Fall 2006

What Do You Do?

by Douglas Helmer

Ask an aspiring somatic practitioner what she wants to "do" and she'll usually give you her job title. For example, "I'm training to be a massage therapist," or, "I'm learning to be an acupuncturist." Probe any deeper than that, and these same aspiring wellness providers are often stuck for an answer. For example, ask them where they want to work, and they don't know; ask what sort of people they want to treat, and they're not sure; ask them whether they want to be an employee or work on their own, and they'll say they haven't decided. Finally, ask if they think not knowing the answers to these questions is a problem, and most will reply that it's not a problem, and that there's lots of time to figure that out after graduation. Learners say this because they're too busy, perhaps even overwhelmed, with the technical aspects of their training.

Unfortunately, and as industry statistics prove1, there simply isn't "lots of time" to make these vital career decisions. Put bluntly, if a practitioner finds herself on graduation day without a crystal clear vision of some very basic parameters that define her preferred career, she is putting herself squarely in the "Did Not Stay in the Profession After Two Years" column.

So what is the solution? The first step is to impress upon your learners that their professional title is not the beginning and end of the "What I do is..." or "What I want to do is..." answer. It is also not a starting point for a future job search, or a basis for selecting professional development courses. The professional title is only a means to an end. The end is, quite simply, a successful career. Wanting to have a successful career isn't a bad thing, so why shouldn't your learners take a few moments away from their microscopes, charts, and diagrams to define and describe that heretofore undefined successful career in as much detail as possible? It's a simple enough task, yet most learners don't consider, let alone write down, their preferred career parameters until it's too late. Perhaps this sounds too gloom and doomish? Surely one can wait a little time, maybe a year or two, gain some experience, then decide? No, they can't.

Newly minted graduates are extremely vulnerable to career-ending disappointments in their first year. Without a well-defined, and written, set of career focus parameters to guide them, there is a high probability graduates will fall prey to such disappointments. All it takes is one bad career track choice to derail a promising career. If some of your graduates are lucky enough to make good choices, they are still vulnerable because when the harsh realities of being a working practitioner begin to sink in, they may not have anything to buttress themselves when the going gets tough. A solid career focus is that psychological buttress because it defines in detail the desired goal, that finish line if you will.

The career focus parameters can be as simple as knowing the answers to the journalist's 5 W's: Who? What? When? Where? and Why? And let's throw in How? for good measure. For example, "Who do you want to work with?" or, "Who, that is what type of client, do you want to work on? Young people? Elderly people? Athletic People? Special Needs People?" If you had to choose just one, which would it be? The answer is the learner's preferred career focus.

Your learners must think about and commit to their personal choices that answer these 5 W's and 1 H before they graduate. Of course, there can be more parameters specific to your particular area of study, but these six questions fit all careers and are a very good starting point. With as little as an hour of focused thought and group discussion, your learners can create a veritable laundry list of parameters that defines their most desired career path and career destination.

Finally, you must impress upon your learners that thinking about the answers to these basic questions is not good enough; rather, each learner's list of questions and answers must be written and saved so that it may be referenced to in the future, or it will have no value.

Classroom Caper

TOPIC: Personal Career Focus

Objective: Learners discover the benefits of a well-defined career focus.

Procedure:

Ask learners, as a class, if they can describe their dream car, or dream house in detail. Ask for a show of hands. You should see most of the learners' hands rise. Now, ask learners, by a show of hands, how many can describe, in detail, their dream career as a practitioner. You should see fewer hands. This serves to illustrate how often we tend to overlook this important task.
Break up your class into dyads or triads, and have each group compile a list of as many parameters they think might help define and describe their dream careers. If they get stuck, tell them you are looking for the 5 W's, 1 H, and any additional parameters specific to your learners' area of study. Have each group read their list out to the class. As each group reads out their list, write out each new parameter offered on the board so all learners may see and use the list for reference in the next exercises.
Ask the learners if they feel this knowledge is beneficial. Ask for feedback and example scenarios that might demonstrate this beneficial knowledge in real-world use.
Now ask each learner to make his own, personal career focus parameters list. Give ten to fifteen minutes for this task. Next ask learners if this newfound self knowledge will alter or enhance their future job search/career building efforts. Another follow-up question could be whether they think this new knowledge will influence what they pay attention to in their daily lessons.

Further Discussion: How does it feel to not have a career focus? (Sample responses: Lost, Overwhelmed, Fuzzy, Unsure.) How does it feel once you do understand your career focus? (Sample responses: Confident, Empowered, Motivated.) What is the probability that you will stay at your first job for more than a year without having a written career focus? How might having a proper career focus help in social networking situations (e.g., a Holiday Season party, a job fair, family reunion)?

Materials Required: Pencils, Pens, Notebook paper, Flip chart paper.

Time Required: 45-60 minutes

Source: Douglas Helmer

E-mail Us Your Capers!

Please use the format:

Topic
Objective
Procedure
Discussion
Materials Required
Time Required
Source

Send to: SMA Info

Mission Statement

Teacher's Aide is a cooperative venture among all of us who teach business: a support system to make our job easier, more effective and fun. This newsletter is a forum for exchanging creative techniques on teaching business as well as a resource for exercises, handouts, quotes and tools for use in class. We welcome contributions, so please send them today.

Corner Piece

In this month's puzzle there are 36 words and phrases related to Career Focus (and at least 10 extra words) hidden in this word search. Once you find them all, look for the hidden message! (Hint: career focus parameters.)

E N W S E I T I L A E R S H G B E
A O L R E S E A R C H E A R T U V
T I O O A I P E A W I S O S T S L
I S H A C P T S L T T U W M T I O
V S H M L A P I I T P M E A I N S
R E N Y A I T L L D I E R E M E M
E F P W R S A I I A J T H R M S E
E O R E Y D S S O C I O B D O S L
R R O E O O C A W N A C B O C P B
A P M M R U L E G E O T E H J L O
C S O E S W H P T E I I I P U A R
T U T S H I O Y M A M V S O S N P
I C I E R I S E D E T O R I N A T
O O O I N S A C R I F I C E C N D
N F N T R A I N I N G L D N T E H
O G O O D C H O I C E S E E I N D
C A P A B I L I T Y D U T S M W I

:: Puzzle solution

You too can make fun word searches for your students using word search engines like DiscoverySchool's PuzzleMaker.

Mission Statement

Help!

It's time to update Business Mastery

Here are some of our ideas:

Expand the section on employment and résumés.
Update the information on technology.
Add more checklists and sample filled-in forms.
Remove the blank forms from the back (since they are on our website).
Expand the section on diversification options when building your business.
Streamline the insurance reimbursement information.
Add more tax and bookkeeping information to the Financial Management chapter.
Include information on doing research.
Augment the Therapeutic Communications chapter to include more specific skills such as negotiation and addressing clients' learning styles.
Update the marketing chapter.
Add more website references in the margins.

Please let us know what you would like us to add, delete, expand, reduce or change. Contact Cherie directly by e-mail or call us at 800-786-4774.

FREE Student Newsletters!

FREE! Go to our website to download a complimentary copy of two great student newsletters from Massage Marketing and Acupuncture MediaWorks.

These special editions are designed for students to send to their family and friends inviting them to come to your school for a student massage or acupuncture treatment. You (or the student) just download the issue, add the student's name and the school's contact information and then mail them. This teaches the student about marketing to their "warm" markets and brings more people to the school to receive student massage and acupuncture services.

Product Highlight

The Massage Therapy Career Focus Workbook

by Douglas Helmer $24

Give your students a successful career vision with The Massage Therapy Career Focus Workbook.

The strength of this workbook lies in its simple, clear message: career focus is essential to long-term career success!

Wellness Areas
Therapeutic Outcomes
Documentation
Approach to Wellness
Care Mode
Touch Depth
Treatment Settings

This is the only book that we know of that allows your students to define and understand in a matter of hours what successful therapists take years of trial and error and thousands upon thousands of dollars to discover.

This vital step, that of defining one's career, must take place before the advanced business marketing lessons. Only when therapists fully understand the product (which is themselves), can they hope to effectively market their practices.

Provide your students with this essential tool for their long-term success; because when your students succeed, your school succeeds!

Graduation Kick-off!

Staying In Touch Newsletter

Jump-start Your Practice Special: Download two premium issues of Staying in Touch newsletters for only $29—a $50 value and only available from Sohnen-Moe Associates!

Both issues have areas for the therapist to add her contact information. After downloading the issues to her computer, the therapist simply types in the contact information (e.g., name, return address, phone) and prints as many copies as needed.

An exclusive Sohnen-Moe bonus: Order these two issues from us and the therapist receives an additional version of both issues that includes two blank columns. This allows the therapist the option of adding his or her own personal information or special offers! This is a great for graduating students as well as your alumni.

Focusing Techniques

These techniques assist learners in focusing their thoughts and help bring clarity.

Compose a mini auto-biography
Write a poem or short story
Utilize aromatherapy
Make a collage
Do visualizations
Dance
Keep a journal
Read poetry

Create a mind-map
Meditate
Get a massage
Perform breathing exercises
Spend time outdoors in nature
Listen to relaxing/inspiring music
Practice Martial Arts, Tai Chi, Qi Gong, Yoga