By Amy B. Scher
A friend and I were just chatting about practitioners and how people can really choose the best person for them. When we got off the phone, I jotted down a quick list based on all my experience over the years.
I remember agonizing back in the day about who to go to, which doctor was best, and on and on. I drove myself insane. But now that I’m on the other side and I mostly only see an acupuncturist (and sometimes a chiropractor) for maintenance, I have a solid handle on how to know who to run from and who to run to.
Here are my personal rules for identifying who is not a good fit:
1. Practitioners who have the ‘my way or the highway’ attitude IF their way doesn’t resonate with me. Why? Because it’s a waste of time and I will end up fighting myself every step of the way. To play devil’s advocate, I TOTALLY understand this ‘I’m the practitioner so I know what I’m doing’ perspective. As a practitioner myself, I have a certain way of helping people that I know works. If people don’t like my way or don’t resonate with it, it makes it hard for me to help them, right? So I do require that people align with my approach and resonate with it enough to follow it. BUT, if someone doesn’t, I want them to find another practitioner sooner rather than later. If your practitioner has a ‘my way or the highway’ approach with something you don’t click with, it doesn’t necessarily mean they are wrong, but it probably does mean they aren’t right for you.
2. Practitioners who do everything. I don’t resonate with practitioners who offer 40 different approaches, who have facilities that offer as many spa treatments as medical ones, ones sell lots of different products, and so on. For me, the simpler and more focused the better. That’s the reason I focus only on emotional healing work. That’s my thing. I know it. I’ve studied it and done it exclusively for years. I’ve seen people go to practitioners who do nutritional counseling, emotional release, a little bit of x,y, and z, etc. and what I’ve seen there is that most of these people are expanding into many things to expand their own business, not because it’s best for their clients’ healing.
A note of caution: Many people deem themselves ‘experts’ in emotional healing after they’ve taken one online course or done a few sessions with a practitioner. This is NOT sufficient training or experience to deal with trauma. Please be very very cautious if your nutritionalist or health coach suddenly becomes an emotional healing expert. I’ve seen more people harmed by this approach than any other mixed-approaches.
3. Practitioners who sell supplements much higher than the suggested retail price. It’s absolutely fair for practitioners to mark-up supplements to cover their cost of business. But make sure your practitioner isn’t marking them up to double what the supplement manufacturer suggests on their website.
4. Practitioner who give tons of supplements but offer no other support. Make sure you aren’t going to a doctor who is just into supplement sales. For me, this massive supplement expenditure just flat-out has never worked. I have also never seen a client get better from taking 50 pills a day. It often causes stress financially, emotionally, and physically. I am not a doctor and don’t pretend to know what anyone needs; but from what I’ve seen personally, the body and mind do better with less at a time because of the taxation on the system from taking 50 pills a day. I always choose practitioners with the most simplistic and supportive approach and who offer more than just a ‘take this’ mentality.
5. Practitioners who condemn any one type of medicine. There will always be as many or more stories of people saved by a treatment as harmed from it. There is no reason to see any practitioner that discounts a certain type of medicine, approach, or treatment. I personally don’t trust anyone who sees so black and white … or makes a client feel bad for their own views.
6. Practitioners who comment on things they have no experience with. Welcome to the age of COVID where every doctor out there has an opinion or accusation, right? Ha. My rule here is to only listen to people who have experience. An example of the times: I have seen countless natural practitioners sharing opinions about how COVID death counts are being accounted for; and I all but guarantee not one of them has ever certified a death themselves. The way death certificates and ’cause of death’ are done now, post COVID, are the way they have been done for decades (my dad and my mother-in-law both died ten years ago and they are using the exact same process now). And if you ask any doctor who has actually attended deaths, they will tell you. This is not to get into particulars on this topic, but I hope it makes my point. Talk to people who are on the front lines of whatever you are seeking guidance about. Some more examples: While you may love your chiropractor, are they the right one to be talking about how doctors are doing it wrong in the ER? Have they ever worked in an ER? Likewise, should you listen to an ER doctor who thinks that your Lyme Literate Physician of ten years is doing it wrong? No.
7. Practitioners who jump from trend to trend. I don’t want to do a particular diet just because my doctor tried it last week and loved it. I don’t want to take the latest supplement because that’s what’s hot this month. I want practitioners who learn and evolve but don’t jump from trend to trend.
Basically, to sum this up? Any practitioner that stresses you out will not be able to help you heal.
So, what’s my way of knowing who is RIGHT for me?
They are kind.
They are humble.
I like them.
I feel relaxed in their presence.
And even though we might not agree on *everything*, I feel safe with them and supported by them anyway.
These are things we can feel and it makes the knowing who to choose so much easier.
