A Perfect Practice: How to Establish and Maintain a Successful Practice in Holistic Health and Healing

By Belinda Grace

A Perfect Practice is a step-by-step guide to help the novice practitioner establish and maintain a successful practice in their choice of modality. Full of real-life examples, this book gives you clear guidelines on how to set up your practice, promote your business and make a living by following your passion.Whether you are a brand new practitioner or an existing professional who hasn't yet reached their potential, reading this book will give you insight from BelindaGrace's twenty years of experience in the mind, body and spirit health and healing fields. You have put so much time, energy, effort and money into coming this far, it's time to turn your passionate business into personal fulfilment and professional succes

• Language: English
• Publisher: Independent Publishers Group
• Release date: Oct 4, 2017
• ISBN: 9781925682533

Book preview

confidence.

CHAPTER ONE

THE WISDOM OF PERSEVERENCE

I am happy to share with you that over the last twenty years I have made all the mistakes, some of them several times over. There are so many things about succeeding and being happy in this line of work that simply aren’t obvious. Every few years I would wonder why on earth I hadn’t stayed in my high-paying job and just put up with those pressures and stresses because, from a distance, they seemed preferable to the highs and lows of fumbling around and trying to make my business work while getting by on a meagre income.

In starting my own little practice, I often felt like my sole purpose in life was to pay everyone else first: the insurance company, the landlord, the government, the tax department, the professional associations, the printer, the telephone company, the internet provider, the website developer, the mentor … you get my meaning. Even before I saw my first few clients most of these bills had to be paid and they haven’t stopped since that very first day.

Then there were the emotional demands of dealing with people’s needs and inconsistencies. Working with them to heal their health and feel better about themselves was a delight for me. I enjoyed the actual work, but dealing with phone calls at all hours of the day and night, a growing stream of emails, the no-shows, the late arrivals and the people who claimed they couldn’t afford my incredibly low-priced services, were challenges I had not banked on. The luxury of employment in medium-to-large companies had largely shielded me from all of these things. Sure I’d had to endure office politics and meet demanding targets, but as part of a pecking order in a company of any size there is still a level of detachment from the successes and failures of the business and the personalities of the people you have to deal with, which is not present when you are the business.

Maybe I am making it sound like it’s all about the money. That’s not my aim here; my aim is to point out that running your own business from scratch is difficult and much more challenging, on a deeply personal level, than any job. It’s my belief that the world would be a very different place if everyone had to run their own business at least once in their lives. And not just run the business, but live only from the proceeds of it. I took so much for granted when I was employed, from the phone calls I used to make from the office, right through to holiday pay (I thought this was something I was entitled to!) and my company car. I can’t tell you what a shock it was to receive my first phone bill after leaving the fashion industry, not to mention the costs of running my own vehicle.

On a personal level, I also found the complementary health field very challenging. It was a huge learning curve for me and I had a lot to learn about caring and supporting, without trying to rescue people. To be honest, I was probably playing the role of rescuer for about the first ten years of my practice. Naively, I had just assumed that if someone was willing to spend their time and money coming to see a homoeopath, and then Clairvoyant Healer, they must be the type of person who was willing to take responsibility for their health and their lives. I was shocked to find how needy people could be, and I exacerbated that neediness by believing I had to help them and be available at all times. That was a very hard lesson for me. I still find it ironic that when I am more firm with someone about my boundaries i.e. ‘you get 110 per cent from me in the time we have together, then when you walk out that door it’s up to you’, they have much better outcomes than they did back in the dark ages when I played agony aunt to almost everyone.

It was an emotional, personal, physical, mental and financial rollercoaster as I figured out that other peoples’ health and happiness were not my personal responsibility. Once I realised that all I could do was my best, my whole life started to become a great deal more rewarding and enjoyable.

So, was giving up ever really an option? Yes, in my monkey mind it was. We always have options and I believe that if you really want to do it you can reinvent yourself any time you like. It might not be easy, but it’s possible. I held down many different part-time jobs during those first ten years, enjoying the relative security and absolute necessity of some dependable income. I did what I had to do to stay afloat, but when I was really honest with myself I knew that I couldn’t go back to the fashion industry because it just wasn’t my truth. My physical and emotional health had deteriorated so much during my fashion years, and I knew that my body was telling me ‘this isn’t for you’. Still, I applied for jobs and went for interviews from time to time when it was hard to see the light at the end of the self-employment tunnel.

Now as I look back over the last twenty-five years, I can see that this journey has been the making of me and that there have been far more good times than bad. I’ve met and worked with some incredible people, and I’ve designed my own life to incorporate hobbies and other activities I love. Each day my work brings me the joy and satisfaction of working with people who want to shift their energy, raise their vibration and create the best life that they can. I now travel the world promoting the books and card sets I’ve written and doing readings and seminars in amazing locations and beautiful countries. I have a dedicated following of clients and students worldwide, and most importantly, a wonderful network of friends all around this wonderful planet.

Did I know all of this was going to unfold when I graduated with my homoeopathy diploma over twenty years ago? Of course not! But I have always been willing to dream big. You are reading this book because you want to be happy, healthy, fulfilled, successful and make a positive impact on the world. You are reading this book because you want to save yourself time, find solutions to your dilemmas, find answers to your questions, have moral support and get on with it. You are reading this book because you have a passion and the knowledge that you don’t want to, or can no longer fit into, the standard mold of what a normal life is meant to look like. You are reading this book because you are extraordinary and you are willing to dream big too.

For all those things I acknowledge you, and I hope that you will find my offerings, in the form of this book, useful, practical and inspiring.

CHAPTER TWO

GRADUATING IS JUST THE BEGINNING

It may be a difficult pill to swallow, but the truth is that attaining your qualification is sometimes the easiest part of your journey to becoming a holistic health practitioner. Whilst studying is demanding, it can also be a great deal of fun, and there is always support available from your fellow students, the lecturers and the college. Once you leave the security of this structure however, it can be a very different story.

Many graduates fall into an emotional and motivational hole after the excitement and effort of graduating. After fulfilling a dream such as attaining a diploma, you have every right to want to celebrate. So congratulate yourself, feel proud and enjoy the moment. Then get ready for the next big life-changing evolution you will experience as you take what you have learned into the demanding and challenging commercial world.

Maintaining a connection with some of your fellow students after graduation is incredibly important and can provide considerable comfort as you venture out on your own. I can’t emphasise this enough. It seems so obvious and yet time and again I counsel clients whose fledgling practices are struggling because they are trying to do it all by themselves. Being part of a community is an amazing resource. When you are establishing a new practice or trying to grow an existing one, you need friends and supporters.

Whilst life is busy and it’s easy to drift away from your peers and lecturers after your online or on-campus course ends, it is absolutely vital to your ongoing success and happiness to have a network to stay in touch with. If you haven’t finished your studies yet, please make the time to establish a group that meets regularly. I still belong to a couple of alumni groups, and even though I can’t attend every gathering I love being invited and kept up to date with their activities. It’s so nice to feel a part of something.

If there is already a group available then your participation at some level is important. You will receive much more from it than you ever have to give if you go in with an open mind and a willingness to share experiences and learn from the other participants. Over the years, some of the groups I’ve been involved with have asked a different member to give a little presentation to the rest of the group each time we meet. So we really had a chance to listen to, and ask questions about, what that person was going through, and what they’d learned. It can also be fun to invite your former lecturers, and people who have already succeeded in your field ahead of you, to come and be guest speakers for your group.

If you have already finished your course and are not connected to any of your fellow students, now is the time to reach out and reconnect. Don’t be afraid to contact your most recent lecturers either, as they may be able to reconnect you with other students they are still in touch with. Your educational institution may also be able to help you with this. Simply assuming that you will stay in touch, or that someone else will contact you, is a big mistake. It’s very easy for everyone to slip back into their own lives after the course concludes, so you need to be proactive.

When you are willing to reach out and connect you will find that many of your peers feel like you. In this digital age of Facebook, Skype, Zoom and Google Hangouts it’s also possible to include people