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https://www.futurehealth.org/articles/Your-Biofeedback-Practiti-by-Rob-Kall-091124-854.html

December 1, 2009

Your Biofeedback Practitioner's Hero's Journey

By Rob Kall

Joseph Campbell described a mythic pattern that any hero, any person going through a process of growth and increased personal awareness experiences. This model works very well for biofeedback practitioners, describing the stages, steps, experiences, problems, opportunities, challenges and rewards you can expect to encounter on your path to becoming a master of the world of biofeedback.

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Joseph Campbell described a mythic pattern that any hero, any person going through a process of growth and increased personal awareness experiences. This model works very well for biofeedback practitioners, describing the stages, steps, experiences, problems, opportunities, challenges and rewards you can expect to encounter on your path to becoming a master of the world of biofeedback. Futurehealth pres. Rob Kall, M.Ed. with his 33+ years of biofeedback experience as a practitioner, researcher, inventor, clinic founder, manager, walks you through all kinds of considerations you might not think of but should know from the onset of your work.

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

original image from 1866 Harper's bazaar below. Processed by Rob Kall


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.

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
*

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
*

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

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




Authors Bio:

One theme has run through my work for the past 40 plus years-- a desire to play a role in waking people up, raising their consciousness and empowering them.
I was the organizer founder of the Winter Brain, Optimal Functioning and Positive Psychology and StoryCon Meetings and president of Futurehealth, Inc., with interests in Positive Psychology as well as being involved in the field of biofeedback/neurofeedback since 1972.
see my more detailed bio, reflecting my work in biofeedback, here.

In 2003 I founded www.OpEdNews.com , where I've written over 1800 articles and have published over 100,000 other people's writings, with the goal of raising people's consciousness in political and activist ways.


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