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Your
Biofeedback Practitioner's Hero's Journey
© Rob Kall, 2005 |
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The info on the hero's journey lists
factors and stages that might apply to you, that have been key factors in
other practitioners' hero's journey. They certainly will not ALL apply to
you. Some of the challenges are covered in parts of this web site. Others,
we're here to help you with. Drop an email (rob(at)futurehealth.org)
or call. If it's a quick answer, we're happy to help you. If it's more
involved, I offer consulting services by the hour and usually, in an hour or
two can help you make huge progress on your journey.
Rob Kall, president, Futurehealth, Inc
If you are familiar with the hero’s journey basic stages, skip directly
to the
Biofeedback Practitioner’s Journey.
The hero's journey at its simplest is
broken down into three stages-- departure (from the ordinary world,)
initiation and return. (Suggested
readings on the hero's journey, also called the monomyth, are listed at the
bottom of this page.)
Here's a more detailed overview, so
you'll see the bigger picture and understand how to use this to see how it
fits with your personal experience
In the departure phase, you start out in
the ordinary world, and then, you receive a call. It could be brought to you
by a herald archetype or it could come from within. Very often, people
reject the call.. at least until it becomes more adamant.
Upon receiving the call, with intention
to respond to it, the hero finds a mentor. The mentor helps the hero face
and pass the guardians of the threshold. The hero must cross the threshold
to begin the journey into the new and special world. This is a firm
commitment upon the path. The threshold guardians act to dissuade or
intimidate the hero from crossing the threshold initially, and later, try to
get the hero to quit the journey before completing his or her mission.
Thoreau has a phrase to describe people
who fail to heed their calls: "Most men lead
lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them."
Crossing the threshold puts you in the
initiation phase. Here, you begin the process of being reborn as a new
person, more aware, with new strengths, resources, powers... or magic. The
hero often starts by entering a cave, going underground or under water or
into darkness. This is symbolic of the fact that the hero is "in the dark"
on the basic realities of the new, special world.
Crossing the threshold sets the hero off
on the road of tests and trials, preparing the hero to approach and face
ordeals-- conflicts with dragons-- that test the hero's new skills. These
are challenges that must be overcome for the hero to continue on the
journey. |
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Your
Biofeedback Practitioner's Hero's Journey
Departure
Your ordinary world
- Psychotherapy, Psychiatry, Counseling,
Teaching, Medicine, behavioral medicine, Hypnosis,
Physiology, Coaching, MFT, Social Work, Nursing, Massage,
Meditation, Spiritual Work
Your call:
- discovery of the amazing potential and attractive
philosophical underpinnings of biofeedback
- Self responsibility
- you have a positive personal experience
- You like the idea of offering clients enhanced
self awareness and empowerment
- alternative approach to healing: instead of drugs, surgery, talk
- fascination with technology
- need of a family member
- need to be more consistent with a personal belief
system
- Desire to start a new, independent career
- Desire to build job skills that can get you hired
- disgust with managed care
- Desire for a new profit
center
- Burnout
- New Career
Your Mentors
- Books
- DVDs, Tapes,
- Equipment Vendor
- Courses and Seminars
- Conferences
- Supervisor
- Colleague
- charts, maps
- google and the internet
Threshold Guardians
- fear, lack of confidence
- family or friend resistance or negativity
- Job stability vs. self employed
- Training time, cost
- Money
- Education criteria
- Certification
- Finding space to see clients
- Finding and Paying for Supervision
- Client Focus decisions (kids? Adults? Addicts?)
- Insurance reimbursement/financial model
- Autonomy
- Marketing
Initiation
Threshold Crossing (making the commitment and taking action)
- Go for Basic training
- Finding a supervisor
- Actually finding an office and signing a lease
- Buying equipment
Going Under, Entering the Underworld, Under Water (the beginning of
being reborn, you enter the symbolic womb)
- Supervision
- Supervision
- Fist clients
- Learning software
- Learning the magic of biofeedback
- Learning protocols
- Business card
- Website
- Networking
- Pricing your Services
- Deciding if you want to specialize and what you want to specialize in
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Road of Trials
- Evaluating, adjusting personal habits: Smoking, diet, exercise
- Personal self regulation
- Insurance billing
- Competitors—biofeedback, other professionals
- Hiring employees
- Negotiating with vendors, billing services, yellow pages
- time management
- record keeping
- HIPPA
- practice marketing and promotion
- Continuing education; courses, seminars, meetings
- Meeting new colleagues
- Establishing new referral source relationships
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Antagonists and Facing the Dragon of the Ordeal
- software is hard to learn... you delay starting to
see clients for six months
- Ignorant power holders (local doctor, minister, school counselor,
teacher)
- Insurance adjusters who reject your claims
- Peer reviewers
- Financial challenges
- Getting and keeping clients
- Church of Ritalin, Barkley worshipping opponents
- Fundamentalists who say that mind training is of the devil
- Personal Injury—selling out vs. offering real help to genuine patients
Ultimate Ordeal-- facing
tough challenges
- losing your book-keeper
- your equipment goes down
- your best referral source moves or is lured by
another provider who signs a lease with him.
- Tax bill comes.
- Clients don't get better
- Peer reviewer rejects all your claims
- Competing practitioner in related field complains
to your licensing board that you are offering scientifically
unproven services.
Apotheosis; Attaining transcendence, Divinity, Magic; Merging,
balancing of opposites; Embracing the feminine; Making peace with
masculinity
- Heart, head, body and spirit become
integrated
- Biofeedback Magic; you help clients to heal
themselves and you get paid to do it.
- You're paying your bills, making a good living,
enjoying your work, the respect you receive in the community and
appreciation of your clients
- You are walking your talk, living a life more
consistent with your vision, beliefs, psychology and values.
Return
Return as the Magician, Master of Both Worlds, you have
succeeded on your journey, achieved the higher level of consciousness,
power, divinity, and you have the magic elixir you
can bring back to the world you left, the boon that will help that world.
- Successful, Reliable private practice with a solid income
- Or… comfortable part time job supplementing income from a day job.
- Becoming a leader in your community, field, state professional
organization, national….
- Become a mentor on someone else’s hero’s journey
- Become a supervisor
- Write
- Teach; your own seminar, as a part of a
program, at a local university, at national meetings
- Innovate; work with new populations, applications, diagnoses,
- Invent: new technology, new software, new combinations
- Explore/ do research in your practice
- Enjoy a wide network of colleagues, professional referral sources
- Invited as a keynoter, to teach
- Set example of personal self awareness and self regulation, calmness,
self discipline, wisdom, heart, compassion, success
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