30 September 2011

Standards of Excellence

Michael Cohen

July 2010

 

Anyone can learn a new skill, but not many can put it into practical use and develop a successful practice. Michael Cohen, founder of RaphaYad Bioenergy Treatment, looks back on his success in becoming an internationally-respected bioenergy healer.

Eight years ago an acquaintance that was a training and networking mentor for a well-known CAM organisation said to me ‘You can’t be a full-time practitioner, you won’t be able to do it full-time and pay the bills’. I replied ‘Yes I will’. I had such clarity and focus I just new that I could and I would. It was the first time in 7 years that I had such clarity and I knew this was what I was meant to be doing. Without hesitation I closed our organic food shop and set about building a clinic.

Within 2 years I had an established full-time clinic in central London and I have never looked back. I was in a very fortunate position when I decided to become a practitioner, as I didn’t have to go through the arduous and indecisive decision that a lot of students go through. There was no need to deliberate and determine what was the right route for me. I knew from the onset that this was what I was meant to be doing. I wasn’t even looking at changing my career, when I first met a man who introduced me to some primary Bioenergy Treatment techniques. Immediately I had awareness inside me that these techniques and tools were there, but I never knew I had access to them.

Practice what you preach

I was my first client (and guinea-pig) and from day one I was working on myself every day. There was a fair bit of work, well actually a lot, bearing in mind I had 16 years of major spinal injuries and ailments as well as 14 years of hypersensitivities and food intolerances. 

It was through working on myself with Bioenergy Treatment techniques that I not only began to experience the powerful aspects to the technique. But it gave me a fuller understanding of what it was like to be a client with debilitating long-term symptoms; how one goes through the different stage of treatment; but most importantly coming out the other side of it, and defying all the orthopaedic and gastro entomologist consultants.

For the first time in my life I started to function on a level I had never envisaged. I now began to not just understand but experience those gallant words ‘full potential’ and I am still surpassing them to this very day.

Most importantly I was a testament and example to the client. This process is just as vitally important today to me being a successful practitioner and a teacher and being able to ‘practice what you preach’ is totally defining. 

 A weekend is too short

Having been a RaphaYad Bioenergy Treatment teacher for as many years, one thing that has stood out to me from all the students I have worked with, and other practitioners I have met on the way, is that anyone can learn a new skill, but not many can put it into practical use, to develop a successful practice of their own.

For this reason I held back from undertaking practitioner training for many years. I was also flabbergasted by how easy it was to become a practitioner. You can look through many advertisements and find courses that qualify you as a practitioner after only a weekend or two of training. Even doing a weekend course once a month for a year is questionable. What you find is the student doesn’t spend enough time in training mode to be able to take on all the aspects of working and living with the technique.

Through experience I can say that a student needs to be training for 2 day every week over a consistent period of say 6 months. This way they start to live it and breathe it. Additionally the training cannot just be in a workshop environment it needs to incorporate an element that is in a clinic environment, because the clinic is reality and so are the clients. This is the optimum learning environment.

When the government launched the Voluntary Self-Regulations (VSR) for practitioners I was delighted. This was going to sift out the charlatans and the under-trained or in-experienced so called practitioners. Although VSR is voluntary I think it is necessary for our industry to have rules and guidelines to make sure that practitioners are fully trained and are able to provide the public with a service and expertise second to none. Standards of expertise and therapeutic relationships are essential in order for CAM practitioners to be further integrated and work alongside mainstream medicine.

The business acumen

The other aspect that I attribute to my success as a practitioner and teacher is the marketing and business management skills that I had from previous careers. It is these skills that have enabled me to establish, build and develop the school and clinic that proved essential. These are the skills that are going to make or break a practitioner in their ability to market themselves out there alongside other practitioners in their field.

I knew from the moment of launching our practitioner training course that this aspect had to play an equal part alongside technique training. The students will have the benefit of my 25 years of business experience and specifically 8 years running a successful clinic.

This important element of training gives the newly qualified practitioner the business and clinic management, knowledge base and acumen from day one of opening their own clinic; with the peace of mind that all the tried and tested templates and systems are in place.

The niche

A niche market can mean the success or failure to develop and run a successful clinic. When you look at some of the most common treatment techniques you need to consider the advantage of it being a well known household name or not. On one level the familiarity is good, but as a practitioner it can work against you. Everyone of the same modality is your competition and they are preying on the same customers. So one has to consider if there is a saturation point, before determining if this modality can benefit from another practitioner in your local area.

One thing that made me laugh when I was working at one of my first clinics in Ladbroke Grove. I was given a leaflet by the centre for a practitioner who had loads of skills and then was just me, with just the one. This practitioner could do healing, reiki, light therapy, massage, indian head massage, mediation…the list just went on and on about 12 different techniques in all. What was so apparent was that although she was able to do all these skills, she was not a specialist of any.

Working in a niche but ever expanding field of treatment is why we have been able to build a reputation and gain a good corporate identity that has lead to our successes. I feel that a growing marketplace is better than a saturated one.

The other aspect of working in a niche field is the type of work that you do. It is important that the technique has the ability to provide a good, lasting affect that inspires the client to make positive changes in their lives thereafter. The specific type of client or ailments that you specialise in is equally important. For us having worked with difficult and debilitating illnesses and symptoms with both children and adults is what makes the work defined and very rewarding.

Dilution

The other important aspect to not being saturated is that it is imperative that we do not allow our technique to become diluted like so many others. In particular those where practitioners have received just basic training or those who have integrated other techniques but still call it the same name. I should say that integration is fine but then it needs a new identity. But in so many cases they are not and the public do not really know what they are getting.

I remember when I had an organic food shop when one of my staff offered to give me a shoulder massage. I thought great, having had such a long day. But as we went through the session I realised that she was doing something else. In this case some reiki as well. It wasn’t that I had a problem with reiki, it was the fact that she was giving me treatment without telling me.

Dilution and misrepresentation are the two main things that have held me back for years from training practitioners. Myself and my wife Joanne who is a senior practitioner and administrator of the foundation have invested so much into our clinic, school and reputation we just didn’t wanted ill-guided, poorly managed and trained practitioners going out there and living off what we had strived for years to build up. Then for the rug to be pulled from below our feet for the sake of earning a few extra bucks and giving out certificates.

Standards of excellence

As the founder of a technique and training school I feel that not only do I have a role but a responsibility to make sure that all practitioner students and newly qualified practitioners have the skills, experience and knowledge base to represent themselves and their school / foundation. Most importantly that the practitioner adheres to the standards of excellence, as the public deserve no less.

For this reason not do only do the students need to receive the training, but thereafter once qualified it is a necessity that they receive a mentoring and support system to be in place, to maintain such standards of excellence and to develop and fine tune the techniques and knowledge base thereafter.

CAM Magazine