changes (in skin, in sleep, in the way you feel inside yourself) tend to deepen with time.
The visible changes vary, person to person.
After a single session, most people see a difference. Deeper changes reveal themselves across a course of weeks. Below are three clients who agreed to share their before and after.
Tricia
I felt a real sense of age flowing away. The brightness had returned, crow's feet and anxiety lines on my forehead were diminished, as were the lines around my chin.
— Tricia
Katie
My complexion was so much fresher and healthier looking. Less blemishes, with a more even skin tone. I started to see facial benefits after the first session. Lines around my eyes had gone, but after 4 to 6 sessions there was the greatest change.
— Katie
Liz
My face appeared fresher, lighter and brighter.
— Liz
Alongside the visible changes (and often more striking to the people who book) are the changes that do not show in a photograph. Sleep deepens. Hot flushes ease. Mood settles. The body softens into something nearer to itself.
We are all unique individuals and results will vary.
For the work most facials don't reach.
Most of the people who book are women. Some come during perimenopause or menopause, looking for support with hot flushes, sleep, mood, anxiety, brain fog, and the way the face changes through this phase of life. Some come through their cycling years, with the tension that builds across the month, with period pain, with the rhythms of the body that have stopped feeling settled.
Perimenopause & menopause
Hot flushes, sleep, mood, brain fog, and the way the face changes through this phase of life.
The cycling years
Tension that builds across the month, period pain, the rhythms of a body that has stopped feeling settled.
Long-held stress
Tension carried in the head, the jaw, the neck, the abdomen, and skin that has gone dull because of it.
Others come because the year has been a hard one, and they want a ninety-minute hands-on treatment in a culture that does not often allow for that. I use this work in my own family, including for my daughter's period pain and the rhythms of her cycle. The work is not single-use. It is something the body can rely on.
EnerQi is not advised immediately after surgery, within three weeks of Botox, or within six weeks of dermal fillers. If you have an acute or active condition on the skin of the face, or are not sure whether the treatment is right for you, please get in touch and we can talk it through.
