Ever wonder what models do after they stop stomping the catwalks (aka after they gain a few pounds and turn 25)?

Acting? Designing? DJing? Too obvious. Former runway model Maeva Althaus, 29, became a hypnotist, and recently launched her own hypnosis salon out of her SoHo studio called Hypnosis by Maeva.

For the last ten years, Althaus worked as a high fashion model. She was scouted by Ford in Paris at 17, worked as a fit and runway model for Alaïa, walked for Givenchy, Isabel Marant, Burberry, you name it. She did editorials for Vogue Italia, Numéro, and i-D.

“I felt the superficiality of fashion and I wanted to do something more,” says Althaus. After living the hectic, uprooting life of a model for a decade, Althaus, who says she’s always been into holistic medicine and meditation, decided to settle in the states. But, since you can’t smoke anywhere in the US, Althaus had to quit smoking (a habit most models find hard to kick). So she turned to hypnosis, and it worked. After hypnosis helped her to quit smoking, she got curious about it and “started to learn all the ways it can help people.”

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