No. What this treatment works with is the physical side of a nervous system that's stuck in a stress response — disrupted sleep, muscular tension, restlessness, difficulty switching off. If you're managing a diagnosed mental health condition, this sits alongside that care and does not replace it. If you need mental health support, please speak with your GP or a registered mental health practitioner.

Sleep is one of the specific things reviewed at every visit, and points are chosen with it in mind. Response varies from person to person, and nobody can promise you a particular night's sleep. What you can expect is that if sleep isn't shifting, it gets discussed and the approach changes rather than repeating.

They work on tension held physically — through the neck, shoulders and upper back, where a lot of stress ends up sitting. They're used where clinically appropriate rather than in every treatment, and you'll be told before either is used.

It can. Cupping often leaves round marks where the cups sat — they're not bruises in the usual sense and they're not painful, but they can be visible for several days. If you have an event, a shoot or a beach weekend coming up, say so and we'll leave it out or work somewhere less visible.

Usually more frequently at first, then spacing out as things settle. How quickly that happens depends on how long the pattern has been running and what's driving it. It's discussed at your first appointment and revisited as you go.

Sixty minutes, beginning with a full Chinese medicine consultation and pattern diagnosis — your sleep, your stress load, where tension sits, and what a typical day and night look like. Treatment is then individualised to that assessment, and may include gua sha or cupping where clinically appropriate. Where Chinese herbs are appropriate, they're prescribed to your pattern, following traditional use.