Beauty Therapists and the Mental Health Training Gap
Salon professionals are often confidants as much as clinicians, yet few are trained for the emotional demands of the role. Hannah Gayunpacks the research exposing the industry’s invisible care work and what’s. . .
Salon professionals are often confidants as much as clinicians, yet few are trained for the emotional demands of the role. Hannah Gayunpacks the research exposing the industry’s invisible care work and what’s needed to protect those providing it. It’s a scenario many beauty therapists have faced before: they arrive for their shift, are presented with a client, and the conversation quickly sways from predictable pleasantries to something unsettling. There’s a shift in tone, and the client begins to open up, filling the silence with heavy words surrounding their personal life. When news for those clients is too difficult to bear, the weight is better shared than carried alone. Beauty therapists are there to hold space for such clients in need; to lend an impartial and unjudgmental ear. But such a helping hand doesn’t come with the job description. It’s not taught in schools or asked about in interviews. It’s neither encouraged nor deterred, good nor bad, ‘normal’ or not. Supporting the physical health of beauty clients is – in a round-about way – part of the job. Whether attending to their skin, nails, scalps, bodies, or breathing, beauty therapists have long been regarded for their ability to connect with and aid other humans by way of touch. So what happens when that expectation turns from touch to conversation? When clients ask their beauty therapists to act as a sounding board, or even a support system, in their time of need? It’s a question that’s been raised in arecent reportout of The University of Melbourne. Titled Addressing Care and Wellbeing in the Australian Hair and Beauty Industry: Caring Beyond Skin Deep, the report reveals home truths surrounding the unsung role beauty workers play in the management of clients’ mental health, identities and overall wellbeing. What the Report FoundThe report drew findings from surveys involving more than 600 workers and clients across multiple studies, including 61 in-depth interviews with salon workers and clients. Data was also sourced from industry engagement and media analysis conducted between 2017 and 2026. It recommended that industry-wide wellbeing training be introduced that is specifically tailored to the personal services sector. The research also highlights the physical demands of salon work, including the risks of injury, harassment and emotional burnout, while arguing that the industry’s predominantly female workforce has historically had its care work undervalued. The findings echo a common cry from within the industry, drawn from the report’s own interviews:“You become a counsellor without the qualification. ” “People tell us about divorce, cancer, domestic violence, addiction, grief… everything. ” “Nobody teaches you how to deal with these conversations. ” “We need tools to protect ourselves while still caring for our clients. ”The Therapist’s ExperienceFor Melissa Young, founder ofMelissa Young Beautyin Sydney’s Inner West, the report marks an important moment, bringing long-overdue attention to the emotional demands of salon work. “I don’t think it should be assumed that beauty therapists can carry that weight,” she tells Professional Beauty. “You feel that emotion when you’ve got a client breaking down in the room with you. ” She shares the story of a client who fled her home after experiencing domestic violence. “They stay with you. I still think about her. I hope she’s living a beautiful life. ”Melissa Young – founder of Melissa Young BeautyYoung describes building strong rapport with clients over time. “You’re not family, you’re not a friend, you’re not going to judge them. 99 per cent of the time, it’s the client that’s initiating the conversation. ” She doesn’t see the openness itself as the problem – what’s missing, she says, is knowing what to do in response. “You want to make sure you’re responding in the best way possible; not saying the wrong thing. It’s a lot of pressure to put on yourself. ” That pressure often followed her home. “I would leave work in complete silence. I’ll get home, have a shower, and it’s almost like you’re trying to rinse the day away. ”An Industry-Wide PatternStefanie Milla, CEO and Founding Director ofThe Aesthetic & Beauty Industry Council (ABIC), believes the findings are both validating and confronting. “The question for me isn’t, ‘Should beauty therapists support client wellbeing?’ because in many ways they already do. The better question is ‘What kind of wellbeing support is appropriate within scope, and how do we ensure therapists are trained, protected and not overburdened?’”Milla sees this as reflecting a broader issue around the undervaluing of women’s care work. Jobs and Skills Australia data cited by Milla lists beauty therapists as a 98 per cent female workforce, with 53 per cent working part-time and an average age of 33. “When we ask this workforce to absorb trauma, distress and vulnerability without training or support, we are not empowering them. ”Stefanie Milla – CEO and Founding Director of ABICTraining the TrainersFormer multi-clinic owner and beauty trainer Melissa Jane Di Mieri – who holds a Bachelor of Psychology and is currently completing a Master’s in Psychotherapy and Counselling – describes the conversation as multi-pronged, with instances of poor mental health needing to be addressed at both the client level and the therapist level. She now delivers Mental Health First Aid training tailored to the hair and beauty industry. “There’s been a lot of the same pattern of people not knowing how to support their team, and then how to get their team to support their clients. ”Di Mieri has witnessed staff facing their own undiagnosed mental health issues while simultaneously absorbing their clients’ struggles, unsure how to process either. She believes the industry is losing talent as a result. “It can be a really daunting thing for them. ”“I know for a fact, with lived experience, that that client will go into a skin clinic or a hair salon before they actually walk into a GP,” Di Mieri adds. “A lot of the clients would jump on those beds and just use the therapist as a psychologist… nobody was equipped to answer the right questions… no one’s trained in that in our space yet. ” She flags burnout and loneliness as rife in the industry, and major contributors to poor therapist mental health. She also points to rising rates of ADHD diagnoses among women in the workforce, calling for a more considered approach to support and communication, and asks that salon leaders quash assumptions of laziness or indifference – guilt and shame, she says, are common feelings among this group. “Beauty therapists don’t earn enough that they can pay $1,600 to be diagnosed, or $200-$250 to see a psychologist or counsellor. Mental health is no longer taboo… the more people that speak about it, the more they can handle it themselves, personally and professionally. ”Melissa Jane Di MieriA Gap in the CurriculumMental health and wellbeing training is not a mandatory component of beauty therapy qualifications. Holistic skin therapist and salon owner Jacinta Curnow is currently undertaking a Bachelor of Health Science (Naturopathy) at Endeavour College. She says many of her units prepare students for clinic practice, including communication skills, counselling concepts, mindfulness, trauma awareness, diversity, and culturally safe practice. Unlike beauty, she sees that health science courses “are preparing students to work more holistically with real clients… understanding how to safely support people beyond just physical symptoms. ”Curnow cites the concept of ‘accidental’ or ‘embedded’ counselling – the idea that treatment rooms naturally become emotionally safe spaces for clients. “While practitioners are not counsellors, we do need awareness around communication, professional boundaries, scope of practice, and referral pathways when needed. I now focus more heavily on active listening, creating emotionally safe consultations, avoiding shame-based language around skin, and recognising that skin concerns are often closely tied to confidence and emotional wellbeing. ”Jacinta CurnowYoung would like to see wellness or mental health training built into standard beauty courses, hoping for “some sort of direction” on where to go or who to contact when client or staff concerns arise. Curnow agrees there’s room for stronger education across beauty qualifications in consultation skills, communication, cultural competence, emotional wellbeing and professional boundaries. “As therapists, we often spend hours with clients during vulnerable periods of their lives. While it’s important we stay within our professional scope, I believe developing stronger communication and wellbeing awareness ultimately leads to safer, more supportive and more holistic client care. ”To help bridge the gap, Di Mieri runs in-person and online workshops that set teams up with an action plan to follow when a client or team member presents with psychological distress – equipping participants to raise concerns without fear of losing a job, facing judgment, or becoming the centre of gossip. “Also, identifying the difference between having an anxiety moment and having a medical episode. From breath work to somatic work, it’s all about our nervous system holding and storing that trauma… how to get it out of the body and get through the day without feeling like you have to call in sick or are too ashamed to ask for support. ”What Comes NextABIC is working with Service and Creative Skills Australia (SaCSA) to reimagine beauty course guidelines. For Milla, the question isn’t whether wellbeing exists somewhere in the training package, but whether the existing content is “contemporary enough, consistently delivered, understood, properly assessed, and positioned across the right qualifications. ” She’s calling on educators, RTOs, employers, practitioners, salon and clinic owners, students, mental health experts, domestic and family violence specialists, and psychosocial safety experts to contribute to the redesign. “This would not mean turning beauty qualifications into counselling qualifications. It should mean preparing graduates for the actual conditions of beauty practice. A Certificate III graduate may need foundational training in respectful communication, consent, confidentiality, personal boundaries and knowing when to seek help. A Diploma graduate may need deeper capability in consultation, client suitability, complex disclosures, ethical recommendations, referral pathways, treatment refusal and professional judgement. Business owners and managers need to understand psychosocial safety, debriefing structures, staff fatigue, client aggression, bullying, workload, role clarity and burnout prevention. ”The University of Melbourne report concludes there is an urgent need for industry change to better train and support workers undertaking this care work. Milla puts it plainly: “The worst outcome would be a tick box wellbeing unit that sounds good on paper but doesn’t change the lived experience of graduates or workplaces. The best outcome would be a practical, evidence-informed framework that helps beauty professionals recognise, respond, refer and recover. That is the model I believe our industry needs. ”“My broader view is that this conversation is really about professional maturity. For many years, the industry has been asked to deliver high technical standards, strong commercial outcomes, client transformation, emotional connection, safety, hygiene, retail, rebooking and customer service, often all at once – but the emotional and psychosocial dimensions of that work have remained largely invisible. ”Meaningful change, industry voices suggest, ought to come from within. It’s a conversation that has often stayed behind closed doors, but one this survey indicates is better held in the open. For the client. And for the therapist. Resources to share with your clients and teams todayThe Resilience ProjectPractical wellbeing education to build resilience, gratitude, empathy, and mindfulness. 03 9113 9302www. theresilienceproject. com. auBeyond Blue24/7 support for anxiety, depression and general mental wellbeing concerns. 1300 224 636www. beyondblue. org. auLifeline24/7 crisis support and suicide prevention by phone, text and online chat. Call: 13 11 14Text: 0477 13 11 14www. lifeline. orgIf there is an immediate safety risk, call 000 or Lifeline on 13 11 14. Source: Addressing Care and Wellbeing in the Australian Hair and Beauty Industry: Caring Beyond Skin Deep, Dr Hannah McCann, The University of Melbourne (2026). | Photography: iStock/Delmaine, Supplied. This article first appeared in Issue 03 2026 of Professional Beauty magazine. Read the current issue of our digital magazine here:For more news and updates,subscribe to our weekly newsletterFollow us onInstagramLike us onFacebookJoin Australia’s largest network of beauty industry professionals onLinkedInSubscribeto our print magazineHave an idea for a story or want to see a topic covered on our site and in our pages? Get in touch atinfo@professionalbeauty. com. au.