Putting a little light into your life is easier this winter with The Spa at Chancery Court’s new therapy. Chancery Court’s Got the Blues treatment aims to perk up the dreary dark months with light therapy accompanied by some old prod-and-poke standbys.

Of course, even when you're feeling good, spa treatments can cheer you up (arduous research by, well, me demonstrates that the longer the massage, the better). But light treatment is a proven antidote to seasonal affective disorder – a type of depression that sufferers experience during winter months with symptoms such as low moods, cravings for carbohydrates, and the tendency to gain weight and sleep more.

From the start this treatment is different. You begin by reclining with your eyes open, facing a High Lux light box. While the therapist administers a foot massage, you alternate between looking at the light box and, say, reading magazines with obnoxious ideas of what’s cool right now.

After the light session, you lay down for a pressure point head, scalp and facial massage, including an eye mask and application of ESPA’s Pink Hair and Scalp Mud - it made my tresses the softest they’ve been since secondary school.

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Doctors prescribe daily sessions of exposure to light that emulates sunlight and stimulates serotonin. For clinical use, you’d need around a week of daily half hour treatments to see relief for SAD. With Got the Blues, spagoers get around 20 minutes. It’s not enough to cure depression but it does lift your mood and send you jauntily on your way.

The Spa at Chancery Court has made themed treatments something of a trademark. Lulu Guinness collaborated with the spa last year to create a special pedicure with one of her coin purses as a souvenir. Currently visitors can have several Pearl Lowe treatments inspired by the rock chick, including “London’s first gothic massage” and the Crazy for Daisy mani/pedi.

Whilst the massages of Got the Blues are fine rather than fantastic, the light box element is a novel touch that carries on this themed practice. It may not cure an English winter, but it certainly brightens your day.

Got the Blues, £65 for 40 minutes plus ESPA Invigorating Salt and Oil Scrub gift, is available throughout November.

The Spa at Chancery Court, 252 High Holborn, London, WC1V 7EN. 020 7829 7058. www.spachancerycourt.com

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