Some have it only temporarily; others for most of their lives.

If you have Irritable Bowel Syndrome, is there anything you can do about it? Our answer is YES!

We have been using natural methods to help people with digestive problems for many years and have had good success with IBS. So we decided to set up a website dedicated to this common problem, to share information and offer natural ways to relieve symptoms.

Find out more at http://www.no-ibs.com. We invite you to send in your stories and experiences with IBS, comment on our blog posts, and let us know what other information you would find helpful.

Karen and Kathy

Here’s some advice about eyesight from Dale Carnegie, in his 1940’s book, How To Stop Worrying and Start Living. Carnegie was advocating one of the basic principles of Natural Vision Improvement and relieving eye strain: the importance of relaxing the eyes.

In Chapter 24, he says:

Tension is a habit. Relaxing is a habit. And bad habits can be broken. Good habits formed.

How do you relax?…You always…begin with your muscles!

…Suppose we start with your eyes. Read this paragraph through and when you’re done, lean back, close your eyes, and say to your eyes silently, “Let go. Let go. Stop straining, stop frowning. Let go. Let go.” Repeat that over and over very slowly for a minute.

Didn’t you notice that, after a few seconds, the muscles of the eyes began to obey? Didn’t you feel that some hand had wiped away the tension? Well, incredible as it seems, you have sampled in that one minute the whole key and secret to the art of relaxing. You can do the same thing with the jaw, the face, the neck, the shoulders, the whole of the body. But the most important organ of all is the eye.

Dr. Edmund Jacobson of the University of Chicago has gone so far as to say that if you can completely relax the muscles of the eyes, you can forget all your troubles! The reason the eyes are so important in relieving nervous tension is that they burn up one fourth of all the nervous energies consumed by the body. This is also why so many people with perfectly sound vision suffer from “eye strain.” They are tensing the eyes.

That was written over 60 years ago, yet it applies even more to our lives now. If you spend much time on a computer, it’s especially important to give your eyes a 30-second relaxation break several times a day. Try Dale Carnegie’s relaxation tip and let me know what happens for you.

 Perhaps it’s your belief systems rather than your eyes that keep you stuck. If you pull a muscle or sustain a sports injury, you don’t expect to wear a tensor bandage or a cast for the rest of your life. You allow the injury to heal and go for physiotherapy or rehabilitation to restore proper functioning. Once you’re better, you put away your crutches.

You can think of your eyes the same way. Whether you are nearsighted, farsighted, have astigmatism or wear reading glasses, you need to allow your eyes to heal so they can return to natural good vision.

Here’s some news that may be surprising: even the best eyesight is not “perfect” all the time! Eyesight is affected by a combination of factors including the amount of light available, how tired you are, and how long you have been staring at the computer. Chronically tense eye muscles, physical and emotional stress, poor nutrition, exposure to food and chemical toxins, and poor lifestyle habits including lack of exercise, rest, and relaxation all play a role in how well you see. So does opening up your perception of yourself and the world around you. What you believe is what you see. (Or as Dr. Wayne Dyer put it, “You’ll see it when you believe it.”)

In Natural Vision Improvement (NVI), you learn eye exercises to relax tight muscles and other self-healing techniques to release chronic patterns of tension from body and mind. You also need to unlearn poor vision habits that contribute to eye strain and blurry eyesight, and learn good habits that support your vision.

The concepts of NVI and the activities for improving vision are simple, yet they are also complex. This is because, although the eyes are physical sense organs, vision is a learned skill. Yes, you read that right. We learn to see.

In cases where a person with lifetime blindness regains their sight through surgery, that person has no idea what they’re looking at until they learn to identify, classify, and remember it. They must learn to recognize colours, shapes, street corners, the faces of their own family members, the rooms in their own house, and the subtle, visible expressions of emotion and social interaction so familiar to sighted people.

When you are born with healthy, functioning eyes, you learn to see and you learn not to see. You may restrict your vision to push away or escape from painful situations and feelings about yourself or the world. When you set out to improve your eyesight, these old, stored beliefs and emotions may surface to be released, occasionally causing some discomfort as you move towards a new way of seeing.

NVI has been around for centuries, particularly in India and China. Yogic and acupressure traditions both have techniques for improving eyesight.

In North America, Dr. William Bates is considered the “father” of vision improvement. Dr. Bates, an ophthalmologist in New York in the early 1900’s, found that teaching his patients to relax the eyes and the mind had a permanent beneficial effect on vision, whereas prescribing glasses resulted in patients needing increasingly strong prescriptions. He helped thousands to throw away their glasses and see clearly, and was even able to help patients straighten a turning eye without surgery. Despite, or perhaps because of his success, he was reviled by his medical colleagues.

What happens in classes or private lessons in Natural Vision Improvement? No one is asked to throw away their glasses! The glasses are a tool to be used when needed.

The eyes love movement and relaxation, so you learn activities that help them move correctly and relax deeply. Good reading techniques, good computer habits, and nutrition for the eyes are part of the program. Nearsighted students work with gently expanding their range of vision. Students with reading glasses work with relaxing and clarifying near vision.

Some of the activities may seem “too easy” or even silly at first, but they are designed to engage more of you than your logical mind. In fact, some activities get you moving your whole body, so it’s a good idea to wear comfortable clothes. Students find they have better results when they avoid wearing scented products – including scented shampoos and conditioners, and fabric softeners, as chemicals in these products can act as neurotoxins that interfere with the way signals are sent and received by your brain, so they may cause problems for your vision,

Vision improvement classes allow you time to connect with your eyes, with all they do for you, and with what you believe is possible. How you see is part of who you are as an individual in the world. When you change your vision, you change your life.

If you’ve been in the position of the one who doesn’t, you may be feeling frustrated by having to get a job in a different field, instead of supporting yourself with the work you love. Perhaps you look at someone else in your speciality and think, “I have just as much experience and training as that person. Why do they have a full practice, while my phone never rings?”

What makes the difference?

I’m going to answer this question in two separate posts, because your success is determined by two powerful and very different factors. One is internal and one is external.

The internal factor is the single biggest problem that affects every unsuccessful or marginally successful practice: your beliefs and fears about money and success. If you don’t deal with these, you can work as hard as you want and you’ll end up sabotaging yourself every time. We’ll look at that in the next post.

So let’s go to the external factor. If you don’t have this nailed down, you can lose more money than you make.

This factor is all about the nuts and bolts of how you manage your practice. It’s the key to your business success, whether you run a part-time, one-person healing practice out of your home, or a large, multi-staffed dental office in a medical building.

How do you find clients or patients and bring them in the door? How do you let them know the extent of your services? What about client follow-up? How do you document your sessions? Track your success? Know what’s working for you and what isn’t? What kind of literature or hand-outs do you have available? What if you have staff—how do you manage them? How do you answer questions and deal with complaints?

For a detailed picture of what’s involved in running a successful practice, I talked to practice management specialist, Zoe Tsoraklidis, of My Practice Admin, a division of Centered on Success. www.mypracticeadmin.ca We also discussed how she can help you, since having a successful practice means you’re going to be too busy with clients and patients to do everything I talk about in this post by yourself!

Zoe is what’s known as a “fixer.” She is a seasoned professional who analyzes your practice to determine what’s needed, so cash and clients or patients flow into your business instead of away from you. Then she helps you implement the necessary changes that impact your bottom line.
Whether you are just beginning your practice or are already established, if things are not going as well as you’d like, Zoe suggests looking at several areas of your business.

Business Marketing

First of all, how do clients or patients find you? Do you have a website? A business card? A brochure? Even if you do, are they coordinated so your practice has a recognizable brand and looks professional?

And how do these marketing materials reach your intended audience? You need a strategy for internet marketing and for becoming noticed and known in your community. For those who feel overwhelmed by the thought of having to organize all this, Zoe offers both services.

Going Face to Face

“Clients like to go to practitioners they know or have met,” says Zoe, so there is great value in making face-to-face contact. To raise your profile in the community, she recommends holding different types of presentations. Offering public lectures or workshops is a great way to meet people and let them know about what you do.

If you are in a niche market, or you’re new in town, connecting with other practitioners to create referral networks may be the best way to go. Zoe often organizes targeted seminars for professionals, as well as Meet-and-Greet dinners, and cocktail nights.

“When you’re paying for their food and drink, people come,” she observes.

“Isn’t it expensive?” I ask. “What if you’re just starting out as a one-person practice and you don’t have a lot of money to spend?”

“You can do a Continental breakfast—either in your office or a room in the local library or community center. Even with the food and the room rental, it doesn’t cost you any more than running a single newspaper ad! And this way, you have the face-to-face contact that helps create referrals.”

Not to mention that you connect with exactly the people you want to reach! BTW, if you know anything about print ads, you’ll know they’re notorious for having a lousy response rate, so you’re better off spending your money on the food.

When you need help putting together workshops, seminars, breakfasts or dinners, whether for 20 people or 200, contact Zoe.

(And if all this talk of public speaking and face-to-face contact makes you nervous, contact me. EFT is very effective at helping you get rid of your “stage fright.”)

So you’ve connected with potential clients, patients and other professionals who will refer people to you. Now what?

Making Client Intake Easy

When a client comes in your door, Zoe suggests you look at your intake process.

Are you loading up your patient or client with too much information at the first session and trying to do everything at once? Or have you broken down your services individually, so you can begin with an overall assessment, then proceed to offer the client a variety of services depending on their needs? In this way, you not only customize your approach to the client or patient; you add value to your practice.

Do you have an intake form? A consent form? A system for documenting what goes on in a session? In private practice, it’s extremely important to create a paper trail, especially if a client comes back at you for any reason. A good paper trail may seem time-consuming initially, but it can save you plenty of agony and money in the long run.

Make Your Literature Work

What kinds of brochures, handouts, and treatment literature do you have to explain procedures and services to your client? Do you have a newsletter? A blog? How do you keep clients informed about what’s new in the office, and let them know when you have special workshops or events on the horizon?

Maybe writing isn’t your forte. Fortunately, Zoe can help you with this and provides writing services, not only for your website but for your other literature needs. (Just don’t ask her to ghostwrite your novel. She’s too busy for that!) Make your business literature work to bring you more clients and keep them informed.

Tracking for Success

Zoe also emphasizes having a way to track your benchmarks. How do you track your success? Your client inflow? How many patients come in, stay, walk away, never return? Are you tracking your hours of work? Referrals? Your revenue? Do you have any idea where you might be losing money in your practice?

Tracking gives you a clear picture and lets you know where to take the precise actions that lead to success instead of mediocre results or losses.

Scripts – Planning Your Words Relaxes You

Now, here’s something you may never have thought about: How do you talk to your client or patient? Zoe points out that when you develop scripts for yourself and your staff, it becomes much easier to deal with questions and concerns in a professional manner.

Scripts are useful for connecting with your client or patient over the phone, during an exam or session, and when explaining treatment plans and payment options.

Maybe you think having a script is too planned, too artificial. But think about this. When you’re a health practitioner, you need to be as prepared as an actor on stage. It’s showtime in the office!

The next time a patient or a potential client asks you a difficult question, will you be able to answer it easily and fluidly? You will if you’ve considered it ahead of time and committed a well-thought-out answer to memory so it pops up automatically.

Yes, I know you’re smart enough to answer questions off the top of your head and you don’t want to sound like you’re trotting out rehearsed answers. But what if you’re tired or preoccupied when the questions or objections come? What if they’re fielded by one of your staff members? Would you rather have people in your office stuttering and stammering in front of patients because they don’t know what to say? Or worse, being rude, because they are taken by surprise?

How will you react if someone calls you up and cancels at the last minute? You need to be able to focus on the desired outcome—rebooking the appointment—rather than panicking because that was your only session for the day.

Your scripts will reflect you and how you choose to present yourself to your clients. Hey, even Barack Obama rehearses. Because we all have our off days.

The truth about scripts is that they let you and your staff relax. And when you’re relaxed, you feel more confident. Your client or patient senses that, and it gives them confidence in you, as well as your team, if you have staff. Clients who feel comfortable and well-looked after are much more likely to return, and satisfied clients who keep coming back are the foundation of your success. They’ll also tell others about you.

Follow-up

Finally, there’s follow-up. How do you keep the conversation open with your client after their appointment? In a larger practice, what is the office protocol for following up with patients? Here again, it helps to have systems and language (yes, scripts again!) in place to make this easy for all concerned.

Free Consultation

Right about now, if you have a one-person practice, you’re probably thinking that you’ll never be able to do all the stuff I’ve mentioned above. Don’t worry! You don’t have to. Just call Zoe and she’ll set it all up for you. She’ll even give you a free initial phone consultation for about an hour, to determine your needs.

Expect to answer some questions like:

• What are your services?
• Are you certified?
• Do you have a dedicated phone line, or do your clients reach you on your private cell number with the funky message that your friends find so hilarious?
• What is your business presence? (Not sure what that means? She’ll explain.)
• What is your desired annual income? By knowing this, Zoe can determine how you need to structure your business.
• What are your areas of concern?
• Do you have any experience in managing a business?
• Are you tracking your hours of work, your revenue, your case acceptance ratio?
• Do you have or need staff?
• Do you need a website?
• Are you currently asking for client feedback?
• Are you asking for referrals? Are you tracking them? What about testimonials?

Professionals with an established practice can also benefit from Zoe’s experience in team management, team development, and skills training.

Remember those two people I mentioned back at the beginning of this post? If you want to be the one who thrives, and you’re ready to experience the difference professional help can make to your bottom line and client list, I suggest you contact Zoe now, before she’s all booked up. She’ll help you implement the strategies in this post, while you enjoy her warm personality and great sense of humour!  www.mypracticeadmin.ca

Our passion is to help you achieve results in healing for your:

• Digestive problems
• Weight or overeating issues
• Anxiety and stress

At Results in Healing, Karen Alison and Kathy Raymond offer you the cutting edge in 21^st century healing techniques, combining the 5,000-year-old tradition of acupressure tapping (no needles!) with recent discoveries in neuroscience to help you get the results you want. We teach you the simple, gentle techniques of Energy Therapy and the Law of Attraction to enable you to release unconscious blocks and limiting beliefs that prevent you from healing, so you can live a more joyful life!

Imagine that life now. What will your life be like when you are finally free of the health, weight, and anxiety challenges that have plagued you for so long? Are you ready for change at the deepest level? To achieve results in healing, we go beyond symptoms to find out what’s really triggering your problems at the energetic level. This creates permanent change for the better. Our belief is that you are valuable and you deserve to live the life you dream about!

From a weight-loss client:

Before the tapping, my cravings were strong enough that I would not allow my husband to eat any of my trigger foods in front of me. This was causing a problem in our relationship, as you can imagine, and he was starting to develop an eating disorder because of having to hide his eating from me. After the tapping, all that stopped!

• Lisa Parzanese, Lab Technician

From a client with chronic constipation, who could go two weeks without a bowel movement:

Thank you for the information…..and for your time today! It was funny……I left your place, went to buy some groceries, and had to use the washroom….BINGO!! Then I was no sooner in the house, when nature called again!! Twice in one day is very rare for me!!!!

• L.M., Business Owner

Private sessions are available by telephone or in person.

Contact: karen :at: resultsinhealing :dot: com | kathy {at} resultsinhealing {dot} com