Your speciality??

[angel?baby]

Hiya

As you may have read, I am about to start a post in the palliative care setting and will therefore be specialising in my work. It is an area which I have personal experience of (family not myself as the sufferer) and really see the value of treating patients and carers.

I also enjoy doing work with people who have environmental illness (CFS, ME, Fibrolmyalgia, good intolerance) as I have personal experience of these and what the impact of not getting any support / complementary treatment can be. One doctor told me to go and rest for 12 months and I would get better - like I would wake on the 366th morning and be 100% again. If I could pic my clientele this would be it, saying that, these seem to be the people I attract most.

When I lost my mum I had a barrage of grieving folk, although I never put the intention out there to invite them in.. obviously the universe thought I was adequately prepared to do it.

For the cancer patients I will be working with aromatherapy and reflexology. The EI clients usually get a mix of remedial massage (pain relief if they don't want the funky stuff or are new clients to me), natural healing, kinesilogy, freeway cer and eft. Those suffering from grief, when they were coming usually had the same mix of things as the EI clients.

From a treatment point of view, I tell people I specialise in massage and meridans and I think the way forward for me is further work in the quantum healing end of things, although I am not limiting myself to this.

I wondered, what do you specialise in, in terms of treatments and also things which you treat? Did you intend to specialise? Are you hoping to specialise?

It would be interesting to know if you don't specialise either, or if there are certain types of clients you don't enjoy treating or choose not to treat. I know we all have our 'thing'.

I think mine is dirty old men (said with a Captain Birds Eye accent), or indeed anyone who isn't mindful of what a professional therapist is about. Oh, and people who don't want to get well and just want a mother to do it all for them.

 

[basketball addict]

I often get calls from potential clients asking me what areas I specialise in. Although there are some that I enjoy more or that are closer to the heart for me, I don't specialise. There are some problems that people come to me with that are a bit boring, basically because they are so easy to treat, namely weight loss and smoking cessation clients but I have lots of these and they pay the bills, I'm sure most hypnotherapists would agree that these type of clients are usually so easy to treat that it just isn't a challenge.

As an idea of how varied my work is, the problems I've dealt with in the past week alone include smoking cessation, weight loss (lots of these, as usual), self-confidence, public speaking, fear of water, fear of needles, emetophobia (fear of vomiting), insomnia, MS, depression/anxiety, stress, panic attacks, alcoholism, IBS, premature ejaculation, erectile dysfunction, PTSD, drug addiction and gambling addiction.

I have, in the past, considered specialising but decided that I would quickly become bored if I did (I am one of those people who become bored quite easily). I suppose it depends on the person and the type of therapy but also whether they have certain problems which are particularly "close to the heart" for them through their own life experiences.

Personally, I like to be challenged in my abilities as a therapist and most enjoy working with the clients/patients who don't fit into the "normal" categories for hypnotherapy. In particular, someone I recently treated (successfully) for Borderline Personality Disorder - this was a first for me so I really had to think about what I was doing, research the problem and plan the sessions.

 

[b-angel]

Hi Gussie,

I do a lot of fertility & hormonal work. For me there's two reasons that I love specialising, one personal and one business.

I have PCOS and it took me a good few years to have my son (I concieved after received Acupuncture and Reflexology ... which lead to me re-training as a Complementary Therapist) so, leaning towards the fertility side was pretty natural ...... there's nothing like knowing how a person's mind might be working !! I tend to combine Auricular Acupuncture and Reflexology (just about to finish Hypnotherapy training) and as a result of doing so much of this work, I've become pretty good at it ..... my stats are fab ..... and I get a huge sense of satisfaction.

From a business point of view ..... I tend to attract clients who are prepared to embark on a course of treatment. By the time they've had 6 sessions they generally feel so much better and have seen the physical improvements, they re-book !! These clients then are also far more likely to spread the word and around 60% of my work comes from personal reccomendation.

I do see a lot of women, of all ages, all with different problems and personalities .... so everyday is different.

Meridianmoon xx

 

[Arroz con pollo]

Hi ya Gussie

The work I do seems to be massage for remedial, sports, pregnancy and learning disabilities. Eventhough I have trained in many therapies, Thai Yoga Massage is the thing that gives the results and I can very easily add additional techniques to when necessary (i.e. IHM, Reflex, Reiki, Indonesian & Tuina Massage). TYM has increased diversity in my practice in terms of age, gender, degree of problems etc. I think TYM suits my character and therefore the healing intention is deeper.

Overall I have become a specialist in massage (within the context of other complementary health modalities I have learnt) but a generalist in terms of ailments. I enjoy diversity and don't wish to specialise to deeply as it would bore me. Also living in a rural area, specialisation could be financial suicide.

I'm happy to call myself a Massage Therapist, and not invent silly titles like "Cranial-Psycho-Neuro-Myo-Osteo-Bowen-No Hands-Hot Stones thingy practitioner", which is often just advanced form of massage, healing and bodywork. (Cheeky again).

Best Wishes

RP

 

[amethystannie]

I work with flower essences and mainly work with animals although I do help people but more so animals; seems that's the way it has gone.

I work mainly on emotional distress in animals, and animals that have trauma and abuse issues. I also work on physical conditions and spend time developing new essences to help with different physical conditions like arthritis, essences for pain, for headaches etc

 

[Bill P]

Strange how varied just a few responses can be.

Bannick - I can see how doing the same thing over and over can lose it's appeal, there's only so much you can do with hypno and smoking cessation / weight loss.

I imagine treating personality disorders is very rewarding, the tougher, more complex, less likely to respond to conventional treatments (maybe done all they can medically) clients are probably the most intellectually stimulating and rewarding.

Reiki Pixie - I like the new job title, you should adopt it, has a ring to it.. What sort of learning difficulties do you work with? I do some work with special needs and I adore it..

Meridianmoon - Fertility eh? A very interesting area to work in and really quite emotive. As a PCOS sufferer, I can really see the value in working with people who suffer the ill effect of 'womens problems' (as they keep getting called). Attracting clients who think of reflexology as more than a onetop shop is the ideal scenario, as that's when things start to really move.

Rosi1 - Ah yes the essences for animals, something you do excel with. I've tried using the Bach remedies on my cats and it's worked well, although I've never really investigated this fully. Do you have specific essences for certain problems which the pets experience or is it all completely as needed?

 

[Aaron Williams]

Hi Gussie, I have both. Some essences are generic, like the ones for worms, or arthritis, bladder infection essence, essence for stress, hormonal imbalances etc

I then also make essences for animals on a one-to-one basis, so these will be unique to the animal I'm working with.

I do the same with people, some everyone could use, others are more specific to their individual needs.

 

[candy4panda]

Hi ya Gussie

Glad you like the new modality to complementary healthcare. I better copyright the title quick before someone else gets in there!

Learning disability is just something I fell into in a quirk of good luck when times were hard and had no work. It's mainly in conjunction with the NHS. the clients are adults, some of which can talk, and some of which can't. Its more for tactile stimulation, and one of my recent cases was a man who wasn't sleeping well. I have been giving him IHM, acupressure massage and Reiki, and the staff has noticed that he sleeps better after my visits.

A lot of my colleagues tell me how they couldn't do such work, but to me they are human beings that need care. They just have strange behaviour sometimes - who doesn't?

Best Wishes

Reiki P

 

[FLO]

Rosi - Thanks for replying, lost track of this thread, sorry! I wonder, I've been using Natural Healing on my cats recently and am finding most problems are either an emotional attachment of some kind or a sensitivity in the environment, do you find it's similar?

Reiki Pixie - I found people thought the same when I started working with people with learning difficulties - if they don't walk and talk and work ike us they are only half a person, kind of attitudes. I don't think you really appreciate how rich they are until you work with them or have someone with a learning difficulty as a relative or friend.

I love learning a new person though, their nuances and likes, it's wonderful if you have a non-verbal client cause they tell you what they do and don't want, it's refreshing, even if 'I don't like that move' means they get up and go for a wander.. so much fun

 

[GranolaMom]

I spotted this thread some time ago, but I really can't think what my speciality is. (perhaps you could tell me J? )

I'm gonna keep thinking about it in the meantime.

 

[Candleguy:]

I started my work in Palliative care one month after my mother died from cancer. A placement was offered to me, and I felt it was the right time for me to work in this field from my personal experiences of illness in the family and I wanted to give others support in this area and to help myself overcome some taboos and fears.

The treatment I gave was aromatherapy - it was a difficult journey for me as I was in grief myself. I received support and guidance via supervision sessions and specific training on bereavement, death and dying.

I don't work in this field now, though I do sometimes cover other practitioners.

I have also worked with patients suffering from MS, Lupus and HIV. All challenging areas of work.

I continue to work as an aromatherapist and reflexologist with patients with HIV in my work in PCT's. It is work that has been and continues to be rewarding and has been a focus for my work for the last 10 years, long may it be funded.

Binah
x

 

[Aman]

Hi Gussie, Yes, many of the complaints I deal with actually have as their root cause emotional unrest, or the animal is weakened by sensitivities to the environment, and over-medication, radiation from x-rays, flea chemical preparations - which all compromise the immune system and lead to dis-ease.

But yes, emotional distress is very common. Remove what is troubling them emotionally and healing will take place.

What have you been using on your cats?

 

[Lynci]

Surrogate/ absent healing *hide* *smirk*

Not asking what you're good at Giles, that's a whole other thread.. if I was to answer that, it would be taking the raw materials of any course you attend, ripping it to shreds till you understand enough facets of it to make it your very own..