practitioner needs to be successful is within his that will help to define a pathway to completing
or her reach, but you must reach out to get it. the overall professional goals. By setting goals and
Starting and maintaining a natural health prac- having a clear method of achieving them in place, the
tice is like any other business, it depends on making practitioner can fulfill his or her personal and profes-
the public aware of your qualified services and sional intentions and thus have a fulfilling practice.
building a client base. It goes without saying that Many are familiar with the law of attraction and
your services must be needed within the market, but the benefits of visualization. To use this concept, the
your ability to provide the general public with a good practitioner will need to visualize the type of practice
service will never be used unless people know about sought. Once this has been accomplished, he or she
it. Moreover, you never know from where you might will have unlimited access to the resources available
be securing your first, or next, good client. Although, for success in obtaining and integrating personal and
they sometimes come from the least expected places, professional tools into the practice with confidence
the best clients often come from referrals, as they and direction.
One example is a massage
therapy practice. This is an excel-
lent area for the practitioner to
use his or her knowledge for
recommending water intake and
proper food selection. Educating
the client on how this affects the
body’s system to help flush out
toxins after the massage session
have immediate comfort level and first-hand knowl- is a great example of integrating education with prac-
edge of the services provided. tice skill. Another example is a nurse who may want
The principle of orienting your practice toward to integrate his allopathic education with a natural
your life is known as integration. To help integrate health education and be a catalyst for bringing the
various skills into a practice is to take some steps in two healthcare worlds together.
strategic planning. This can be accomplished by clari- Everyone has personal and professional experi-
fying the practitioner’s purpose, objectives, and goals. ences that will benefit clients and can be integrated
This will help create effective plans for integrating into a practice. By using your knowledge, history,
the appropriate skills needed for a successful practice. and personal experience you can incorporate all of
In this case, the practitioner would develop a this into a practice and create a “tool kit” of infor-
mission statement that summarizes the practitio- mation to educate clients about healthy lifestyle
ner’s goals and the goals of the practice. Next, it’s choices and the use of natural healing to maintain
recommended to make a list of objectives such as health and wellness.
statements that reflect the personal values the prac-
Lisa a. Burke, ND, CTN
titioner would like to incorporate in the practice.
Finally, make a list of goals to achieve the practice
desired. This can be done by naming specific tasks
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