Natural News

Dawn Ireland, a 43 year-old vegan with “no kids, 3 cats and two allotments to organise”, grows her own herbs, fruit and vegetables, organically of course, and has made her own natural toiletries and cosmetics, avoiding chemicals, artificial ingredients and vegan, for many years. Now she’s sharing her secrets…

“I spent nearly 20 years working in offices and being bored and stifled but not knowing what else I could do,” says Dawn. “One day my sister said I should look into training in complementary therapies. I first did a basic herbalism diploma by distance learning, then a herbal horticulture and botany diploma.”

“I perfected a few handmade toiletries, had them safety tested by a lab and began selling them in my local health food shop under the trade name of Green Wych,” adds Dawn.

“I realised there were lots of people who wanted to make their own products too, so I began a series of short practical workshops teaching others how to do it. They became quite popular and I expanded them to include soap-making, toiletries, household cleaning products and basic herbal remedies.”

Soon after, Dawn discovered iridology and decided she wanted to learn more about this fascinating subject and time-honoured diagnostic tool. She searched on the internet and found a course run by Devon-based holistic therapy school Kevala.

“It was perfect as it allowed time to study at home, along with practical tutorials to fit in with existing commitments,” Dawn explained. “I had a very good teacher with a huge knowledge and admin staff always willing to help.”

Eventually, Kevala asked Dawn if she would be interested in writing a short course on Natural Product Making, similar to her workshops, but more in-depth. She did this, and after taking a basic teacher training qualification, now teaches at the college.

“The past few years of study have given me the confidence to enrol for Herbal Medicine degree,” says Dawn, who works in her local health food shop, where she is able to promote her courses. “This is something I would never have believed possible a few years ago. My advice to others considering changing careers, or wanting to start something new, is - go for it, be positive, you become what you meditate upon!”

You can find out more about Dawn’s Natural Product Making course at: http://www.kevala.co.uk

The idea of going for a scan can create anxiety. Whether for the purposes of routine screening or to double-check a medical suspicion, scans also tend to be rooted in the physical body. So the idea of a metaphysical or holistic scan – to look for energetic blockages – caught my interest.

It’s Kimberley Jones, a Torquay born and bred Art Historian turned healer and artist, who offers this insightful and unusual service under the banner of Quantum Coaching and Healing, and for anyone remotely interested in the connection between the emotions, the mind and health – she’s a must-see.

Sure I was intrigued to learn that Kimberley “reads” bodily energy with her hands and can feel colours - red, blue and green - which reveal different types of energetic information all over the body. But I was relieved to be greeted by a very normal looking and sounding person when I went for my initial consultation.

“I have sensed ‘energy’ since I was a child - although I wouldn’t have called it that,” Kim told me when I quizzed her about her background. “I just knew what people were thinking and feeling.”

“Growing up I found my sensitivity made it hard to be in the world so I started numbing myself with alcohol and cigarettes at a very young age. I convinced myself I could get a respectable job and perhaps be a ‘businesswoman’, whatever that meant,” Kim revealed.

“Nothing satisfied me and I moved jobs regularly. I buried my abilities deeper and deeper until I forgot about them. I got more and more stressed,” added Kim whose mother it turns out was also highly psychic.

Following her mother’s death in 1997, Kim started experiencing violent psychic events and her abilities were blasted wide open again, far stronger than before.

“I went into a ’spiritual emergency’, a crisis that often leads to a breakdown of some kind,” Kim told me. “I also became physically unwell. Diagnosed with Fibromyalgia in 2000, I became unable to function in any normal way and had to stop work.”

“The one thing that had a strong effect on me during these years was healing. Whether spiritual healing or Reiki, each session led to a huge improvement in my condition and my reawakened extra-sensory abilities.”

“Eventually I was strong enough to start my own research and training, using myself as my own guinea pig,” she explained. “I began by studying Reiki and am now a Reiki Master.”

Soon after Kim trained in “energy mastery” and the “energetics and spirituality of business”, followed by a voluntary apprenticeship to a leading European re-birthing therapist, which enabled her to learn more about how pain, both emotional and physical, is just energy held in the body’s energetic fields.

“This is when I started to see and sense how energy behaves in and around the body according to what we are thinking. It was a huge breakthrough for me,” she said.

Kim has now developed all of her learning into a system called Quantum Coaching and Healing where she uses her abilities as an “energy intuitive” to scan people’s energy fields and offer guidance and healing according to what she finds.

“I have found this cuts through to a truth that is validated by my clients time and again,” she told me. “People are regularly referred to me by their psychotherapist or body work therapist. Your energy fields never lie. They always speak the truth about the deep issues underlying anything you want help with.”

Kim reckons our masks, inherited beliefs and attitudes are like our ‘words’, and she calls the real us revealed by our energy, our ‘music’, claiming that if our words and music don’t go together we get imbalance and eventually dis-ease of some kind.

“I see my job as something resembling a choir master, bringing your words and music together so you can sing your own unique song in the world with health, confidence and joy,” says Kim who also offers support to those highly sensitive to the energy of others at work or at home.

Her Quantum Coaching and Healing sessions involve clients lying down fully clothed and relaxing on a treatment bed. Kim then passes her hands over and around your body sensing energy fields as though she has “eyes in her hands”.

Kimberley’s approach – after an initial and thorough pre-treatment discussion - is a really interesting blend of off-the-beaten-track energy work and hi-tech methodology. Lying on her treatment table, I was at first aware of her ’scanning’, but soon drifted off into a much-needed snooze, comfortable in the safety of her already-healing space.

Before I fell into too much of a slumber however, I saw how Kimberley transcribed the sensations felt and ’seen’ through her hands into coloured shading on an outline of a human body – representing me and my energy on this particular day - on her laptop screen, for later interpretation.

It must have been around 30-40 minutes, when I felt Kimberley’s healing touch on my arm inviting me to rejoin the conscious world. A little fuzzy still, I returned to the consulting area to be greeted by a pretty map of my metaphysical energy and to hear Kimberley’s insights, findings and ideas about what it all meant.

Depending on what is needed, Kim uses healing, visualisations, breathing, relaxation techniques and energy meditations, drawing on her toolkit of training and experience combined with intuitive and psychic sensing.

She’s good and she’s accurate. Coming from a very loving and supportive place – and not in any way ungrounded or annoyingly new age – Kim really gave me something to think about and a number of useful tips to help me through what she saw as my energetic blocks. I’ve always thought the body never lies, and Kim’s energetic extension of this theory takes things a convincing step further.

Kimberley Jones’ Quantum Coaching & Healing is available in Totnes and Netwon Abbot. Call 01803 868282 for more information or a consultation. Or visit: www.quantum-coaching.co.uk

(From www.holisticlocal.co.uk)

We’ve a neat little e-guide for you this week - The kettle guide to PR and publicity for holistic businesss. The idea here is that in the time it takes to boil a kettle, you’ll get some basic facts on PR and publicity for your business.

http://www.holisticlocal.co.uk/prservices

click here

The ‘therapists’ secret weapon’ Carl Munson reckons that if you want your business to work for you, and not end up exhausted working for your business, you need to face one fact and get external help.

I’m sure you’ll agree that you “you don’t know what you don’t know” (you might want to read that again). This is especially true when it comes to running your own business, because if your business is struggling or not giving you the results you want, you clearly - as yet - don’t know what you need to succeeed.

Somebody once said that running a holistic business was “the best job in the world, but one of the hardest to get off the ground”. I agree that it’s the best job in the world - helping people to be well, healthy and happy. And I believe you should make a good living - if not a great living - doing it. In fact there’s never been a better time:

Think about it:

• Interest in complementary therapies is UP
• Interest in sustainability and care for the environment is UP
• Natural health awareness is way UP
• Awareness about alternative living is UP
• Demand for ethical, fairly traded and handcrafted products is UP

Where the wind was once in our faces it’s now behind us, filling our sails. And yet…

Why is it that so many holistic businesses are setting up with the best of intentions and sadly struggling along often getting nowhere fast? It comes back to the old chestnut: “they don’t know what they don’t know”

Andy Metcalfe who started international business directory and resource Holistic Local back in 2005, knows better than anyone the challenges of starting a business that “seemed like a good idea at the time”:

“We started from nothing and know what it’s like to start a new holistic business. Although we now we have over 5,000 members, we want to share what we’ve had to learn the hard way,” says Andy who has perservered and been happy to learn the hard way. “The problems we faced, have been faced by thousands of business owners before us, and we realised the answers were all available if we searched for them.”

“It’s a depressing fact that, despite the ever-growing popularity of natural healthcare and conscious living, many talented therapists and other holistic business owners are not achieving the success they richly deserve,” adds Andy, “And in some modalities over 70% of newly qualified therapists quit within two years of starting out. That’s a grim statistic.”

“According to a survey conducted by HolisticPro in 2004 the single most common problem encountered by therapists and other business owners is finding new customers and clients, and the reason is almost always the same: they lack a basic understanding of sound business and marketing principles,” he concludes.

In other words: they didn’t have the skills they needed and they didn’t know they didn’t know. Sadly, like many holistic therapists who qualify from their health training completely unprepared for the realities of running their own business, they were probably forced into quitting the work they loved, just so they can earn a regular wage doing a tedious 9-5 corporate job.

So what’s the solution? Well firstly, concede that you don’t know what you don’t know, and secondly, recognise that you don’t know what you NEED to know - to not only stay in business, but make your endeavours a massive success.

As a busy business owner it’s hard to get the time to search for solutions, as well as get the support you need to make your business ‘fire on all cylinders’. But you do need to make time and you need good help.

Try the work of the people who I think are “the best in the business”:

Celia Johnson, UK author of “How To Be A Successful Therapist”. Celia has been a complementary therapist for over 15 years and so brings a wealth of experience to her writing. Celia helps therapists to bridge the gap between qualifying and running a successful business. She writes about various aspects of practice management and she aims to help therapists develop confidence in their abilities and gain credibility by working in a professional way.

Andrew Ferguson, UK life coach and author of “LifeShift”. Andrew has been pioneering holistic enterprise ideas for 25 years, with a strong focus on marketing. He is passionate about people fulfilling their potential and has supported some 8,500 individuals to turn their dreams into reality. Based in London, his main work now is coaching and counselling enterprising people on business and life issues.

Amy Roberts, Australian author of “Ignite Your Massage Business”. Amy has been a Massage Therapist since 1994, and has over 3000 clients!! She practices a variety of techniques, such as Reflexology and Reiki. The success of her business motivated her to help other therapists achieve the same results.

Stephen Kneighery & Michael Pang, Australian authors of “The Complete Guide To Business Success In The Alternative Health Industry”. Stephen and Michael are founders of Alternative Health Business Solutions (AHBS) a company that provides natural health practitioners with the marketing and business skills to build their client base and share their gifts with society.

Michelle A. Vandepas, US author of “Marketing For The Holistic Practitioner”. Michelle is a creative entrepreneur at heart and loves working with others who wish to incorporate their creativity, integrity and spirituality into their business planning and entrepreneurial spirit. Over the years she has formed a variety of companies; retail, manufacturing, medical, training, and service, and has done corporate and government sales.

Pete Dickson, the man behind the “Creating your Dream Practice” seminars and author of “How To Write Effective Adverts And Flyers That Will Attract Clients To Your Practice Like A Magnet”. Pete gives hints and tips to make your communication to your prospective clients as effective and persuasive as possible.

Ken Warren, author of “The Pitfalls of Private Practice” in which he discusses the common mistakes made by private practitioners and, more importantly, how to avoid them. You will also gain some great ideas for doing more of the work you love, marketing your services well, and gaining more clients.

Claude Hopkins, deceased author of “Scientific Advertising”, a must read for anyone who is planning to spend money on advertising, no matter what line of business they’re in.

Nick Williams, author of “Powertools for Building the Possible Dream”, an indispensable guide that reveals the secrets behind the rich philosophy of a truly successful Dreambuilder, and shows you step by step the fastest and most joyful ways to launch yourself on the fast track to turning your dreams into an abundant source of income.

Joe Vitale, author of “Spiritual Marketing: A Proven 5-Step Formula for Easily Creating Wealth from the Inside Out”, that blows the socks off everything ever done in the spiritual-material world before. This is the little book that explains how to have real magic and real miracles in your life. It’s a joy to read and casts a spell on every reader. Mind-expanding, too!

Nick Rampley-Sturgeon, author of “Marketing for Results” and “Profits Through People”, who draws on many years of expertise both as a business owner and an adviser to small business owners to provide you with practical insights you can apply to your own business.

And, not forgetting my very own guide “Extra Income for Therapists - The 7 Secrets of Creating a Successful Practice”, where I share the seven secrets that every therapist should know in order to build a successful practice. Being a successful therapist takes much more than just being a talented therapist. Talent alone will get you nowhere if you’re not savvy with your business and marketing strategies.

Search for these titles on the web, or get them free as a Visionary member at Holistic Local.

Go to: http://holisticlocal.co.uk/members/join/business