September 25, 2026

The Art of Touch

A face is never still. It holds movement, tension, habit and traces of the way we live. For the founder of Face Movement, working with it is less about correcting appearance than learning how to read and reshape this living landscape through touch. Her practice moves between precision and intuition, combining massage, movement and an understanding of the body as a whole. Each face becomes its own composition — something to observe, feel and work with rather than simply perfect. In a culture increasingly focused on controlling how we look, Face Movement proposes something more human: release, awareness and a return to the body.

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You didn’t start with Face Movement right away. What happened in your life that led you to start looking for answers through working with the body?

Since I was a kid, I’ve always been an intellectual person. I loved studying, and I was always excited to learn new things. I was a good student, but curiosity was always my strongest drive. I constantly wanted to learn, try new things and discover what could come next. Physical activity was part of that curiosity — another way for me to explore and experience something new.

At university, while studying journalism and Iberian Studies at the University of Warsaw, I trained as a fitness instructor and started working in fitness to support myself. I stayed in that world for ten years. Then a friend of mine, who was a partner in a Polish cosmetics company, asked me if I would be interested in creating something around the face. That was when I started taking courses in facial massage and exercise techniques and eventually began developing my own method. It had a different name at the beginning, but over time it evolved into what is now Face Movement — the method I continue to develop and shape today.

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Do you remember the moment when you realized that the face can tell a person’s story just as clearly as their words can?

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Do you remember the moment when you realized that the face can tell a person’s story just as clearly as their words can?

I still feel that I am learning about faces every single day. I don’t think there was one particular moment when I suddenly understood everything. For me, it has been a continuous process of observation, touch, practice and discovery.

Most of what I learn happens during private sessions, when I am actually working with someone’s face — looking at it, touching it, feeling the tension and observing how the tissues respond. I don’t walk around analyzing every face I see. Sometimes I notice things, of course, but I think that would be a waste of energy. In the same way that a psychologist doesn’t analyze the personality of every person they pass on the street, I focus on reading a face when I am invited to do so. The face is incredibly complex. The more I work with it, the more I realize how much there still is to understand. I think it is something I will keep studying for the rest of my life.

When you meet a new client, what do you usually “read” from their face before they even start speaking?

The first thing I usually notice is how much stress they are carrying. I can often see it in the jaw through increased volume and heaviness around the jawline, in the forehead through the presence of lines, and in the cheeks through excess volume or puffiness. These areas can reveal quite a lot about how much tension a person is holding.

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I have the impression that we live in a state of constant tension today. Do you think our faces have become a kind of chronicle of the way we live now?

For me, the face often tells me even more than the body does. I can read so many things from it, and yes, I do think that many people today live in a state of constant tension. I see it especially in people who live in big cities, spend a lot of time with electronics and are constantly overstimulated. In those cases, the face can become a very clear reflection of the way they live.

Many people come to you because they want to look younger or fresher. How often does it happen that, after a few sessions, they stop talking about wrinkles and start talking about their lives?

Aesthetics and the way we live are connected. I’m not against wrinkles, and I think everyone should be free to do whatever they want with their appearance. But we don’t have to assume that every line, heaviness or puffiness is simply connected to age. Through the conversations we have during sessions, clients often start to see that what initially seemed to be about a wrinkle may actually be connected to tension they have been carrying for years.

People often say that the body remembers everything. Do you agree with that? How does this kind of memory show up specifically in the face?

We often say that the body remembers, but every person is different. What leaves a mark on one person may have very little effect on someone else. It is highly individual, because we all have different levels of resilience and different ways of responding to stress and experience.

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One of the areas where people most commonly hold tension is the jaw. Why do you think so many of us carry emotions there?

It is a very old stress mechanism. Clenching the jaw and the teeth has long been associated with moments when the body needs to push through, protect itself or survive a difficult situation. In the past, that stress response was usually followed by a clear ending. You escaped the danger, found food, or the threat passed — and the body could release the tension. Today, the threats are different, but the mechanism is still there. We may not be running from an animal, but when we stay online all the time, constantly checking, reacting and taking in information, it can feel to the nervous system as if we are still chasing something or fighting something all day long.

And when we never truly switch off, we keep giving the body the message that it needs to stay alert. I think the key is to create periods with no stimulation at all — no phone, no information, no input. Just go into the forest, walk, and let yourself do nothing for a while.

You are interested in philosophy and literature about human development. Are there any authors or ideas that have particularly influenced the way you work with people today?

For me, Taoism means seeing reality as it is. Stoicism means knowing what is mine to influence and what is not. But I probably feel closest to Sartre and Nietzsche because of their emphasis on agency, choice and action. Luck and circumstances matter, of course, but I don’t believe that life simply happens to us. It is not just about making an affirmation — that may help, but we still have to participate in creating our lives.

I strongly believe in personal agency — in being active in our own lives wherever we have the power to influence our own direction, choices and circumstances. That also influences the way I work. I respond to what I actually see and feel in the face. I choose what technique to apply, to which area, and with what pressure and intensity. I decide whether someone needs massage, facial exercise, work with posture or the neck, or a combination of these. If tension has been accumulating for ten or twenty years, very light pressure may simply not be enough.

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What does true beauty mean to you? Do you think it can be achieved through appearance alone?

For me, beauty is about finding flow in your life and finding joy in it. That is what beauty means to me — even if it comes with wrinkles.

Do you feel that during a session people open up more through the body or through the mind? What usually happens first?

It depends on the client. Some people seem very ready to let something go, and after just a few minutes of pressure or touch, they may start to cry. In those moments, crying can simply be a way of releasing some of the tension the face has been holding. Others need to get to know each other first, and sometimes they begin to open up after a few sessions.

Do you think touch can be a form of conversation with yourself?

Absolutely. Touch can bring us back to the body very quickly. It can make us notice where we are tense, where we are tired, and what we need in that moment. I think touch is something deeply natural to us, and we shouldn’t forget how important it is.

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Your work is not focused only on the face. Why was it important to you from the beginning to look at the person as a whole?

It comes directly from my background as a fitness instructor. I have always seen the face as connected to the body rather than as something separate. Posture, movement patterns, physical habits and the history of the body all influence the way I look at a face. That perspective feels very natural to me because I have spent so many years observing and working with the body professionally.

If you could change one thing about the daily habits of modern people, what do you think would have the biggest impact on their health and appearance?

I would stop being privately online and available all the time. Professional use of the internet is different from private use, and I think it is important not to mix the two. Give yourself specific windows for private use: 10–20 minutes in the morning, 10–20 minutes around lunchtime, and 10–20 minutes after work. In the evening — nothing. No checking, no responding, no scrolling. Just withdrawal from constant stimulation.

How do you imagine Face Movement in five or ten years? Do you dream of a school, a book, or perhaps a place that could become something more than a studio?

I would like Face Movement to become a movement. I would love people around the world to understand that if they want to work on the form of their face, they can use Face Movement — a combination of facial massage, facial exercise, and an understanding of what is happening with their posture and body. For me, it is not just one technique. It is a way of thinking about the face as something connected to the whole body.

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After spending the whole day working with other people’s emotions and tensions, what helps you return to balance?

Run, run, run. Gym, gym, gym. Nature, nature, nature. Silence, silence, silence. Music, music, music.

If you could leave readers with just one thought that could genuinely change the way they see themselves and their bodies, what would it be?

Life is movement. Move your body every day. Touch your face every day. Move your mind every day. Stay curious. We have so much information around us that it’s easy to live only in the mind. It’s easy to freeze nowadays and lose connection with the body. Don’t.

photographer @jvdasberra
model @facemovementstudio
makeup artist and hair @anetasobolewskamakeup
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