3 minute read
The Missing Link in Skin Health ? The Nervous System .
By Jacinta Curnow, 2025 ABIA Sole Operator of the Year
We’ve all worked with that client. The one who’s ticking every skincare box, showing up for treatments, using the right products, doing everything they’ve been told to and still, the skin won’t settle. It’s frustrating for them, and for us as therapists.
You start mentally revisiting their routine, their triggers, your protocols, but sometimes what’s missing isn’t something you’ll find in a product bottle or treatment plan. It’s stress.
Skin and the nervous system are closely connected. They actually come from the same embryological tissue during development. So, it makes complete sense that when someone is stressed, their skin often shows it. Whether it’s breakouts, inflammation, barrier disruption or flare-ups of things like eczema, rosacea or peri-oral dermatitis, stress almost always plays a role.
Stress isn’t just emotional, and it’s not something we can always see. It shifts the entire body into survival mode. The nervous system speeds up. Cortisol rises. Sleep gets patchy. Digestion slows, and the skin drops down the body’s priority list.
When the nervous system is dysregulated, so is the skin barrier.
I’ve seen it in clinic more times than I can count, and I’ve felt it too. A while ago, during a season of intense work, travel, full-time study and parenting, I developed peri-oral dermatitis that eventually progressed to ocular dermatitis. My body was talking loud and clear. Even though I was doing all the ‘right’ things on paper, my skin was telling another story.
It reminded me that skin never exists in isolation. It reflects what’s happening in our lives and in our bodies. If that’s true for me as a therapist, it’s even more true for our clients.
So many barrier disorders are connected to stress. Eczema flares often follow emotional upheaval. Acne is driven by inflammation and oil flow, both of which can be impacted by cortisol. Rosacea tends to flare when the nervous system is on edge. Even peri-oral dermatitis is commonly linked to stress, lifestyle changes, and barrier breakdown.
None of this means we abandon treatments or protocols. It just means we open the door to bigger conversations. Consults can include nervous system support, lifestyle questions, conversations about sleep, pace and pressure. When we make space for the person inside the skin, not just the skin itself, we often get to the real heart of the problem.
These lessons have shifted the way I approach the skin, now treating it with curiosity rather than just correction. It’s not about replacing what we know with something new; it’s about expanding what we consider, so we can support our clients more fully. When we calm the system, the skin often follows and when a client feels more at home in their body, their confidence starts to return, too.
Jacinta Curnow Perth Holistic Skin Therapist @jacintacurnowskin
