Consultation

Consultation:

With any new client a full and thorough consultation must take place before any treatment can go ahead. It is important to make a good impression on the client and to create an air of confidence. This gives the client the reassurance that you are a professional therapist. Clients are often unsure of the treatment’s they actually need, so often ask the advice of their therapist, enforcing how vitality important it is that they trust you, your skill set and knowledge within your qualifications. Consultation is the first stage where the client can see your expertise.

During the consultation there are a number of areas which must be covered, firstly consultation allows us to establish whether the treatment can go ahead or whether it is contra indicated.

Consultation is carried out in a private place where it cannot be overhead, seated next to our client is the most appropriate. All the information obtained should be recorded on the clients consultation card.

If you suspect the client has a condition that you are unsure of always refer her to a GP and where necessary ask for a doctor’s note confirming if treatment can go ahead

The client must be given the opportunity to ask any questions regarding what the treatment involves, every effort must be made to accommodate the client needs however awkward they may seem.

The client should be made aware of any additional treatment costs involved so they are not surprised at the end.

Once you have discussed the clients expectations, agreed a treatment plan and explained the possible reactions the consultation card can be updated accordingly. Obtain, signed and written informed consent from the client prior to carrying out the treatment. This ensures the client has no contraindications to a facial treatment, which including massage and that they are the legal age of consent for treatment

Obtaining signed, written & informed consent

Ensure you client carefully checks, signs and dates the record at the end of the consultation, stating that all the information is true and to the best of their knowledge. It is imperative that the therapist also dates and signs the entry on every client visit, this is also a legal requirement. It is advisable to ask the client to sign and date the statement that they have been given aftercare advice and that they will follow the advice. For example I agree to follow the written and verbal aftercare advice which has been given. Some insurance companies stipulate this as a legal requirement of your policy and in the event of a claim being made against you, if this wasn’t completed it would invalidate your insurance.

Failure to keep up to date, accurate, complete, legible and signed records could result in an unsafe treatment and possibly legal action being taken against you and or the salon.

The information on the clients card should be rechecked every time they visit the salon to ensure record are up to date and there are no changes, for example if a client has stated medication it may affect their skin and make it hyper sensitive to products.

Areas to discuss and/or inspection for a BB Glow treatment:

• Personal details, such as, Name, address, DOB, email address, contact number
• Date, time and cost of the treatment
• Skin type
• Hair type
• Skin conditions
• Allergies
• Medical History
• Medication
• Contraindications
• Equipment
• Aftercare advice

Recording Keeping

A record card should be completed for all treatments and contain confidential personal information about each client that’s specific to each treatment. They should be stored in alphabetical order in a locked metal filing cabinet or box, which should be easily accessible to the therapist when ready to perform a treatment. This information could also be updated on a computer system, but you should be aware of your responsibilities under the data protection act.

The information that a record card/Treatment plan should contain is

Consultation

When greeting the client, it is important we welcome the client greeting them by their name and introducing yourself by name before beginning the consultation.

The consultation is a vital part of the treatment as it is this point you discuss the client’s needs and decide what treatment to carry out to meet these needs. For the client to be satisfied with the treatment you need to know what is expected. As a therapist you must therefore be encouraging to the client to give you this information. You must therefore have the following-

• GOOD COMMUNICATION SKILLS-This not only being verbal but also nonverbal in the form of body language. Examples of good body language is good posture, eye contact, smiling, encouraging head nod
• GOOD QUESTIONING TECHNIQUES- This is vital to retrieve the information that you require to carry out the treatment. Open questionings techniques should be used wherever possible as this encourages the client to give much more information. To ensure a question is open ended began with How, where, when and why etc whereas if you begin a question Do, is, etc, you will only get a yes or no answer which will lead to a one-sided conversation. It is also important that you speak clearly and accurately when caring out the treatment.
• Good Listening Skills-It is important that you can listen to what the client is telling you in order to meet the client’s requirements. This will also make the client feel important and a valued customer.

During the consultation procedure you would:

• Discuss the client’s requirements
• Match a treatment to the client’s needs
• Explain the treatment procedure
• Give the client the opportunity to ask any questions. When replying you should be informative, however do not use technical words, your answers should be concise to prevent losing the customers attention
• Discuss cost, time, frequency and possible course treatments
• In some instance the client will be advised about aftercare, homecare and product purchases which would be necessary. This is to ensure that the client understands the commitment required if a certain result is to be achieved.
• Record card completion
• Checking for contraindications

Click the link below for a sample consultation sheet

enhance me bb glow consultation

The skin analysis is always carried after the superficial cleanse.  The skin can only be diagnosed once all the surface secretions have been removed and the therapist can also make judgements about the skin as she cleanses it.

The client should be semi-reclined and not flat to allow the face to fall naturally.

A magnifying lamp must be used as good illumination and magnification are necessary for an accurate diagnosis.

If the client finds the light too bright, cover the eyes with a folded tissue secured into the sides of a headband or with damp cotton wool discs

Skin analysis is carried out through:

Asking questions, e.g.:

• How do you find your skin?
• What are your main concerns?
• What products are you currently using?

Use the following as a checklist:

• Comedones (blackheads)
• Milia (whiteheads)
• pore size
• wrinkles or fine lines
• broken capillaries
• creepy skin
• shiny oily patches
• dry flaky patches
• skin colour
• skin age e.g. young or mature
• skin texture e.g. fine or coarse
• scarring and pigmentation

Often therapists make notes on face charts to help record the clients’ characteristics on that day.  These can be good to keep a record of how the clients’ skin is changing between treatments.

Skin Analysis: The Fitzpatrick scale

The Fitzpatrick scale (also Fitzpatrick skin typing test; or Fitzpatrick photo typing scale) is a numerical classification schema for human skin colour. It was developed in 1975 by Thomas B. Fitzpatrick as a way to estimate the response of different types of skin to ultraviolet (UV) light.

Skin Analysis: Skin undertone

Every skin has an undertone colour, these are usually separated into 3 categories; cool, neutral or warm.

A simple technique that can be used to establish the skin undertone is to look at the blood vessels in the wrist. If blue and purple colours can be seen then the client will have cool undertones, if the vessels look green or olive then the skin has a warm undertone. If someone has both then then are neutral. Often foundations have these tones and are broken into categories, for example, Mac foundations has NC (for cool), NW (for warm) and N (for neutral)

Undertones will need to be taken into consideration when working out which ampoule(s) will be used for your BB Glow treatment.