How to make a living as a therapist: Set your Goal now!

To make a living as a therapist, you need to see yourself as running a sustainable therapy practice in terms of your finances, health and work-life balance. You then need to take appropriate action to create this outcome. Having an understanding of business practices and working through your blocks around money or seeking help from a life/business coach or mentor is an important step on a therapist's path. The information provided is this article is based on the practical advice from more than 20 successful therapists contained in the free eBook "The Therapist's Portable Paradise – Cultivating bliss and success in your therapy business practice" by Leisa Millar and James Ketub Golding. To make your therapy business financially sustainable, it is vital to be clear about where you want your therapy work to head by setting goals and knowing your core values (i.e. the meaningful motivation for achieving your goal). This clarifies what is important to you and where you need to focus your time, money, resources, further training, advertising and attention. It also highlights where there are gaps between where you are now and where you want to be. You then become less scattered in your decision-making and feel less overwhelmed or distracted by needing to do and learn everything. You may wish to spend some time pondering your therapy business goals or seek further guidance to help you do this. The process involves visualising what sort of therapist you would like to be and what values you would like to express. Visualise what you would like to happen in the future and how you would like it to look externally. You then may like to categorise your goals as 'An Ultimate Life Goal' with 'Short-Term Goals' (3-12 months), 'Mid-Term Goals' (1-2 years) and 'Long-Term Goals' (2-5 years). Choose time frames that are comfortable for you and create goals that could be reasonably achieved in these time frames. When setting goals, ensure that they are driven by your values and what is important to you. Values can be lived in each moment and don't require a specific external outcome to be achieved. For example, your goal is to own a health clinic. This is a long-term goal as you don't have the finances to buy this clinic now. Ask yourself, "What will the achievement of this goal enable me to do that's truly meaningful?" Your answer might be: "To provide holistic healing for my clients". Then a core value may be to holistically help your clients. This is something you can do right now in dozens of different ways, like giving your clients useful information, offering referrals to complementary therapists, sell supplementary products, or offer them words of support and encouragement. This means that while you are working towards your goal of owning a health clinic, you have the ongoing satisfaction of living by your values – in this case, holistically helping your clients. When goals are driven by your values, it makes it easier to achieve the goals because the inspiration, motivation and dedication to move towards the goals comes from within. It is not merely motivated by an impulsive decision or a one-off, future-oriented achievement. After you have worked out your goals, it is important to use self-enquiry to keep you aware of when you are heading off track or when you have personally or professionally changed and therefore need to readjust your goals. Self-enquiry can also help you to let go of any attachments and expectations surrounding your goals which may hinder your progress. Although goal setting involves considering and planning your future, it is important to be focused on the present moment during your day-to-day activities. Giving full attention to what you are doing in each moment helps to improve the effectiveness of your daily actions and decision-making. As a result, you stay on track to achieve your goals and create a sustainable therapy practice.

James Ketub Golding and Leisa Millar are both holistic therapists and authors, who blend their deep passion for spirituality, health and humanity in their work. This article is mentioned in the free eBook The Therapist's Portable Paradise - Cultivating bliss and success in your therapy business practice. To download and read this free eBook go to: http://www.thewayofthenaturaltherapist.com