A clinic which offers medical beauty treatments has started a campaign for people to ditch the unrealistic expectations they have about their appearance based on the filters on their phones.

Kate Monteith-Ross, 39, is the clinical director and lead aesthetic registered nurse at La Ross Aesthetics, a clinic on Medway City Estate in Strood which is behind the Ditch the Filter campaign.

The clinic offers a range of treatments including fillers and wrinkle treatment, massages, semi-permanent makeup (SPMU), and even GP services.

Staff had noticed changes in the way clients approached their services, particularly as people became more aware of their own appearances after Zoom calls and other video platforms became a staple during the pandemic.

Kate said one issue that encouraged her to start the campaign was the introduction of the term 'Zoom face', which is the idea that people have become hyper-aware of their appearances because of the increased time they have spent looking at their own face during video meetings.

Filters on social media and photo editing apps such as Facetune allow people to change their appearance in pictures with just a few taps, and Kate said this has led to more people wanting to change the way they look.

Kate said: "We've been talking amongst ourselves at the clinic about the changes recently. Since the lockdown, we've had an influx of young girls coming in wanting to look like photo-edited versions of themselves.

"When I ask why they want to do that, and I tell them they can't just create a different person to look like, they look confused. It's because they're not well, with social media people use face-distorting software to give themselves a completely different face.

As medical aestheticians, we would never treat a patient who wouldn't benefit from that treatment.

"Obviously we don't treat them, but we provide education and help change their mentality. We have a way of supporting our patients beyond the aesthetics."

At the clinic, every client is entitled to a free counselling session with one of two counsellors if they need it, and the clinicians hold in-depth consultations with clients to identify any red flags before they even begin treatment.

Support leaflets and cards are available and on display in the waiting room, and the staff have worked closely with a counsellor to recognise signs of body dysmorphia, a mental health condition where a person spends a lot of time worrying about supposed flaws in their appearance.

Kate has also recently introduced other services to the clinic – including weight loss, hormone replacement, sleep therapy and health assessments – for the well-being of clients.

She said: "In doing this campaign, we're obviously ready for the question 'don't you think this is hypocritical?' because we are an aesthetics clinic, but that's not what we're about.

"We're trying to make people feel great in their own skin, not change them. We want to help you preserve and appreciate what you've already got, not make you look like a whole different person."

She said that some clinics have 'Zoom face' treatments and filter-themed face lifts. She added: "It's just unethical. We have to change that. We shouldn't be sending the message that you need to change your face completely.

"Everyone at our clinic consults with patients carefully, and our services should always add to health and well-being in some way. As medical aestheticians, we would never treat a patient who wouldn't benefit from that treatment.

"Some people need that enhancement, for their confidence or comfort. It's fine if there's a gain, but when you want to look like you're somebody else, it's different. We want to enhance who you are, not change it."

Kate said that the clinic regularly has visits from clients who have lost their jobs, or been suicidal, or even be sectioned, and the staff have treated them in a wellness capacity rather than aesthetically.

For the Ditch the Filter campaign, each member of staff created their own slogan, about something they were once ashamed of but are now proud of, and each week the company's social media and blog will feature one member of staff and focus on their individual journey.

Kate hopes that by leading by example and working on their own confidence, staff at La Ross might be able to inspire the same confidence in others and "start an open and honest dialogue".

She said: "None of us at La Ross look the same. We're all different ages, different backgrounds, different skin tones, different body types, we're all different. Since we started this campaign, we've had an influx of people getting in touch about their own struggles."

Kate said that the clinic ran a poll on its Instagram, and found that more than 70% of voters were so used to seeing their faces through filters and editing that they even disliked looking in the mirror.

She continued: "I just think it's so wrong. It needs to change. We can't have this whole cult of women who can't leave the house because they can only look at their faces with a filter on.

"In all my years as an aesthetician, I've never seen anything like what we're seeing at the minute. Young men and women are so much more impressionable over how they think they should look. It's really sad."

Kate said that the staff also realised there was a worrying issue during lockdown when clients were desperate for the clinic to stay open.

She said: "It was a crazy time. We realised that taking away our services really impacts mental health, and we didn't just want to leave that realisation after lockdown ended."

Kate recently had a client she described as "possibly the most beautiful woman I've ever seen", who showed Kate a Facetuned version of herself as a reference of how she wanted to look.

She said: "Not only was it impossible to make her look like that, but it was crazy that she wanted to do that to herself.

"I told her I wouldn't do it, but I just think, how many other clinics might have agreed to do that? She still wouldn't have been happy and it won't help her. So why would we do it?"

Kate said that although there are regulations coming into the aesthetics industry, just like with any business there are ethical issues, because while there are many clinicians who do the right thing, there are also many who don't.

She said: "This clinic is mine, and I run mine the right way. We used to treat almost every patient that came in, but now maybe five in every 20 we don't treat because we feel they're coming to us for the wrong reasons."

Kate was the first staff member at La Ross to share her story in a blog post. She had a lot of trauma giving birth to her now five-year-old daughter, which resulted in a lot of scarring.

She said: "We're baring all, literally, and sharing our private journeys for this campaign. It's been difficult to do that, and we're all massive works in progress. But I don't want my daughter to think that she has to look like everyone else. So we won't try to be anyone else, either.

"There's a lot of amazing women doing this, but it gets overcrowded by people projecting perfection, especially in our industry."

This week, the focus was on Harriet, the senior aesthetic registered nurse at La Ross. She shared in her blog post that she was born with bilateral talipes – both her feet are club feet. She had surgeries since birth all the way until she was 12, and was in plastercasts from the day she was born.

She wrote in her blog post: "As you can image this has left a mark. I have millions of scars on the legs and feet, and my feet aren’t a 'normal' shape. It has taken me YEARS to accept that this is just the way I am.

"I would never wear shorts, dresses or skirts. It has taken me to at least my 30s to accept and now my thought process is I can’t change it, it is how I am, and I am going to embrace it now. I love that I can have the confidence to wear what I want and not be concerned about what others may think of me!

"Yes people look, they stare but I just smile and tell myself I am beautiful! These scars I have, enable me to walk, they enable me to work, they enable me to take my boys out, and lastly, they allow me to dance!!"

Kate said that the campaign's message was simple: "Don't try to look like someone else. You can groom yourself and do what you need to feel confident in your skin, but don't completely change your anatomy.

"We know we're not going to change the world, but we need to change the narrative."