Issue link: https://www.ascpskindeepdigital.com/i/1489006
62 ASCP Skin Deep Winter 2023 industry practitioners, whose work requires close attention to their clients' psychological and physiological states. Jacqueline Davis, owner of Perfect Balance Day Spa in Lodi, California, and a longtime colleague of mine, sees her clients' stress levels refl ected in their breathing, their skin, their muscle tension, and their demeanor. Davis shares our vision of providing multilayered care instructed to focus on the insights at least twice a day for four weeks, incorporate the cards into their daily routine (for example, by posting them in a prominent place), and keep a journal about their experience. At the beginning and end of the study, researchers collected measurements of perceived stress and physiological stress. Perceived stress was measured using a questionnaire that asked participants to rate how often in the last month they felt overloaded with stress, and physiological eff ects of stress were assessed using measures of intracellular water, heart rate, and blood pressure. After four weeks of using the Insight Cards, participants' subjective ratings of stress were signifi cantly lower than they had been at baseline. 5 Although intracellular water and blood pressure were not measured at the end of the study, the signifi cant reduction in perceived stress and self-reported feelings of greater ease suggested the Insight Cards have utility for stress reduction. More research was needed, and Davis's spa, with its and was eager to participate when we invited her to investigate the eff ects of Insight Cards on her clients' stress levels. The cards had already shown promise for reducing subjective and physiological measures of stress in a study conducted at the Murad Research Center in 2018. In that study, volunteers who self-identifi ed as experiencing Cultural Stress were Research has demonstrated the benefi t of fostering the positive, suggesting a need for balanced and holistic models of care.