It was 1993 and it looked like I was going to be able to make my desired career change. I was in my early 40’s and had been in teaching (French) for nearly twenty years. I loved teaching in many ways, but in my heart I longed to do work in the healing arts, probably in counseling or therapy. I had researched this career change and listened to all the most practical advice from other people. I entered a graduate program.
Then — everything went wrong. The program was the wrong place for me, putting me in boxes that didn’t fit. There was no place for my creativity, sensitivity and other aspects that I now know to be my unique healing gifts. I was miserable. I left that path after just one year.
My Dream Had Crashed
All I could do was go back into teaching. This was the biggest disappointment of my life and I was devastated. At least I fit in teaching and was good at it, so I put my heart back into it. And I sought more of my own personal healing work. Maybe I was supposed to stay a client in the healing arts and that would be good enough.
Then things began to happen. Perhaps it was because I was so completely disarmed and non-defended, having no agenda now, just open. Within a few months, I met an excellent alternative practitioner who was just right for me and helped me immensely, actually taught me much of what I use in my work today. Within the year, I had connected with a whole new group of people who were holistic and creative and outside the box. This is where I belong, I realized, outside the box! I found hypnotherapy, past life work, and EFT and in the next few years, I followed my heart into a number of trainings and finally opened my practice. My dream came true after all.
Fear and Doubt vs. Love and Trust
As I look back, I can see how much fear and self-doubt and looking for validation outside myself had influenced me. I didn’t ask myself, what are my own healing gifts that need to be nurtured and developed so that I can give my gift to the world? Instead, I asked other people: what are the recommended professional credentials? What is the established path that is best to take? What program should someone looking for a career change pursue? Back then, I was afraid I couldn’t make it without the umbrella of a conventional profession and being able to take insurance. I would never have dreamed I could make it on my own with an alternative kind of practice.
And maybe things had to happen as they did. I do tend to trust life and the process of life. The aborted career change pushed me out of the nest! And the method that is now central to my practice, EFT, didn’t even exist at the time. I was a brand new hypnotherapist in 1998 when I came across EFT in the early days of its development, and I got on board right at the beginning. My Creative EFT practice has grown out of all of my interests, including hypnotherapy and understandings of the subconscious. I even get to use my teaching skills as an EFT trainer. Nothing is wasted. Everything has come together. When I look back, I can see that whenever I made decisions based on what I loved and trusted the process, something valuable came out of it. I was on my path. And when I made choices based on fear and doubt, these resulted in a detour until I found my way back on track again. This has been a winding road but it has taken me to where I want to be.
Only later could I see the bigger picture…
But I Still Had A Blind Spot…
Now that I have some years of experience, I can identify what I consider to be the most important foundations to put into place for a successful practice. There are three:
1. Excellent training and skills – becoming very good at what we do.
I worked hard those first years and took many trainings. I’m a life-long learner and will always continue this development.
2. Self-awareness and continuing our personal work.
This is important to me. “Healing is the work of a lifetime,” as one of my teachers used to say. We are at our best to help others when we’re doing our own work.
3. Business development including a Healing Arts Business Mindset and specific internet skills.
What? Did you say business?!
For more than half of my 16 years of practice, this was my blind spot! I loved having a practice but even though I was, of course, running my own small business, I never even called it that. I just wasn’t interested in business. Luckily, because of the power of EFT and of the internet, I have had a satisfying practice anyway, with a local following, clients in 14 countries, and clients in many parts of the US.
During the last few years, I realized that something was holding me back and I faced the business side. I sought help with business development from several sources. To my great surprise, I discovered that my “lack of interest in business” was actually a cover for fears I didn’t know I had. Wow. I had to face feeling insecure and inadequate, out of my comfort zone, not sure I would be good at this stuff, etc. So developing the business side of my practice involved yet another level of personal work. And working with this has paid off in every way.
Sharing What I’ve Learned
Working through these fears (thank you, EFT!), developing new skills and branching out into this realm has been exciting. I look forward to sharing all I have learned. I’ve come to understand that a Healing Arts Business Mindset is essential. A lot of business-oriented thinking may not fit for those of us in the healing arts. But we can make it our own with creativity and sensitivity. We can develop our business in ways that allow us to stay fully in integrity.
So, where I am in my story now is that I continue to work on all three levels: ever-expanding skills development, self-awareness and personal work, and healing arts business development. I am a work in progress.
Why I Created This Program
The Emotional Freedom Mastery Program is the kind of program I wish I had had in my early years. I had to try to put all the pieces together through trial and error, false starts, not knowing where to turn, wishing someone would just tell me how to do this. There are many things you need in order to develop as an EFT practitioner and, with every step, there are so very many choices. It can feel completely overwhelming.
In my new program, I’m bringing together a wealth of resources and support. I’m offering to new or developing practitioners a way to be guided through the maze and step confident and fully equipped into their EFT practice. Join me!
Go to the Emotional Freedom Mastery Program
