Given that new research shows women have a mere 21 hours a week to themselves, that precious time has to be totally worth it (does catching up on episodes of Orange Is The New Black count?). Especially when it comes to being a bit indulgent and booking in for a beauty treatment. We’re so squeezed for time juggling jobs, home and family life that an hour in a dimly lit spa room has to be much, MUCH more than mere facial prodding and blackhead removal.
 
Nowadays, our busy and often tired selves need – and desperately want – a beauty treatment that will go above and beyond the physical effects. Something that will recharge the batteries and possibly even touch the soul. Or not quite, but you get the point. A treatment that will lift the spirit and leave your mind completely rebalanced and peaceful.
 
Thankfully, the very best therapists across town are all too aware of this and are consequently offering up some of the most brilliant treatments there have ever been. Uber-facialist Marie Reynolds is just one example, and her healing, intuitive manner is as much a part of a treatment with her as the lifting massage technique itself. ‘My treatments are based on the concept of noetic science. This means I work on the tri-effect that thoughts, emotions and the physical all interact with one another. The physical is not detached from the mental or emotional, they are as one.’
 
Marie’s wise words resonate don’t they? She went on: ‘The mind can be our curse or our cure. All our emotions are reborn from what our thoughts breed which in turn causes stress in the body. My treatments start with a series of questions that release a physical response that is not intrusive but may touch a nerve. Mental exercises, visualisation and breathing techniques are just as important to calm the analytical mind as they are for the physical touch in all therapies.’
 
Feels like an explanation ALL therapists should go by, though not all do. In fact, it's really quite hard to find a 'Marie' who will approach all aspects of your being during a treatment. But from time to time, this is what we all need.

Read about the soul-moving therapists in the gallery above and the mind-blowing treatments they perform.