Student & 1st Year Practitioner Mentoring:
An Experienced Assist for the Budding Practice
Depending on your background, past experiences and level of training, stepping into a Holistic Healing Practice can feel like a monumental leap of faith. The Student and 1st Year Mentoring Program is designed to assist the budding practitioner in finding their unique voice and perspective among the myriad of information absorbed during the training process. While there are some Holistic professions that offer comprehensive internships and preparation for the business side of building a practice, for the vast majority of young healers there is little if any information on how to shift, internally, from student to professional. And equally important, how to navigate the deluge of personal and client questions that arise once they step fully into the field of healing service and begin to work directly with their community.
In 30 years of practice I have seen, first hand, the challenges students or friends entering a new holistic healing field can face out in the world, away from the safety zones of student clinic or caring for friends and family; the questions and challenges can feel overwhelming and impossible.
As a Holistic Healing Practitioner, I have moved, re-built or re-defined my practice many times. I have also been blessed to help colleagues and friends establish or re-design their practices, each time learning new ways to approach the challenges that arise.
Early in my career I transitioned an externship in massage school directly into a full-time position with special needs children in a long-term care facility. The opportunity to work closely with the nursing and physical therapy staffs and to start an individual massage therapy program with the kids were invaluable tools. Learning to blend my training with the techniques of other professionals; establishing connections to client families and facility management; allowing the unique expression of my work to find its voice and learning to share the explanations of that work with others were all tools that could never be ‘taught’. However, I do believe that if I had had someone with these diverse experiences to share my ideas and challenges with there would likely have been much smoother transitions.
Work and life experiences combined with 30+ years of Aikido/Conflict Resolution practices and Spiritual Direction have given me insight that have been vital tools in my own practice and for the friends and colleagues I have coached.
“Establishing a strong connection with our foundational structures awakens the resolve to stand confidently in the known unknowns of our own internal alignment to truth.”
The Student and 1st Year Mentoring Program is designed as a short-term tool to assist a practitioner with making difficult changes. By implementing 4th Tone principles and practices into our lives, we internally shift our perspective of things and begin coming to our questions and challenges from a place of interconnectedness and intuitive knowing. This 4th Tone™ awareness of ourselves, and the clarity of our role in a given situation, instantly reduces or eliminates entirely the repeating records of questions playing in our heads, shifting us into a centered stillness, an inside-out connection, and a level of confidence that stands firmly on the foundation of knowing rather than the false stage set up by fear or ego.
Whether working with the special needs kids; starting a massage program for the health care workers in one of our local hospitals; doing education and outreach for chiropractors (stretching and movement, spinal screenings and health fair talks); setting up a private practice (as I did early on in a retreat center, then re-designed as an out-call practice); or helping friends open their offices by organizing client paperwork, dealing with billing issues or scheduling appointments; the needs and responsibilities of a practitioner beginning or shifting gears are diverse, must be attended to with present moment awareness, and can positively or negatively direct an overall experience depending on the approach. It is my sincere wish to be able to help the next generation of healers to find their solid ground and to learn empowered, balanced, Core-aligned ways to begin their lives of healing and service.
Assessment of need and the acceptance of students or practitioners into the mentoring program is determined individually. First Year coaching is available by request, length and number of sessions and fees are all determined on a case by case basis.
Please contact Michelle directly with any questions.