Posted 1st Sep 2021

How To Find An Aesthetics Mentor

An aesthetics mentor can be invaluable when it comes to learning technical and practical skills. One of the added benefits many practitioners find is also gaining industry and business insights from established injectors.

Mentorships can further your learning in all areas of practice. The one-to-one training is personalised to your specific needs and skill level, which allows you to become a fully-rounded aesthetics practitioner. It can also support you in finding and mastering a specialism on which to build your reputation when starting out.

Here are some tips from the Harley Academy faculty on how to find an aesthetics mentor to bolster your confidence and knowledge, as well as your injecting techniques.

USE EXPERIENCED AESTHETICS MENTORS AND LEARN FROM AS MANY AS YOU CAN

Dr Kalpna Pindolia, director of education at Harley Academy, aesthetics specialist at STORY, advises:

Recommendations from experienced and respected practitioners help you improve your whole approach to aesthetics.
Use experienced mentors that are well qualified and keep up-to-date. If there’s a specific practitioner you’d love to learn from, ask them if they are available for mentoring.
Feel free to switch it up – you don’t have to stick with one mentor. Everyone has their own valuable experiences to share and their own way of approaching things. Learning from a variety of aesthetics mentors can be really beneficial in developing a well-rounded knowledge base.

VALUABLE INDUSTRY TIPS FROM EXPERIENCED PRACTITIONERS

Dr Raquel Amado, senior clinical trainer at Harley Academy; medical facial aesthetics expert and skin rejuvenation specialist, explains:

My students always mention how great it is to have the ability to treat patients in a clinical environment with someone senior helping them.

Students also say they enjoy my tips about how I started, where to buy products, how to run a business, etc.

MAKE SURE THEY SUPPORT YOUR SPECIFIC TRAINING NEEDS IN A REAL CLINIC ENVIRONMENT

Lorraine Guinan, senior clinical trainer at Harley Academy and aesthetic medicine specialist at Imagination Aesthetics, has some great advice:

Some people like to find a mentor outside of formal training courses. It is useful to post on the main Comma network to find a reputable mentor who will be able to support your specific training needs.
There are a few things to consider when looking for a mentor:
Their level of experience, reputation, availability and location.
How far are you prepared to travel?
Considering your own knowledge and experience, can they offer what you are looking for?
Do they offer a certificate for your CPD?
Students really enjoy being mentored and the feedback is very positive. The one-to-one training element is something that students say they enjoy the most.
They also find it really useful to work in a “real clinic” environment. Although this can have its limitations, students gain a lot of knowledge and experience from this.

ADVERTISE YOURSELF TO POTENTIAL AESTHETICS MENTORS ON COMMA

Natalie Haswell, senior clinical trainer at Harley Academy; aesthetics specialist nurse prescriber and owner of Haswell Aesthetics, says:

The best thing about mentoring is the continuity and the ability to progress a lot quicker because you’ve got someone who’s monitoring you and mentoring you. They’re seeing where you need to improve or areas where you’re really good – and that makes a big, big difference.
To find an aesthetics mentor, I recommend going through a training company, such as ourselves, or advertising yourself on Comma.
Make sure you include all the relevant information a potential mentor will need to know.
Where do you live?
What’s your experience?
What courses have you completed in aesthetics?
Where do you work – in the NHS, privately – currently?
What have you got that you can offer?
Because we’re in the private sector, private mentors can want to be reimbursed for their time. This can be quite expensive sometimes. But, understandably, when someone’s mentoring you, they’re reducing patients in clinic to allow time to teach you and this has a knock-on effect on their income. So it’s just about bearing that in mind – sometimes it might be free but sometimes you may have to pay.
Comma is a really good place to advertise yourself but, failing that, students can contact Student Support at Harley Academy and they can guide you to prescriber associates. This can also help if you need a prescriber. First and foremost the best thing here is networking. Link up with them, work with them and that will help you a lot moving forward.

ONE-TO-ONE INJECTABLES TRAINING SESSIONS

If you are a doctor, dentist, nurse or midwife who is also a licensed, insured aesthetics practitioner, and are looking for mentorships, try our One-to-One Injectables Training Sessions.

You can book as many as you like, with the same aesthetics mentor or different mentors each time to really expand your knowledge.

Each 1:1 is tailored to your area of interest and allows you to treat your own patient in a safe space where you can ask as many questions as you like. Use this time to really draw from your mentor’s experiences as well as honing your practical and technical skills.

Mentorship can give you an edge when it comes to building confidence in every area of your practice, as well as helping you get more treatments under your belt.

So, whether you’re interested in learning proper cannula technique, perfecting your perioral approach or learning more about lower face injectables, there’s a great fit available here at Harley Academy.

These can all be booked online. However, if you’d like assistance finding the best aesthetics mentoring sessions for your needs, simply book in a call with our head of student recruitment, Deneal Basi.