MY LIGHT BULB MOMENT

Skincare expert Eve Lom EvE Lom, 67, is the original ‘superfacialist’, with an A-list clientele. Eve launched the high-end cosmetics company that carries her name in 1985. Divorced, she lives in London and France.

WHEN I sold my bestselling skincare range in 2000, I continued as a facialist. I was one of the first therapists to pioneer a facial with lymphatic drainage, but I sensed there was more I could do with the body as a whole.

A few years after the sale, a lady in her mid-50s came to see me. While I was tucking her into the treatment bed, she explained about the lower back pain she had been enduring for the past five years.

As I moved my hands gently over her ankles and feet, I felt an extraordinary sensation. My hands were glued to her legs until they started lifting up off the bed and curling into a lotus position.

As I worked, she explained the terrible ordeal of giving birth 30 years ago to a breech-position baby.

Not only had she endured a painful labour, she had felt humiliated, ashamed and guilty when the doctor urged her to keep pushing as he had a date that night.

At this point her body was ready to go through what we call a ‘somato-emotional’ release. Tearful feelings, painful emotions that were buried 30 years ago poured out of her. The lady went home exhausted, her pain dissipated. It was my lightbulb moment. In my late 50s, I became a student again.

I began to study craniosacral therapy, a form of very gentle manipulation of the head, neck, spinal cord and tailbone, which helps to detect and correct imbalances in the body.

While I still offer my classic facials from a spa in London, I get very excited by the way I’m able to help people with chronic aches and pains.

EvE Lom is based at Agua spa at the sanderson Hotel, 020 7300 1414.