We are so excited and delighted to announce that we have now moved to our new city clinic on Quay St, closing the doors to the Britomart clinic one last time last Wednesday, after 11 incredible years. When we moved from our second floor locations in Vulcan Lane and Albany to street frontage in the Britomart Precinct back in April 2013, we were making a statement that we were bringing cosmetic medicine out of hiding and into the mainstream. With significant changes in the industry over the last 5-6 years, we have now chosen to return to our private and luxe roots and go back to the second level, this time with a fabulous view of the harbour.
This stunning new clinic has nine treatment rooms, three more than the Britomart clinic, and we are excited to be launching some exciting new treatments over the next few weeks and months!
We are thrilled to introduce Emsella into our intimate wellness treatment portfolio. This innovative treatment can significantly improve your pelvic floor strength without any invasive procedures or downtime. Simply by sitting on this innovative chair for a series of sessions, you can experience improved bladder control, reduced urinary incontinence and improved sexual performance. It’s quick, comfortable and effective, and you can even leave your clothes on! Using the same technology as our EmFace®️ treatments, it’s fully backed by clinical studies, so we are confident it’s safe and effective. It works really well alongside the O-Shot®️, P-Shot®️ and Thermi-Va®️ to help reduce bladder leaks and improve sexual function.
After a lot of research and trialling different machines, we have finally landed on Exion as our new RF needling device. If you are a fan of skin needling for the improvement in skin texture and skin tightening, RF needling takes things to the next level by introducing radio frequency energy through the needles, boosting the effects of collagen stimulation, wrinkle reduction, skin tightening and that fabulous ‘glow’.
The most commonly recognised RF Needling device is Morpheus 8, but when we trialed it, neither Lauren nor I could complete the full treatment, despite a hefty wallop of numbing cream!! The Exion uses AI to modify the energy going through the microneedles, making it both more comfortable and more effective as the AI personalises the treatment to your skin.
In addition to RF needling the Exion offers a body applicator which uses RF (without the needles) to reduce fat and improve body shaping. We also have a few more fun surprises up our sleeve, so watch this space!
If you’re wondering of ways to financially access all these new treatments, you’ll be pleased to know that we have finally started accepting AfterPay at the clinic! I have personally resisted this move for a really long time, as ethically I don’t believe people should go into debt for medical treatments, but there has been such demand that we have decided to offer it. We do listen! 😹 We will still continue to offer our prepayment service My Face Plan which has no attached fees or risk of going into debt – we set up this initiative during the GFC to help our patients access treatments without having to pay significant sums of money in one go – it’s the digital equivalent of the ‘Botox sock’ that many of my patients used to come in with when I first started – the little ‘stash of cash’ for extras that was ferreted away!
I’m super proud of Lauren and Queza who recently spoke at a fundraiser for Gumboot Friday based around managing menopause and peri-menopause. Lauren talked about how menopause affects the skin and how to manage it, while Queza spoke about our suite of intimate wellness treatments, which can help with the genital symptoms of menopause such as dryness, discomfort, pain and atrophy of the tissues, as well as urinary incontinence (leaky bladder). You can read more about it in Queza’s medical update this month!
If you’re noticing your skin changing with the winter weather, it’s worth popping your eyes across this month’s skin update where we discuss which products might be worth exploring. It’s worth checking in with your skin therapist as well, they can properly assess your skin and make tailored recommendations to get you optimal results.
I opted to escape the winter weather (although I’ll soon be back in the thick of it) and head to Bali for a friend’s 40th. With my regular trips to Bali I have a small crew of wonderful Bali friends, so took the opportunity to bring them together for the first of my 50th birthday celebrations 🥳 Yes, I’m 50 this year! I’m a huge believer in celebrating birthdays so am planning 5 key events this year in the places that call my soul and where the majority of my friends are! This month, I’ll celebrate my second 50th with my friends in the Gold Coast after attending a conference there (see below) and then I have celebrations in New Zealand and Mexico to plan later in the year. I’ll be heading to Mexico with my brother in November to celebrate our mum’s 70th, so it will be a good time to celebrate with family 🥰 My actual birthday will be in the Galápagos Islands – a bucket list place that I’ve wanted to go to since learning about it as a kid!
While in Bali, my friend Piper and I went away to a beautiful rustic Balinese retreat in Sidemen for a few days to work on our book proposal for the next book in the series, Grow Younger With Great Sex. Dr Piper Grant (when called by her official title) is a respected clinical psychologist with a special interest in sex therapy. She is the perfect person to co-create this book, with an incredible depth of knowledge on the psychology of sex and pleasure, which perfectly complements the medical/physical and treatments perspective that I come from. We finished the proposal and feel super proud of it – now to find the right publisher!
Just like with my adventures and travels, as a team we are always learning, growing and exploring new opportunities and this month we have several members of our team from both skin and medical attending the ASAPS Non-Surgical conference in the Gold Coast! Last week Queza was selected by Allergan to attend a regional learning event in Thailand for the 10 year celebration of the Allergan Medical Institute.
I’m proud to be a faculty member for Allergan, providing training in Botox and Juvederm for both beginners and experienced injectors. I’m also super proud of TFP Academy and the outstanding training that Marjorie recently provided at our popular Hyalase Workshop. We have the Vampire Academy coming up later this month with just a couple of spaces left, and a ‘Grand Round’ style session on complications next month. Last year the complications session was extremely well received, as it’s an opportunity for clinicians both from our clinic and externally to present their challenging or interesting complications in a safe space, and for everyone attending to learn in a supportive environment. It‘s also a great way for clinicians to brush up their clinical presenting and research skills, as each attendee submits an interesting case, examines the recent research around it and then provides a summary on how they might manage a similar issue in the future, now informed by the research. It’s a format loosely based on the hospital Grand Round presentations that I always used to gain so much from when I worked in the hospitals. Our attendees last year gained as much from the process of putting their cases together as they did from the shared presentations and it was a unique and very highly rated as a learning experience.
Wow, so much great news this month! We can’t wait to see you in our new Quay St clinic, please do come in and check it out!
As always, we are grateful for your love and support, it inspires us daily to grow and get even better.
Love and hugs
Dr Cat 😻💕🤗
