Personal experience and insight
My personal experience is not just my experience of therapy but how I deal with challenges in my life. These are things I don’t often share about me but I suppose, if you really want to know who I am, it might be useful if I open up a bit…
Well, you may well know that I’ve practised Buddhism for nearly 30 years and that in the early days of practice I was very confused and emotionally vulnerable. You would never have noticed it in my countenance: my head was always firmly in control. But my emotional life was like a raging torrent: it washed me away, took me on journeys that were contrary to my intellect and got me into trouble! The screen for my life was my intellect, scratch the surface and there was a fairly brittle and sensitive person inside. During the last 30 years though, I’ve had maybe 3 major awakenings where sometimes the intellect just cannot hold onto the emotional content any longer. And borne of trauma comes an enlightenment that you never could have conceived was inside you. At least that’s my experience. Now I look for the enlightenment every day, week, month. If I’m not growing or shifting, then I’m not living my life.
My latest growth spurt has taken place in steps and stages through this last year. You’re seeing that in this site now as you read it. What has been that growth? And where is it going?
A deeper confidence
Firstly, I’m reaching even deeper inside myself to be able to confidently offer my skills and insights to my members. If any of you are putting yourselves out there more and more as therapists on the internet and in the public arena, you’ll know how challenging it is to step back from who you are and be able to talk, almost dispassionately about what you can offer. As therapists, so much of our expertise is deeply personal to us: it is borne of our own journey through life. Putting ourselves out there can feel very exposing and it can be safer to hide behind techniques and protocols. At least hiding behind our training, provides for us a screen.
However, we are all worthy of profound respect. We are human beings. I don’t want to hide behind anyone else’s ideas. This is what makes my practice integrative. I take the best of everything that suits my personality, and I find a way to make real human and authentic contact with my clients, supervisees or trainees. I’m not proud about what it’s called: be it NLP, TA, CBT or any other acronym. My philosophy is inclusive. There is value in all systems and models and used insightfully, all can cause immense change alone or in combination. The skill is mine to know how to relate to the individual in a way that suits them.
Managing Criticism
In the past, though I knew how to manage other people’s criticism of me or my business, it was never comfortable. Now I’m more deeply invested in my own personal development and aware that criticism will not stop me growing. If I don’t hold fast to my goals and dreams, noone else is going to do it for me. For everyone that is challenged by me there are double the number finding my offering valuable. And I’m just ploughing on. How did I get to this point? I realised it is now or never. Either now I make it happen, or I just carry on dabbling in attracting students to my school for ever. How is this changing me? I’m working smarter, more focussed and bringing people into my business to help run it. I am finding the drive to do this by having a goal that I’ve decided I need to keep working towards every day. That goal is to be able to have a therapy business that has an ethos of inclusivity, of personal development, of sharing that can self replicate and provide a network of support for practising hypnotherapists. And I’m looking for people to share that vision with. The benefits for me will be clearly to develop other people while getting paid for what I’m really worth.
The Benefit of Networking
And another transformation is happening. As I interview more and more teleseminar guests, I feel a network of good will is spreading throughout my business environment. I’m working with people, making friendships with fellow therapists, building bridges often internationally and looking at working on joint ventures. This inspires me and keeps me interested in my work and in developing more and more ways in which I can share my expertise with fellow therapists. Increasingly I’m asked to talk or write an article or deliver a course. It’s scary but it’s forward movement and every step is one step nearer to my goal. This is the buddhist philosophy. We are all capable of creating immense value and especially as therapists, who are in the vanguard of personal development, we have the capacity to sow seeds of conciliation and peace in our world by becoming authentic, strong and responsible individuals.
Sharing my knowledge
I want to share this development with you. I want you to be part of the Open Mind way. And I want to see you grow in your Hypnotherapy practices too. You see, how you develop as an individual deeply relates to how you do therapy with your clients. Coaches often say about business people, the only limitation in a business is the lack of imagination of the owner. Any small business could turn into a major business with a leader who has imagination. Believing in our limitations means we will never achieve what deep down, we know we’re capable of. Keep track of where I’m heading. If you’re following me, I’m heading in a direction that wants to bring you with me, to grow and gain deep personal insight and to remove your own barriers to your success. To do that, you have to have an open mind and a seeking spirit. If that’s you then you’re in the right place. Take a look round the site and if you want to join my movement of insightful therapists, go to the membership page and decide which level of membership suits both your developmental needs, your geography and your pocket. Till next time.
0 Comments