To listen to my complete story about how I came to do this work, press the little arrow (and turn on your speakers!) You might need to refresh your page to see the player bar.
Being in business for myself has always been part of my personal vision. And yet, like so many of my therapist and naturopath friends, my training was in the healing arts, and before that in whole systems design, and before that, in communication arts — not in business skills!
One of the first things I’ve discovered is that most people in private practice are either scared to market themselves, or they are trying to follow really bad or inappropriate advice. No wonder most small businesses fail in the first 3-5 years.
Even though I was determined that wouldn’t happen to me, I sure have my own story to tell about going through my own period of feeling scared and desperate before I learned the secrets of marketing a healing arts practice.
But I had to become a self-directed learner in the best ways to get clients in my door so I could survive as a business owner because no one had the answers that applied to my unique combination of personality, business model, and professional needs.
Now, being a self-directed learner is right up my alley, given my master’s in Whole Systems Design (health & healing systems and organization transformation) from Antioch University Seattle and my doctorate in Psychology (Consciousness and Spirituality) from Saybrook. Both degrees required me to design my own curriculum, which meant determining what I really needed and wanted, then weaving it into a functional, practical, and enjoyable approach achieving my goals.
As a marketing mentor, I bring a systems design mindset and a grounded psychological understanding to the energy, spirit, art, and mechanics of attracting enough clients to make a private practice thrive.
As a private practice, fee for service clinician myself, I know the challenges faced by independent business owners in the healing arts. I’ve had to face and solve them myself, and I believe we have to work with the emotional side of marketing as part of the solution.
Getting to this point has definitely been a winding road, with some pretty big potholes along the way. Perhaps it helps to know that I can most definitely relate to your struggles.
