AHPRA Guidelines: friend or foe? (PART 1)

By James Vivian

If you’re like me, your mind might be a little consumed with the newly released AHPRA guidelines that come into effect in September 2025.

Having spoken with many of my colleagues about their impending arrival, I am experiencing a wide variety of different emotions and feelings from the people around me…

“They’re heavily overdue!”

“How are they going to affect my business?”

“How will clients find us?”

“Finally, some standardised regulations to keep our clients safe.”

Before I share with you my personal feelings about the guidelines, I’d like to ask you some questions…

Are you someone who cares deeply about the safety of your clients?

Are you someone who is always looking for ways to improve your business?

Are you someone who is active on social media, has a website or promotes their business through EDMs and face-to-face communication?

Are you someone who is aware of the dangers that our industry can impose on our communities?

Are you someone who can see that improvements are needed to help clients find our services for the right reasons and at the right time?

If you answered yes to any or all of these questions, you might find, if not already, that the AHPRA ‘guidelines for registered health practitioners who perform non-surgical cosmetic procedures’ might be coming along at just the right time.

In last month’s Mocha Beauty issue I wrote about a personal desire to see a greater level of care given to the way in which we are showing up and communicating with the people who are engaging with our services. With the rise of social media, influencers, advances in technology and the supposed need for our services, people are seeking us out and literally hanging off our every word to decide on their next cosmetic movement.

Add to this the recent and highly public scrutiny that the Australian cosmetic industry has and continues to be under due to unsafe, unethical and non-transparent work practices. Therefore, there has never been a better time to take a good hard look at the way in which we are keeping our clients safe both in and out of the treatment room.

Enter the AHPRA guidelines – a guide, in my opinion, created to help us distinguish between the right and wrong way to influence consumers, clients and colleagues through our words and actions.

Now these guidelines are going to mean something very different to all of us and I do think that there is an element of interpretation that one needs to connect the guidelines with our individual businesses.

When the guidelines landed in my inbox, it took me a good three or four read throughs, making more and more notes each time, to feel like I had taken everything out of the guidelines that were relevant to our business. Some of these we were already on top of, some of these I knew we needed to address but hadn’t taken the necessary steps as yet, and some of them I had yet to consider.

Between now and September, the team at JV and I are excited to work through our list of action points. The two main areas of focus for us are in the ways in which we promote ourselves on social media, as well as ensuring a greater level of transparency in helping our clients make informed decisions about the services they are considering.

How are you interpreting the guidelines? How are they making you feel? Protected? Empowered? Scared? Confused?

As with any change, you can dig your head in the sand, or you can see this is a blueprint for an even better stab at best practice customer care.

Lastly, I’d like to leave you with the first two points of the guidelines and the two that gave me the most cause for pause and I believe makes the guidelines more palatable and necessary.

Recognising potential conflicts of interest:

Registered health practitioners must recognise that conflicts of interest can arise when providing cosmetic procedures. This is particularly relevant given the commercial nature of the industry and the role that advertising and business models play in creating a demand for service. Practitioners must ensure that the care and wellbeing of the person they are providing cosmetic procedures to is their primary consideration.”

I have sectioned tackling the AHPRA guidelines into these 2 stages - Stage 1. Deciphering and Stage 2. Instigating.

In PART 2 of this article I will share with you the changes that we are making in our business that are aligned with the guidelines as well as using this as yet another opportunity to step back, consider what we’re doing, reviewing the impact that we’re having and taking the time to ensure the safety of our clients and followers beyond the guidelines.

Please reach out to me if you’d like to share with me your interpretation of the guidelines of if you feel you need any support and a friend to talk them through – james@jamesvivian.com.au