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Few people know as much about burnout as Sarah Bradden, the beauty polymath who has built a 22-year-long career on curing worn-out Londoners.
‘Over the past two years most of my clients have been at their maximum capacity, either physically, mentally or both.’ She tells me this while I’m sitting in her Harvey Nichols treatment room, still feeling elated after my 90-minute session with her. ‘So many people come and see me and don’t know how to verbalise how they feel. It’s not until I tell them how I think they’re feeling that they realise; that’s when the floodgates open. That’s when we can start shifting and releasing.’
So what exactly are we releasing, and how does one ‘shift’ it? Well, put mildly, it is the life-sapping mental and physical drain that comes from the 24 /7 pressure to always be our best, and the guilt we feel when we aren’t.
As for how to rid yourself of it? With Bradden’s ‘healing’ technique, of course. The one that’s on every beauty influencer’s Instagram, and that anonymous royals and A-listers alike are all whispering about. But it isn’t just for likes. It’s the accumulation of six years of training in cosmetic acupuncture, reflexology, reiki, nutrition, LED light therapy and an ‘instinct for energy’. The intensive treatment is Bradden’s life’s work. ‘It’s a 360-degree approach to not only how we look but how we feel. It’s making sure that our body is supporting our crazy lives,’ she says.
In layman’s terms, Bradden’s healing service is a mix of ancient rituals and modern tech, combined in a long, complicated process. First, she asks her patients about their diet, lifestyle, bowel movements, sleep patterns and — for women — period cycles, checks their pulse, then takes a long hard look at the tongue. This, she says, helps her read each patient’s energy and gauge where in the body requires most attention. Betraying me to Bradden, my tongue told her that I needed to improve my tumultuous relationship with bedtime and manage my schedule better.
With my life crises diagnosed, the only thing left to do was treat me. Warm cell-stimulating LED pads were placed on my stomach to activate the area’s healing process. Tubes were poked up my nostrils, shooting activated oxygen up into my airways, where it affects the ‘parasympathetic nervous system, reducing inflammation and revitalising cells’, says Bradden. Then for the scary part, she carefully and painlessly pricks pins in my face and feet ‘to release blockages’, before covering my head in an LED light bath. After 20 minutes she removes the pins and I agree to have my facial contours vigorously massaged; Bradden uses her hands, gua sha massage and jade rollers. Then comes reflexology combined with reiki, eradicating stress from every angle. The result, for me, is much like the feeling of bliss that Gemma Cairney and others are raving about on Instagram: a sculpted, de-puffed face denoting a good night’s sleep and a wave of calm for the foreseeable future.
It’s easy to dismiss non-clinical and ‘energy’ remedies. But for Bradden, this healing ritual has offered a very real solution to her own personal burnout, brought on by stressful stints as an air hostess and in several marketing jobs, plus a tricky separation. ‘I was in and out of hospital,’ she explains. ‘I had abscesses all over my face and then they thought they were going to have to take my intestines away. I looked and I felt like a physical wreck.’ As it turned out, these were the symptoms of stress. As almost 600,000 of us suffered from work-related stress in 2018, perhaps it’s worth taking a punt on a person who really knows a thing or two about burnout.
