Wonderful! So many are called to help others. And you are already a healer. If you have ever calmed a crying baby, listened to a friend, fixed the booboo of a little one, or held a loved one as they cried, you are a healer.
Many people ask me how I got here, and I have documented my journey in the blog post “From High Tech to High Vibe”. Many ask me how they can do the same. Often they are frustrated that they are not doing what they are supposed to be doing, because they are still in their 9 to 5 job. Please let that go. You are on the path. I firmly believe that whatever we are doing in our lives today is exactly what we are supposed to be doing. It is a journey and you are on the path already. So stop with the angst already. You are not lost. You are not letting down your guides, or your Higher Self or anyone else. Stop being so hard on yourself.
The biggest misconception I see is that people think they need to stop/end their 9 to 5 jobs and start up their healing practice. Just like that. Poof. One ends and the other begins. No. Let that go. You can do both, and you likely need to do both before you drop that day job. You will have to work hard for a while as you do double duty. Keep your day job, and start to weave in your healing practice late afternoons, evenings and weekends until your practice is big enough to support you.
How do you get started in energy healing?
There’s a million ways. Some people start with Reiki. If you do that check around. There is Reiki I and Reiki II. Sometimes people offer them together. Reiki III is done to become a Reiki Master. Some people charge a few hundred dollars for this, and some people charge $10,000. They will tell you that their lineage – the teachers who taught them – make it worth that. I strongly disagree. You will know who your right teacher is and you don’t get more out of it because you spent $10,000. I always look at training from the standpoint of what I might charge clients for it. How many clients will I have to do to make up the cost of this class. It would be nearly impossible, even charging $100 per hour for me to ever make up a $10,000 cost. I have spent tens of thousands of dollars on things that I will never do again, because I thought they were groundbreaking and important. Perhaps they are but I could not align with the human characteristics and values of those who taught it. Thus I set it aside, with gratitude for what I learned, knowing that I remained in integrity.
Access Bars is also relatively inexpensive and once you complete the one day class, you can start working with clients. Or pick a modality you’ve experienced and go learn how to do it. Ask questions however. Many modalities will teach you things in the first class, and you can work on yourself, but you’re not allowed to work on other people. That just happened to me. They wanted me to spend $1200, watch 10 hours of video per week for 4 weeks, do a zoom class for four hours every Saturday and Sunday for 4 weeks, yet I wasn’t allowed to work on anyone until I had the advanced class. Um. Just no.
Additionally, there are places online where you can learn anything you want. There is https://www.centreofexcellence.com/ which has a wide catalog of classes. There is also Udemy: https://www.udemy.com/. Truly nobody cares about your certificates, or who you studied under. They care that you are good at what you do, that you are authentic, and that you are compassionate. My suggestion when looking at what to learn is that you do it playfully, with a light heart. Go out and play and see what makes your heart sing. Then do that.
Please know that you are not going to learn any modality out of a book. When people write books about their modality, they do it to get people to come and get trained. What they give you in that book is minimal, and may require attunements to use. Don't use any modality you have not been certified to use. There is always more to it than meets the eye, especially if that eye is on the pages of a book. Part time effort yields part time results.
Whatever you do, be in integrity. Don’t steal other people’s work. “Legally” you only have to change one thing to call someone else’s work your own. Forget legally - how about spiritually, morally and ethically? Someone worked really hard and invested tens of thousands of dollars and hours to bring you that modality. Don’t steal it. If what you bring to the world was not gained in integrity, then it is not spiritually sound, and will probably fail for you. I have had pieces of my work stolen. I cannot do anything about it. I call it karma. In addition, don’t teach things you have not been certified to teach. In 95% of cases, just because you completed training to learn a modality, there is still a whole other level you have to walk through in order to teach it.
Here’s an example. Many, many people have asked me to teach Energetic Fusion. I can’t and here’s why. Energetic Fusion is a combination of everything I have ever learned. It combines The LifeLine Technique, Higher Brain Living, Dao Tha Soundcodes, Pranic Healing and a bunch of other modalities I have taken over the years. It is my own mesh of what I learned, merged together with my own unique spin on all of it. I am certified in these modalities but I am not certified to teach them. I would have to teach you all of these modalities in order to teach you Energetic Fusion. Many think I am selfish and don’t want anyone to be doing what I do, but that’s not the truth. I paid $3500 just to get the charts of emotions I use. I am not going to give those away to anyone for free. It’s copyrighted material and I honor all of that to stay in integrity.
How do you get started once you have finished your classes/training? How do you get clients? That is a tough one. Start with your friends. Tell them you’ve learned something new, and you’d like to try it on them. Do it for free or for a love offering in the beginning. As people learn to love what you do, they will return. Don’t do it for free forever. When you do something for free repeatedly, you are telling the Universe that you have no value. That is not the message you want to send.
I have never been able to stomach all that marketing stuff – those nauseating sales funnels, and all that other rot. I simply can’t go there. I built my entire practice the first 8 years or so by referral. I offered a free session to anyone who sent me a new client. Once that new client paid the fee for the initial session, the person who referred them was eligible for their free session. If people love your work this is a winning strategy. I have people who love these freebies so much they constantly send me people. They’ve never paid for anything but their first session. I also used to do holistic fairs, start meetup groups, and do other things where I offered ‘free’ sessions. Here’s one thing I learned. Put a bowl or basket out for ‘love offerings’. There were many times I wanted to charge people $10 to show up for a group healing circle or whatever. What I’ve learned is that charging anything at all makes people think twice. It makes people resistant no matter how low the price. But I’ve learned if I let them come for free, I will make more money from love offerings than if I had charged them. Just my experience.
If you do want to look at marketing, I suggest Tad Hargrave, of “Marketing for Hippies’. He is at www.marketingforhippies.com. I love his work, and he and many others have boatloads of FREE STUFF. He has other people he likes as guests for blogs, interviews or classes. Pay attention and follow them as well. And there’s a million marketing schemes on youtube. Mostly free.
To sum up my personal theory and feelings on this. Do whatever feels comfortable to you. Do it on your own timeframe. Don’t quit your day job without enough clients to support you. Charge for your work other than at the very beginning. As a client told me, “Take yourself off the discount rack”. Put the word out on social media to your friends that you are off on a new adventure. Ask for support. Say yes. Know that you don’t have to do it perfectly. Honor other people’s work. Stay in integrity. Know that you are already a healer and you always have been. Support your fellow healers. Look for ways you can collaborate with others.
Blessings to you on your journey!