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Health & Wellbeing

System will get under your skin

Love your skin. It’s going to represent you for a long time! Like many of us, I began my journey with skincare as a teenager. At the age of 13, I got my first cleanser and so began my daily skincare routine. Thankfully, throughout adolescence, there was nothing particularly wrong with my skin - I just thought it a good habit to cleanse, tone and moisturise daily to remove my blue eyeshadow and badly matched foundation. There were no YouTube or TikTok make-up tutorials back then! Little did I know this teenage pampering would lead to a professional skincare journey some 10 years later. It was only then I could really see the damage I had done to my skin by using low quality and highly- fragranced products. I’ve spent a lot of my time as a therapist working with very high-end spa based brands and many other famous ranges. I got to see some great results with clients but they never seemed to go far enough or the problems would never truly be fixed. So, when I set up my business Relax & Remedy, I knew I had to offer a cosmeceutical range with a real resultsdriven ethos. After all, Relax & Remedy describes exactly what I do and what people come to me for - to relax or have something remedied and fixed. I’m so proud to now be one of only a handful of therapists in Dorset able to offer transformational skincare treatments with the amazing Nimue skin health programme. Many of us use the same skincare for years and then simply stop seeing results. This is where Nimue is different with a 3 Phase System based on prescribed homecare products, combined with professional treatments individually tailored to transform the skin from the deepest layers. Jemma Sandell is an Advanced Massage & Beauty Therapist and owner of Relax & Remedy, Ferndown. Visit: relaxandremedy.co.uk

I’m a total skin geek and I absolutely love seeing the difference good skin can make to people’s lives – no longer stressed about skin complaints such as acne or sensitivity. I’m very particular about what I use as a professional and I like to only use the best products and treatments that I truly believe in. I have to know it’s going to do what it ‘says on the tin’. There’s a number of reasons people come for skincare and facial treatments. Sometimes it’s just for a change of skincare, maybe they haven’t had a facial for a while, or they just find it a relaxing treatment. Most of the time, it’s because they want to change something about their skin and I can help take them on that journey.

Vaccination programme at next phase

Dorset health and care leaders are reviewing the way they deliver the COVID-19 vaccination programme after the success of the pre-Christmas push for people to get their booster. With almost 85% of eligible Dorset adults now fully boosted, the vaccination programme is now concentrating on specific groups like children and certain communities who have not taken up the vaccine. The temporary vaccination centre at Sentinel House in Poole has now closed for adult vaccinations. Staff there have delivered 10,000 booster jabs plus a further 3,000 first or second jabs since the centre opened. To date 58% of children aged 12-15 have received their first dose (against a target of 60%), with 20% in this age group already receiving their second dose. Dawn Dawson, Director of Nursing, Therapies and Quality for Dorset HealthCare, said: “Our teams did an amazing job to set up this additional centre so quickly and to run it efficiently over the last few weeks. We’re so grateful to all the staff and volunteers who have played a part. “It’s right that we close the Sentinel House centre now but we will be able to set it up again quickly at short notice if the programme steps up again.” Anyone who wants their vaccination can still get it at King’s Park Hospital in Bournemouth and Vespasian House, Dorchester. Primary Care Networks run by local GPs are also running clinics. There are also 15 community pharmacies across the county still offering jabs. Appointments are available via the national booking system and walk-ins are offered at some sites. Visit: Vaccination sites in Dorset – NHS Dorset CCG.

Health & Wellbeing Learning the five languages of love

By Susie Carver, consulting hypnotherapist with Sea Change Hypnotherapy in Wimborne seachangehypno.com

How do you like to give and receive love? We all have different ways of communicating our appreciation within our personal relationships, but when we aren’t demonstrating love to our partners in a way that they recognise and value we can encounter frustration, misunderstandings and friction. In 1992 Dr Gary Chapman wrote his best-selling book The Five Languages Of Love which provides some interesting insights and theories based on the author’s extensive career in marriage and relationship counselling. He describes five styles or ‘love languages’ which are typically used when expressing love. Although we may appreciate characteristics from each style, there is often one that we identify most with. Chapman states that: ‘people tend to criticise their spouse most loudly in the area where they themselves have the deepest need.’

So what are the five languages?

Words Of Affirmation

You appreciate hearing your partner express their appreciation out loud. The words ‘I love you’ hold deep meaning for you, as do written notes or love letters affirming your partner’s feelings. This is said to be the most common of the love languages.

Quality Time

You appreciate it when your partner gives you their undivided attention for a while so that you can spend quality time together. Switching off phones and TV, planning date nights or trips away helps you to feel valued.

Acts Of Service

You feel most connected when your partner demonstrates their love by helping you out with tasks, assists you to solve a problem or takes stress off your plate. Actions speak louder than any words for people with this love language.

Physical Touch

Hugs, kisses, holding hands and physical closeness shows you that your partner cares. Public displays of affection are most likely no problem for you, so long as you can feel an emotional connection through physical touch.

Receiving Gifts

You feel valued when your partner expresses their love through unexpected gifts and tokens of affection. Far from being shallow and materialistic, this allows you to know that your partner is thinking about you and prizes you. So how can you use this knowledge to enhance communication and deepen your connection? And how can you figure out what’s important to your partner? It’s simple - just ask! If you communicate love in the language that’s important to you, recognise that it may not be the language that’s important to them. You could land way off target! So ask your partner what matters to them, and adapt to a style they will recognise and appreciate. Then you can both enjoy the benefits of giving and receiving love in the most appropriate way for each of you.

Exploring Stour & Avon

with retired Dorset rights of way officer CHRIS SLADE

CORFE MULLEN

This is a fairly long walk that takes you through interesting countryside and also through the suburbs of Poole. Start at St Hubert’s Church, which is on the south side of the A31 by the junction with the B3074. There’s parking space close by. The church is worth a visit. With its arched ceiling it should have good acoustics. There’s a herd (or is it a flock?) of alpacas nearby which are interesting to see. There’s a pathway on to a former railway line which takes you a short way to the west, then join a road that winds its way south, west and south again to join a bridleway leading south for a mile through Stony Down Plantation.

n Upton Heath

This meets a road that takes you south west for about a furlong to join another bridleway that takes you south eastwards for about a mile and a half along the parish boundary passing clay pits and crossing Upton Heath Nature Reserve. When you reach the A35, the bridleway and the parish boundary turn left and head north east for about five furlongs where you meet an old Roman road that takes you north for a couple of miles passing at first through the wooded heathland and then continuing in a straight line through streets on the boundary with Poole. You need to keep an eye out for the Roman road as it’s not obvious at first and is unsigned, so there’s a chance you might overshoot into Poole. When you reach Rushcombe Bottom take the B3074 road that leads you north westwards for nearly a mile to Sleight where it leaves the town and continues westward for another half mile to take you back to your car. You’ll have walked getting on for nine miles.