This letter may also be of interest here:
Someone on another list wrote:
<Having dealt with therapists who tried to use techniques similar to Applied
Kinesiology the N.O.T. system to "heal" completely disrupted ACLs and
menisci, only to find several months later that surgery was required, I have
no patience for those who are duped by the "practitioners" of the "nebulous
arts". Whatever they get suckered into paying is well deserved.>
Mel Siff:
Many will continue to be duped like that, because the practitioners of this
type of arcane art rarely report their failures - their glowing claims and
testimonies on endless lists of websites creates the impression that such
methods are invariably successful, when the opposite often is true. It is
well known that as little a success rate of 25% is sufficient to keep any
alternative therapist in business because failures often are attributed to
individual idiosyncrasies.
Furthermore, research indicates that at least a third of those success
stories are due to psychological reasons, and the same sort of figure for
those who will heal without any therapeutic intervention. So, while the
persuadable mind and the self-healing body exist, even the most dubious
practitioners will continue to flourish.
Now let us take this analysis and turn it into something very positive for
anyone who wishes to learn from these successful business folk who sell their
therapeutic wares:
ADVICE FOR THE NEW AGE THERAPIST
Anyone can run a successful and very lucrative New Age therapeutic business
if you:
1. Obtain some training in any of the healing arts, irrespective of its
origins, philosophies, validity or methods
2. Learn excellent marketing and managerial skills (many chiropractic
courses offer very useful input on this, as compared with what is taught to
doctors and physios)
3. Become a good, empathetic communicator who listens well and makes the
patient feel safe, special and convinced.
4. Handle any problems by attributing them to "individual differences",
insufficient time, patient stress or excessive physical exercise or reinjury
processes (if the client is an athlete)
5. Apply the hands and move the body in a confident, soothing and reassuring
manner, because this alone can promote or initiate the healing process.
6. Fill your walls with testimonials or leave albums lying around which
contain details of your successes. If you can locate some well-known film
star or pop musician whose sore back you have successfully massaged to relax,
you must use a signed photo from that sort of person for mounting on your
wall.
7. Decorate your office walls with impressively framed certificates of every
conference, course and workshop that you have ever attended
8. Place official-looking initials behind your name - the more the merrier -
if you haven't completed any genuine
higher-level degrees, then simply create your own initials.
9. Produce a professional website and brochure which contains every claim
and testimonial that you can rake up and make frequent use of highly sensa
tional, emotive language to sell what you have as "the greatest" and "the
latest".
10. Give discounts to any clients who successfully recommend more clients to
you (give these clients plenty of business cards to hand out).
11. Have a repertoire of several different methods of treatment available to
use, because one of them is sure to use if the others don't (e.g. if you rely
simply on 'manipulation' or trigger point methods, these will not be as
physically or mentally as successful as also using massage, stretching,
"energy methods", water therapy, relaxation methods, acupressure,
'mobilisation', "Rolfing", "Therapeutic Touch" and the usual collection of
other such methods).
12. Apply pseudoscientific or approximately scientific tests and impressive
jargon to convince your clients that you really know something.
13. Use "power words" with powerful emotional impact to help elicit any
favourable psychological climate for healing (many books are available on
this topic).
14. Spend some quality time with your clients - look attentively at them,
sympathise with them, show a genuine interest in their every ache and pain,
use your voice competently, never pontificate - in fact, do all the things
that many in the medical profession rarely offer to patients and you can
hardly go wrong!
15. Make your facilities look as impressive as possible - note that a
computer, anatomical charts, technological toys, training machines,
acupuncture charts, dermatome charts, and the like are fundamental items to
be placed in your business.
16. Have at least one well stocked book shelf filled with books on relevant
and impressive topics. Always throw in some books on modern physics, quantum
mechanical healing, Chinese healing arts, philosophy, genetics, clinical
nutrition, sports injuries, patriotism, the National Geographic, Space
Medicine, the Great Musicians, the Great Artists, Metamagical Themas,
Caesar's Gallic Wars and suchlike, just to show how eclectic and intelligent
you really are - even if you have not or cannot read them. Reproductions of
Hippocrates, Einstein, Madame Curie, Socrates, Leonardo da Vinci, Paracelsus
or Florence Nightingale on the wall wouldn't hurt, either.
17. Casually drop into conversation names of well-known public figures whom
you may even just have visited your practice or with whom you have worked in
even the most trivial manner.
18. Offer special package deals for regular visits, realignments and "tune
ups". Always create the impression that the body, like a car, needs regular
check-ups, service and refueling. Try to link your packages to those of
sympathetic other therapists or doctors.
19. Talk positively about what you do to every person whom you meet and
spent a few minutes with.
20. Talk widely about how limited allopathic medicine is and how many forms
of "complementary" or "alternative" healing like yours are being shown
"scientifically" to help. Always cite the failures of allopathic medicine
and the cases that doctors bury, and cite the successes of your type of
therapy.
Many more could be added, but this short list should help all neophytes -
happy hunting!
Dr Mel C Siff
Denver, USA
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Supertraining/
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