Almost 20 years
A PGCE with Qualified Teacher Status, almost twenty years teaching, and a CAVA assessor qualification. I adapt to how you learn, and if you need the demonstration again, you get it again.
Sarah Bates, founder
Hi, I'm Sarahand this is myacademy
I've built a successful specialist skin and laser clinic, and I'll show you exactly how to build yours, with the skills, confidence and business knowledge to make it work.
Years
Approved VTCT Trainer
My story
From a classroom to a
clinic of my own
I spent almost twenty years in education, teaching Business Studies and running a department, before I decided to build something of my own. I had always been interested in skin, and in the science behind why a treatment works, so I retrained in advanced skin and laser while I was still teaching full time.
I opened True Skin & Laser in 2022, in a garage conversion. I built the client base organically, through results, honesty and word of mouth, and when it outgrew the space I moved into my own premises. I still run it.
Like most therapists, I started with questions rather than answers.
Nobody handed me those answers. I found them by getting things wrong, and by paying for training that did not always deliver what it promised. What the whole process taught me is that success does not come from offering everything. It comes from being known for something.
The reason it exists
Why I built
the academy
As the clinic became established, therapists started asking me questions. Where did you train? How do you run a consultation? How did you get to the point where your diary is full?
I found myself mentoring people I had never taught formally, and it made something obvious. There is no shortage of courses that will show you how to perform a treatment. There is very little that shows you how to build a business around it.
So I built the academy I wish had existed when I started. Practical training, structured properly, in a working clinic, with honest advice about the business side attached to it.
The combination
A teacher who runs a clinic
Most people teaching this have one half of it: the teaching, or the clinic. Every course I run has both.
Six figures a year
True Skin & Laser opened in 2022 in a garage conversion and now turns over six figures a year. I still treat clients every week, so what I teach is grounded in real clinic experience, not theory alone.
VTCT approved
An approved ITEC and VTCT Skills centre delivering Ofqual-regulated VTCT qualifications. Quality assured internally and externally, so somebody independent checks my standards, not just me.
What I believe
Why I only teach what I believe in
The industry adds a new treatment every year, and plenty of academies add a course to match. I have gone the other way. I have trained in a lot of treatments over the years and I deliberately teach only a few of them.
The ones that survived had to do four things:
- Deliver a result the client can genuinely see
- Bring that client back, rather than sell them a one off
- Make money at a price a real clinic can charge
- Respect the skin barrier rather than damage it in the name of a quick result
That last one is not a detail. My whole approach is corneotherapy led, which means treating the cause of a skin concern and protecting barrier function while you do it. A treatment that gets a dramatic result by stripping the skin is not a treatment I will teach, however well it sells.
This is also the honest answer to why the course list is short. The Academy is not about teaching as many treatments as possible. It is about helping therapists become confident specialists.
The lineage
Where I learned it
I think you should know who taught the person teaching you.
Yakov Gershkovich
Internationally recognised facial sculpting and massage educator. His sculpting work runs through the technique I teach.
Sophie Perry
The original facial massage training behind FaceGym. I learned the method at its source, not second hand.
Dominika Dracz-Le Grange
Eastern European facial massage technique. It is the training that most changed how I use pressure and pace.
Kobido training in London
Traditional Japanese facial massage, centuries old and rhythmic. My own pacing comes directly from it.
Manufacturer training, multiple laser brands
So my students train across several laser technologies, not one supplier’s machine.
Corneotherapy and Laser Genesis
Plus Dermapen microneedling, radiofrequency and VTCT Levels 2, 3 and 4. The clinical side of the method.
TrueLift™ came out of all of that. It is my own facial massage method, built from sculpting, lifting and release work, fascia technique, lymphatic drainage and nervous system regulation, then refined over thousands of client treatments until it did what I needed it to do. It is now taught as a course in its own right, and it is the clearest example of what I mean by specialising: one treatment, done properly, that clients book again.
Inside the clinic
Behind the academy
No stock photography anywhere on this site. Every picture here is my clinic in Lincolnshire, my students and my equipment. It is the room you would be standing in.
Before you book anything
What to ask any trainer
before you book
At a lot of academies you meet your trainer when you walk in the room. Ask these questions of everybody, me included. And if you want the quickest or the cheapest route in, I am probably not the one.
Who will actually teach me on the day?
Me. Every course, every time. You are never handed to another trainer. If the Academy grows and I bring in another educator, it will be somebody who trains to the same standard, and you will know before you book.
Do you still do this work yourself?
Yes. I run a working clinic and I am treating clients every week. You are learning in a clinic that sees real clients, not a classroom set up to look like one.
How many people will be in the room?
It depends on the course, and it is always small. Level 2 Facial Massage and Skincare is capped at two students. Laser is capped at four. Advanced Electrolysis Blemish Removal is capped at three. You get hands-on time and answers, not a demonstration watched from the back.
Will I work on real people?
Yes, on the practical days. I always supply the models, on every course, so you never have to find your own or cancel because you could not. There are no surprises on the day.
Is the qualification regulated?
The VTCT qualifications are Ofqual-regulated and widely recognised by UK insurers. I will talk you through getting insured and tell you who I use myself, but I will not pretend that a certificate on its own builds a business.
What happens after the course?
If you'd like continued support after your course, I also offer a 3-month 1-1 business coaching programme to help you turn your new skills into a profitable, sustainable skin or laser business.
Your next step
Come and meet me before you commit to anything.
Whether you are looking for your first qualification, adding a specialist skill, or building a clinic of your own, book a call and we will work out which route is right for you. There is no charge and no obligation to book anything afterwards.