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Creating a Conscious Destiny

by Michelle Vandepas, D.D. Candidate

My studies with AIHT have taken a detour for the past several years while I have been a consultant to holistic practitioners and published my book, Marketing for the Holistic Practitioner.

Over the past ten years I have met hundreds of holistic practitioners. Some were struggling financially and others were supporting themselves and providing a comfortable living for their families. As a consultant, I am often asked what makes one practitioner financially successful while another scrapes by week to week. What are the skills needed to build a practice? My answer: it is partially a combination of being and doing.

The holistic industry has a special place in my heart. In 1987 I was diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome along with Epstein Barr and Mononucleosis. Somehow I managed to keep my computer business running with a myriad of symptoms that included migraine headaches, permanently swollen lymph glands, arthritis, and extreme tiredness. Put simply, my body was worn out, burned out, and I was depleted, emotionally and spiritually.

My health journey had not yet taken me into the holistic world. And then a friend introduced me to Dr. Spencer Woolley, a homeopathic physician. The first conversation I had with him was foreign to me, and included strange notions such as a nutritious healing diet. However, I connected to him and his message. More importantly, I trusted him and I trusted the modality. I started to feel hope that someday I would be well again. Dr. Spencer imparted a calm center; he was grounded, patient, and knowledgeable. He helped me see past my sickness to a world of wellness. This was a world to which I desperately wanted to belong, and so I began my long journey back to health. Along the way, Dr. Spencer introduced me to other wonderful practitioners, and many other types of therapies. Slowly I began to learn and study and I recovered my physical health and my emotional well-being.

After regaining my health, I wanted to use all this new knowledge to help others. So, with two partners, I founded a holistic company manufacturing homeopathic remedies and a testing device to work with the remedies and patients. We sold our products to alternative clinics and practitioners and we did quite well.

I soon discovered that many practitioners did not know how to market themselves, much less build a practice, so I used my business and marketing background to train our new customers. Over the next seven years I trained hundreds of clinicians who came from different spiritual and religious beliefs and practiced all types of therapies. I have worked with homeopaths, massage therapists, nutritionists, born-again Christians, and pagans. However, I found a common thread binding each practitioner. It was (and is) a deep understanding that healing comes from within, using forces not always seen. Healing builds upon a foundation based upon spiritual laws.

All the therapists were immensely gifted at their craft. However, many of them presumed that if you put an ad in the yellow pages, people would come knocking. Others thought that writing one article in the community newspaper, or giving away free services for a month would build their practice into a thriving business. I wish it were so, but it’s simply not enough.

Healing comes from within, using forces not always seen.

This book comes from my experience: listening to the practitioners who have such a profound healing heart, and then helping them reach their audience. I loved working with these healers and have learned a great deal about life and healing as I shared my knowledge of marketing with them.

My hope is that each therapist and practitioner reaches his or her audience to help heal the world, one person at a time. As we reach out to heal others, we also heal ourselves, and it is in this way we can heal the world.

Namaste to all of you.

Michelle

Michelle is a creative entrepreneur at heart and has formed a variety of companies; retail, manufacturing, medical, training, and service; and has done corporate and government sales. She loves sharing the creative spirit and does so through her present company. She is founder and president of Conscious Destiny Productions, Inc.—a company that enhances creativity in business, both hers and in others.

Michelle just completed her first book, Marketing for the Holistic Practitioner, a how-to book for therapists building their own businesses. She has also directed and produced a film, Woman As Butterfly, and is working on her second film about an artist. She works as a marketing and business consultant to the holistic industry, and travels to Taos to lead others in developing their creativity through free form printmaking projects.

For over five years Michelle has been involved in the weekly meeting of a group that uses the power of prayer, intention, focus and action to manifest goals and dreams. She believes conscious awareness of one’s creativity is paramount for the success of an entrepreneur. Michelle spends every spare moment in developing her own creativity, and currently takes lessons in art, dance, singing, piano, and writing.

Michelle also enjoys spending her time traveling and hiking with her husband of 20 years. Together they are foster parents to seven children—each of whom has reunited with his or her birth family.

For more information:
mav@usa.net
www.consciousdestiny.com