Sculpt

Mostly no. The laser is a cold laser and you feel only warmth. The radio frequency is comfortably hot.

Two things you will feel. The cavitation wand presses into the fat as it works, which reads as firm pressure rather than soreness. And the vacuum on the thighs can be uncomfortable — closer to a deep tissue massage than to pain. It is intense while it is happening, it stops the moment I lift off, and I can always bring the suction down.

The other thing people mention is the high-pitched sound during cavitation — but that is a sound, not a sensation.

A larger area runs about an hour, a smaller one about half. Add a few minutes either side for the consultation, the photographs and settling you in.

There is no downtime at all. Nothing to recover from, nothing to hide. Go back to work, go out to dinner — in fact, please move: a walk or a sauna afterwards genuinely helps the clearing along. The only thing worth knowing is that vacuum therapy can leave temporary marking on the legs, so if you have a beach day in the next few days, tell me and we will plan around it.

Often the same day, where we have used cavitation and your body answers well. You then keep changing for three to six days afterwards as your system clears what was released.

Skin tightening is the slow one. Collagen is built rather than moved, so radio frequency keeps working for up to eight weeks. If loose skin is your concern, patience is genuinely part of the treatment.

Probably not much — and that is not a failure, it is the wrong instrument.

This works in inches, not pounds. Fat cells are emptied rather than removed, so what changes is your shape and your measurements. The number on the scale can sit exactly where it was while your waistband tells a completely different story. If you weigh yourself the morning after and feel disheartened, you are measuring the wrong thing.

Measure. Do not weigh.

Most people need a series of three. Some see what they wanted in one. Others — particularly where hormones or fibrous tissue are involved — need longer and see less, and I would rather tell you that now than after you have paid for six.

Where a course is right, we work twice a week for up to four weeks, then take a full week off to let the lymphatic system reset.

Give yourself four to six weeks if you possibly can.

The arithmetic is straightforward: a series of three, spaced three to six days apart, with each session’s result landing three to six days after it. Skin tightening is still developing for weeks beyond that. Start six weeks out and you arrive at your event with all of it behind you.

Cellulite is the one to plan furthest ahead for. It changes through collagen and lymphatic drainage rather than fat release, which is slower work — the best of it lands at around eight weeks. If smoothing the legs is what the event is really about, start there rather than at six.

Start two weeks out and you will see the first session and very little else. Better than nothing, but not what you were hoping for — so if there is a date, tell me on your intake and I will build the schedule backwards from it.

A minimum of 72 hours between any two, and three to six days before the same area is treated again. That is not caution for its own sake — it is the time your body needs to actually eliminate what we released.

Yes. Hormones are not a reason to be turned away. But they do change what your results look like, and I would far rather tell you that now than have you lying there at day three wondering why yours look different from somebody else’s.

Where hormones are involved, three things tend to be true. Results show at five to seven days rather than the same day. The before-and-after is often less dramatic, even when the treatment has worked properly. And I space your sessions a minimum of a week apart rather than three to six days, because your system needs the extra room to clear.

That is a slower result, not a lesser one, and it holds just as well once it arrives. Tell me on your intake what you are working with — PCOS, thyroid, perimenopause, hormone therapy, whatever it is — and I will build the pacing around it rather than around an average.

Yes. There is no reason to postpone.

Do expect to be a little more tender that week, and to be holding more fluid than usual, so the result can read as muted until it passes — it catches up. And if you are on your cycle during or just after treatment, keep the water going for two days beyond the end of it rather than stopping at six.

Results from non-invasive body sculpting are temporary — but temporary covers a great deal of ground. Depending on how they are maintained, they can hold anywhere from months to years.

Emptied fat cells can fill again. Whether they do comes down to your aftercare, the occasional maintenance session, and how you live in between — far more than to anything my machine does on the day.

Nothing here is permanent, and I would be careful of anyone who tells you otherwise.

This part is genuinely half the treatment. A gallon of water a day for three to six days. No alcohol the day before or for three to six days after. No greasy food. And sweat if you can — a walk, a sauna, anything that moves you.

If you are on your cycle during or just after treatment, keep the water up for two days beyond the end of it.

Neither. Eat normally and keep your coffee. All I ask is that you arrive well hydrated and skip alcohol the day before.

Nothing is invasive, nothing breaks the skin, and there is no recovery period. But it is not for everyone, and there are people I will not treat.

Tell me beforehand if you have high blood pressure, high blood sugar or high cholesterol, heart disease or a pacemaker, if you are pregnant, if you have had surgery or given birth in the last three months, if you have vertigo or find high-pitched sound difficult, if you are breastfeeding, or if you are living with or recovering from a serious illness. Psoriasis and eczema can flare, since the area is worked continuously.

One that people are understandably shy about, so I will say it plainly: if you have had silicone or any non-medical injections in your buttocks, vacuum therapy cannot be done there. That is a firm no rather than a wait, and it is worth telling me even if you would rather not.

That last one matters more than it may appear. This treatment asks something real of your body afterwards — your liver, your kidneys and your lymphatic system spend the following days processing and clearing what was released. If your system is already carrying a heavy load, whether that is cancer treatment, an autoimmune condition in flare, liver or kidney disease, or recovery from anything significant, this is not the moment to hand it more work.

None of that is a permanent no. It is usually a question of timing, and of a conversation with your own doctor first. I would far rather wait with you until your body has the capacity to make good use of it.

Most of the rest means we adjust or we wait, not that the door closes. The intake form asks properly, and I read it before you come.

Straight from the contraindications I was trained on, there are three groups — and only the first is a flat no.

Not at all: if you are pregnant or trying to conceive; if you have heart disease, a pacemaker or a defibrillator; if you are in active cancer treatment; or, for vacuum therapy on the buttocks specifically, if you have had silicone or any non-medical injections there.

Not yet — we wait: if you have given birth in the last three months; if you have had surgery in the last three months, or any surgery in the area we would be working; or if you have open wounds or are still recovering from a procedure.

We talk first, and usually we adapt: high blood pressure, high blood sugar or high cholesterol; vertigo or difficulty with high-pitched sound; psoriasis, eczema or reactive skin, which can flare because the area is worked continuously; liver or kidney conditions, an autoimmune condition in flare, or recovery from any serious illness; breastfeeding; epilepsy; metal implants, plates or an IUD; and blood thinners.

The intake form asks all of this properly, and I read it before you arrive. If something on it needs a conversation, I will call you rather than leave it until you are on the table.

It depends on your goals and on how your fat is distributed. Where there is still fat sitting under the loose skin — which is more often the case than people expect — tightening on its own simply gives you tighter skin over the same shape. There we work all three steps, with the balance weighted toward radio frequency.

Where there is genuinely very little fat left and it is skin alone, radio frequency by itself can be exactly right. That is a judgement I make once I can see and feel the area, and it is part of what your consultation is for.

Only with your permission, and taken level with the area so they show the truth rather than a flattering angle. They are stored privately, for your record. Whether they are ever shared publicly is a separate question, asked separately, and always yours to decline.

Something you are comfortable being treated in — you undress to the area we are working on and are draped throughout. If we are working on your stomach, please take out any belly button ring beforehand.

Sessions are cash, collected at your visit. Pricing lives inside the members' area with everything else.