You found my old blog. Thanks for visiting! For my new writing, visit mikesententia.com.
When I started offering healing sessions last year, I did what everyone else does, and offered generic healing sessions for whatever ails you. But I’m realizing that’s not the right approach for me, and that I should offer specific healing techniques for particular problems.
This grew from a couple of experiences over Thanksgiving.
First was a friend with a chest cold. On Tuesday, she said she’d probably be home sick and avoiding people all week. I worked with her Wednesday morning, and she felt much better by lunchtime. Thursday evening, I email her a “happy thanksgiving,” and she writes back that she’s feeling even better, that her day was great, and that she’s still socializing. In short, a nice, successful healing session.
I felt comfortable offering the healing sessions because I’ve had success with colds before. I even sent her those case studies, and felt all professional and sophisticated. I wasn’t 100% sure it would work, not even 90%, but I thought it would probably work the first time, and if not, that I’d probably be able to debug it quickly.
The second experience was a call from a very nice man asking me to work with something I’ve never encountered before. I didn’t even know how to approach it, and I didn’t know how to respond. And I realized: I don’t want to debug healing techniques on strangers.
If you’re new here, a bit of background: Most energy healers work by channeling energy. They use roughly the same procedure (or a short menu of procedures) for all clients, regardless of the problem. They channel, the energy does its thing, badda bing badda boom, they collect their $60.
I can do that, but I don’t want to. For the kinds of results that make me happy — the kinds of results I feel good offering — you need to get deeper than the energy layer, and you need to develop a technique specialized to that particular problem. Which brings us back to debugging.
When I try to work with a new problem, it rarely works the first time. There are just too many options to get them all right the first try. So, I debug, try again, debug some more, and after a few days or weeks or months, I get it working.
(The second time I encounter that problem, the same technique usually works right away. So it’s not just a matter of trying things until the person coincidentally gets better. It really is a matter of developing an effective technique.)
But that first attempt needs to be with a good friend. Someone who believes in me enough to keep showing up for more debugging, even though the last three times only produced temporary results. Someone who will encourage me as I struggle and hit dead ends. Someone who will keep track of their condition and give me good, detailed feedback, so I can figure out what works, attempt after attempt.
I can’t count on a stranger to do all that. And even if I could, what do you charge for that?
So, this is my new approach to offering healing services:
First, I develop the technique on a close friend, for free. They help me debug it, and I feel good about helping a friend.
Second, I work with acquaintances to get experience with the technique, work out the kinks, and so on. For less common conditions, I might offer the healing technique to customers, with the explanation that it’s in development, and is priced accordingly.
Then, once it’s working for a bunch friends, I’ll offer that particular healing technique to anyone who calls. This lets me practice adjusting a healing technique to a bunch of different people, without forcing me to develop a technique from scratch for strangers.
Another bonus: This lets me have case studies for that particular condition, and generally feel much more professional about my offerings.
I’m still not sure how much time I’ll spend on my healing business. But now, I think I’ll feel good about it when I do.
If you liked this post, consider visiting my current blog at mikesententia.com.Tags: Business, Healing, PersonalStory