Creating a Healing Practice by Janet Mentgen
Originally published in Energy Magazine: The official Publication of the Healing Touch Program April issue. Creating a Healing Practice By Janet Mentgen, BSN, RN, HNC, HTCP/I, Founder of Healing Touch
Creating a Healing Practice
There are many things to consider when creating a healing practice. The practice needs to fit with your personality, your lifestyle, your values. Rushing into a practice is often costly and unsuccessful. Spend the necessary time imaging how your practice is to look. Work your plan on paper many times before making any financial investment. Set your goals and plans with an orientation to the future. Think about the practice in terms of the first year and years to come.
Definition of practice
A descriptive definition of the practice is a first step. Some types of practice include:
• private practice
• practice within a work setting – hospital, clinic
• practice with family or friends
• volunteer practice – hospice, cancer, A.I.D.S.
• church or ministry practice – parish nurse
• educational practice – teaching
Develop a vision of your practice
Being able to image your practice is helpful. Let it develop like a dream or visualization. Examine all aspects of the image and see yourself practicing successfully in the space.
Target audience
Identify the people you are going to serve in your practice. What is the scope of the practice? Do you have a special interest in a particular group of people or type of disease? Are you bringing to the practice your own special expertise or training? Will you be combining skills such as massage and Healing Touch?
Parameters of the practice
What kind of practice setting do you need for the practice? Is
the practice to be held in a home, private office, clinic, hospital, the church, the client’s home, or other places? Where is the practice located, such as in a city, rural area or near those you want as clients? How easy will it be for the people to find? What are the transportation supports for the people who want to come? Do you need a handicapped equipped facility for the clients? Consider the type of practice your want, such as sole proprietor, a partnership, a corporation. A business plan may be appropriate to help make these decisions. Legal advice may be helpful along with accounting. Consider your tax liabilities and how you are going to handle them. What are the financial supports and needs? Identify these in the beginning with a budget plan. What are your costs of doing business and what are your income potentials? Are you going to work full or part time in your business and what are your sources of income. Be sure to have a sound financial plan in place before spending any money on the business start up.
Tools needed for practice
To start a practice, there are several other items that you will need:
• Safe private location
• Massage table
• Linens, blankets and covers, pillows
• Phone services
• Office furniture
• Decorations
• Insurance
Marketing plans
Consider how you are going to let people know about your work and location of the practice. You will need a brochure, business cards and a way to announce your practice. Offer to give talks to small groups for educational purposes. Establish your fee for service and let people know before any treatment work is done. People need to know the value of what you do and how it could help them. Network within your community to let people know about Healing Touch. You may have to spend some time educating people about Healing Touch and subtle energy therapy. Have some articles and written information available for distribution. Newspaper publicity about your practice is always helpful. Word of mouth from satisfied clients is by far the best source of spreading the information about your work. Talking directly to people is also very helpful as it adds the personal touch and invites them to participate. Also network with other health professionals who can be a referral source. Join in a group of other professionals or create a group to help support the efforts in your community.
About the author:
Janet Mentgen, BSN, RN, HNC, HTCP/I, founder of Healing Touch, was an energetically sensitive nurse. Her drive was to deepen and expand the connection between nurses and their patients. She saw the positive effect of touch while using various energy techniques and modalities. Janet began using her energy based healing skills in 1980. In 1989, Janet formally created Healing Touch as an energy medicine program.
Her article on Creating a Healing Practice was published in the 2006 Level 4/5 notebook. We thought Janet’s original words would be appropriate for this issue which focuses on building your practice. Janet transitioned on September 15, 2005.