10 minutes with Isabella Loneragan - 2025 ABIA Individual Educator of the Year

By Louise May

When it comes to touch therapies, few names resonate as strongly as Isabella Loneragan. With over two decades in the industry, she has not only built and sold successful clinics, launched her own skincare line, and cultivated a respected media profile, but she has also redefined how therapists view facial massage.

Her ability to merge advanced technique with science, psychology, and the nervous system connection has seen her train more than 300 therapists and establish The Skinformé Academy, a platform that empowers practitioners to deliver facials that go far beyond skindeep. It’s an approach that has earned her widespread recognition, most recently being named ABIA 2025 Best Individual Educator.

Passionate, articulate, and unwavering in her belief that hands can achieve what machines cannot, Isabella is helping therapists transform not only their clients’ skin but their own confidence, clarity, and careers. Mocha Beauty Editor, Louise May, sat down with Isabella to talk about her journey, her philosophy, and why education with heart is her greatest calling.

You’ve studied under global masters in Buccal, Kobido and Chinese acupressure. How did you fuse these distinct traditions into a signature approach, and what makes your method stand apart in a crowded skin industry?

Each of these traditions – Buccal, Japanese Kobido, and Chinese acupressure – brings something profound to the table: internal release, structural lift, and energetic flow. But on their own, they can feel fragmented, or even overly focused on technique without context.

My method fuses them into a cohesive, nervous system-aware facial massage sequence that treats the whole face, and the person beneath it. It’s not about copying movements. It’s about understanding why each move matters: how it influences the fascia, lymphatic pathways, breath, and even internal organ health. When done correctly, it doesn’t just transform the face, it recalibrates the entire system.

But crafting the method was only half the challenge. Teaching it was another challenge entirely.

During my time running The Dermal Diary (Isabella Loneragan’s former business, prior to opening Isabella Loneragan Skin clinic), I had to train numerous therapists to deliver this work to the standard I demanded – not just for client results, but because they were representing my name and brand. I couldn’t simply give them a few lessons and hope for the best. It took years of refining the manual, the training language, the sequencing, and how to teach the art of touch.

Translating such a multi-layered, energetically complex modality into something teachable is a skill in itself, and it’s one I’ve spent years developing. The way I now train therapists at The Skinformé Academy is the result of countless iterations and real-world feedback.

What makes my method stand out in today’s saturated market isn’t just the technique. It’s the emotional intelligence, the energetic literacy, and the teachability of it. Today’s client doesn’t just want a facial. Today’s client wants a felt experience. And I’ve trained my therapists – and now my students – to deliver just that.

Facial massage is often dismissed as ‘just relaxing.’ What’s the biggest myth about touch therapies you’re determined to debunk?

I’m determined to debunk the myth is that relaxation is a luxury; because when in fact, it’s the prerequisite for transformation.

If the nervous system isn’t regulated, the skin won’t heal, the muscles won’t release, and the body won’t shift out of chronic tension.

Touch is one of the most primal tools we have. It speaks directly to the vagus nerve, it anchors us in the present, and it creates safety. When someone feels safe, their entire physiology changes.

As touch therapists, we’re not here to “pamper.” We’re here to repattern. And that’s an entirely different standard of care.

The Skinformé Academy puts hands before hardware. Why do you believe touch delivers results, and loyalty, in ways machines can’t?

Machines can create change; and they absolutely have a place in modern skin therapy. But while technology can stimulate the skin, it cannot build connection. And connection is what keeps clients coming back.

Touch-led treatments build trust, emotional safety, and sensory memory. Clients don’t return just because their skin looks better. They return because of how they felt in their skin after being seen, held, and treated with intention. Touch personalises every session. It responds in real time. It adapts to the client’s breath, micro-expressions, energy shifts, and body language – all of which are silent signals that machines can’t (yet!) adequately read.

The ability to notice those signals – such as a subtle clench of the jaw, a change in breath, a shift in tone – and then adjust your technique in response, is one of the most underrated yet powerful skills a therapist can develop. It’s also one of the most direct inroads to true client connection and long-term loyalty.

The Skinformé Academy is built around this philosophy: that your hands, when trained with precision, presence, and emotional intelligence, are your most powerful piece of equipment. And the return on the investment in training those hands, both energetically and commercially, is something no machine can replicate.

You teach therapists how to sculpt faces and build businesses. If you had to break it down: what’s the most overlooked factor holding good therapists back from growth?

Lack of clarity in their positioning. So many brilliant therapists don’t truly know what makes them different; and if they can’t articulate it, clients won’t feel it. You can be incredible at what you do, but if your menu is confusing, your messaging is generic, or you’re blending into the crowd, you’ll always be chasing clients instead of attracting them.

With my background in marketing and messaging, I teach therapists how to communicate their value with conviction amongst many other business essential lessons in my Business of Facials Masterclass (TM). I believe that clarity isn’t just a business tool. Clarity is an energetic shift. Once you own your point of difference, everything from pricing to retention changes.

Teaching emotional connection might seem intangible, but you’ve built an entire education model around it. How do you train therapists to create transformative experiences, not just treatments?

It starts with presence. You can’t create emotional safety for a client if you are rushed, burnt out, or disconnected from your own nervous system. So, the first step is getting therapists back into their bodies, that is, grounded, attuned, and aware.

From there, I teach structure. Because emotional connection isn’t just a ‘nice bonus’. Emotional connection is a deliberate part of the treatment. It’s built through intentional touch sequences, through pacing, breath, and micro-moments of attunement. There’s a rhythm to it. A psychology. It can be learned, practised, and refined.

But I think the most powerful part of the process is how I help therapists access and honour their intuition. That’s something we rarely talk about in clinical education, and it’s incredibly hard to teach in a technical sense. Yet, within this training model, therapists start to uncover it. And when they do, that’s the beginning of everything.

I am adamant that when intuition meets structure, that’s where real transformation happens; and that’s not just for the client, but for the therapist as well. That’s when we stop simply performing treatments… and start holding space. And that’s what makes clients feel truly seen, deeply cared for, and instinctively want to come back.

I never waited for permission. I invested in my education, I took risks, and I backed my hands. And yes, I failed forward more than once. But the through-line was always a clear why: I wanted to raise the standard of what a facial could be.

I instil that same mindset in my students by showing them that skill alone isn’t enough. You need business acumen, conviction in your voice, and a supportive community around you. That’s what I’ve built in The Skinformé Academy — not just a training platform, but a space where therapists evolve into leaders.

I also teach something that I believe is essential: there is enough business for everyone.

The moment you deeply understand your message – that is, your why, who it’s for, and how it solves their specific problem – traditional competition dissolves. It becomes irrelevant. You’re no longer trying to be for everyone but rather, you’re speaking directly to the people who need you.

When we shift from fear to clarity, from comparison to purpose, something incredible happens because we raise not just the standard of our industry but moreover, the attitude of the players within it. That’s the real transformation I’m here for and a fundamental reason as to why I’ve introduced The Skinformé Academy.

@isabellaloneragan @isabellaloneraganskin