Diversity Through Association And Sharing
Not all can acquire the skills of a Jan Schmidt. Still all can diversify. The ultimate in one-stop shopping can be illustrated in the case of Sophie Ann Aoki. Aoki is a massage therapist and aromatherapist who likes to call her work
"essential oils therapy." She uses botanical extracts to help clients relax and to heal specific ailments. She is active in distributing these products, teaching classes in essential oils therapy, and incorporates them with massage.
Although well on the path to diversity, she recently opted to share work space at the highly-visible healing center, The Simple Journey, in Honolulu. There are about 10 other practitioners here, each offered a space to work yet given the independence of a self-employed person. Their disciplines are massage therapy, essential oils therapy, metaphysical counseling, acupuncture, hypnotherapy, reiki, nutrition, and feng shui. In addition, the center operates an attractive retail gift shop that carries Aoki"s oils. An arrangement like this is convenient for the practitioners.
"Everyone takes a share and does not have to be here all the time," says Aoki.
"It allows others to deepen in what I do and to honor the paths of others."
The Spiritual Journey is in a high traffic area that brings in many walk-ins. This gives opportunities for practitioners to offer regular classes in their craft to further increase their visibility and income. There is also a lot of sharing.
"Often clients will be channeled from one discipline to another," says Cindy Mosher, metaphysical counselor and owner of The Simple Journey.
"When one comes in for something and sees other disciplines, there is tendency to try something else," Aoki concurs.
For The Good Of The Client
Each of these practitioners emphasizes that the prime beneficiary of diversification is the client. The combination of therapies has increased Kathy Kawana"s healing success by 20 percent, significant enough to elate any professional.
"It elevates massage to a higher level," she says. "There is more knowledge to pass on to the patient."
If she suspects something wrong with the body, she feels and presses the various acupoints and meridians to detect potential problems. She often diagnoses ailments of which her patients are unaware. These are usually confirmed by the patients who, at the same time, are developing trust in her skills. Some of these diagnoses have uncovered potentially life-threatening conditions. Kathy speaks of a client with tender points that intimated problems with her lungs. Kathy suggested further medical evaluation. A
physician's diagnosis confirmed lung cancer.
Jan Schmidt and Sophie Ann Aoki also look at the overall health and well-being of the patient and success follows. Jan advises therapists to go forward and not be limited.
"Be open-minded. It not only helps the client but helps ourselves, too. With different disciplines, you can better address the root of a problem to avoid recurrence," says Schmidt.
Steps To Spin-Offs
Some of the examples listed require significant amounts of time and finances for training. While all practitioners say the investment was worth it, there are less-expensive alternatives.
Some activities evolve naturally. These spin-offs work best when attached to the main source of revenue. In the case of massage therapy, the revenue center is health care. In fact, all practitioners interviewed stressed that all healing deals with energy. This broadens the opportunity base. Clients get massages for better health, relaxation, for the treatment of injuries, for pain relief, for a better appearance, and for better energy. Anything that contributes to these is a potential spin-off. The following are steps to assist you:
- Evaluate your long-term goals. Where would you like to be 10 or 20 years from now?
- Evaluate your knowledge and skills. Do you know enough to achieve your goals? As a massage therapist, you already know a tremendous amount about health and the human body. You may be able to do something right now, or you could build on this core knowledge to enter other areas such as healing touch, reiki or acupuncture. Kathy Kawana found her ahead of her fellow acupuncture students. She was used to touching people and was already comfortable with patients, something you may take for granted. Her palpation skills made her a better diagnostician.
- Licensing. Some disciplines require licensing by state agencies, while some are already covered by your license in massage therapy. Some require none.
- Certification. While many arts like hypnotherapy do not require a license in many states, there are national boards that certify practitioners. Appropriate certification increases your credibility.
- Get training if necessary to meet all requirements.
Most importantly, do it!
Gerald Kinro is a freelance writer based in Hawaii. He can be reached at: [gkinro@hgea.org].
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