Do you like helping people?
Are you passionate about creating and maintaining good health?
Are you always seeking to learn more about ways to to achieve good health?
Then holistic health may be the field for you. As a holistic health practitioner, you are helping people get better using a wealth of practices from different alternative fields. This means you can combine aromatherapy with massage with herbal treatments with energy healing and much more.
The most important part here is “holistic”, which means “for the whole”. You’re not focusing on a single part or a single problem. You’re not targeting a specific challenge. Instead, you’re trying to improve one’s overall health by focusing on the entire body.
If traditional medicine is like a mechanic fixing a broken part, a holistic practice is like a designer trying to create a better car by combining what works from several fields.
But what does this mean in practice?
You’re using one or several tools to improve the overall health of your patient. You don’t really need to be a jack of all trades. You can be a masseur and focus on this. Or you can combine it with aromatherapy. Or you can offer massage and herbal treatments. Or you can even offer massage and also Reiki.
As long as you’re helping your customers get to better health, the combination doesn’t really matter.
This field is confusing though because holistic health is such a big umbrella term it covers everything. For example, some practices are accredited and regulated. This means you can’t practice without a diploma. Others are not. Some people are doing everything, like “consultants” for alternative health. Others focus on a single mean. Some focus just on the physical. Others offer spiritual and emotional help (a good example of this are yoga trainers, as they can include a self development or spiritual component to their practices).
Some follow an established school of thought – like a “franchise” for alternative health, e.g. TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) while others are 100% self taught and created their own thing.
And to add to the confusion, you can get a diploma in as little as one week and $1000… or in four years and $50.000. So let’s cut through the confusion and answer a few very important questions about this field.
Question #1 – Can you become a holistic health practitioner?
The short answer is yes. The long answer is – it depends.
While becoming one is not as hard as getting and completing med school, it requires hard work and a lifelong curiosity to discover what works. Since there are so many potential services you can offer, you’ll surely find something for you, but remember that you are responsible for the experience and the outcome that your client receives. Maybe you can not be held liable as a doctor because you don’t fall under the same category but you have an ethical obligation to do everything in your power to help the person in front of you.
My best advice in this area is to do it if you love people. Don’t do it out of love of knowledge or science or whatever else. Do it because you want to bring good health to those around you. Put your market first. Don’t do it because you’re passionate of aromatherapy. Do it because you want to see people smiling. I guess this is the only real prerequisite.
This and having the time and the money to get a diploma or license in the field.
Question #2 – What should you pick?
Well, let me talk about the elephant in the room first – how much do you want to earn?
This is because a chiropractor earns about $67.000 per year. A nutritionist earns $58.000 and a massage therapist earns about $39.000 per year. Some earn more, some earn less, where you are and what competition you have makes a difference. But it’s a fact that some fields pay a lot more than others.
You can check the relative financial potential by searching on Google “average salary list” and then adding the name of your country. There’s usually an official, government maintained list that contains almost every single job and occupation in the country.
Why have I covered this point first?
I’m all for following your passion. If you’ve always been passionate about nutrition, then become a nutritionist. It is better to be the best in what you love than average in some field you’re not passionate about. But if you have no special preference, then you may look for something that pays the bills.
Question #3 – Where do you start?
Pick a field.
Look at the regulatory requirements. At the minimum, you’ll need a business license. This depends from country to country. Some fields require that you’re certified in that field. If this is the case, get your degree so you can legally offer this.
It would also help to learn about marketing.
Just because you open your practice, this doesn’t mean that people will come to you. If they don’t know you and what you offer, then your marketplace is limited to friends and family. This can work for a while, especially if you get referrals but it’s not enough to keep your doors open.
So learn some online marketing or how to bring customers using the Internet. Facebook is very effective as you can reach anyone for cheap. You can also use Facebook to position yourself as an expert and to build a list of prospects. In the first months or even the first year of your business, you may spend just as much time getting clients as you’d spend serving them.
Question #4 – How do I keep my clients happy?
This is something you need to discover yourself.
Running a holistic health practice is not just about the service. It’s about the experience. Everything matters, from how you answer the phone to the music you use in your reception area. Some people will be thrilled and grateful. Others will leave you a negative review no matter what you do.
You can’t expect to get every single detail right.
But you can listen to feedback and slowly make things better. You can follow the principle of Kaizan which means that you bring a small improvement every single day. You’ll make mistakes, a lot, and it will take you a while until you’re fully booked, but this is how all practices are built.
I’ve seen many holistic health practitioners. Most fail, not because there is no demand or they don’t know what to do, but because they don’t put their customers first. As long as you do this and you see yourself as a healer (and a healer heals), then you’ll do well no matter what field you be in.
