This life isn't about us, it's about others.

I don't treat pathology, I serve people.

I don't coach systems, I serve passionate individuals committed to taking the next step in life.

Why these distinctions truly matter....  Both create focus on the client.

As a coach I am commonly asked questions about my programs.  As a therapist, about my skillset and what differentiates me.  

My answers are quite simple.  How is it that I can best serve you?

Helping or serving?

As therapists we obviously help others.  But serving is something more.  And yes, the distinction is absolutely necessary as Dr. Rachel Naomi Remen's insights below demonstrates so succinctly.

‘Helping, fixing and serving represent three different ways of seeing life. When you help, you see life as weak. When you fix, you see life as broken. When you serve, you see life as whole.’ - Rachel Naomi Remen

Fixing and helping approaches don't always allow us to connect with a client and creates distance and a sense of authority instead. This is why clients leave appointments feeling unheard and unseen which can lead to a disempowered client which isn't the best place for them to heal.

For the provider, fixing and helping are draining, and over time we may burn out, but service is renewing. When we serve, our work itself will renew us.

Professional Responsibility

Assimilation into our professions in addition to the growing volume of post-graduate education businesses that largely teach 'systems and techniques' as well as a healthcare coding process that labels both the pathology/dysfunction also the techniques we use to treat those pathologies, it's quite easy to passively fall into a belief that the answers come from following that ideology.  The system is where the answer lies.

That belief couldn't be furthest from the truth.

Sure, labeling WHAT we treat and HOW we treat attempts to establish a competency and alignment for a client's situation but that approach lacks the ability to demonstrate the need to be dynamic and expansive in meeting the individual needs.  

I lack the laundry list of initials associated with certifications and specializations, yet I fully respect they serve a purpose related to competency.  There also is a truth in that the growing abundance of initials has diluted their value and those initials likely have very little importance to the client, which is who we serve.

Let's get even more controversial.... 

The medical model places pathology at the forefront of decisions.  The fact that a patient sees a physician and leaves the office with a diagnosis code and that label is demanded by a payer system supports that our actions and decisions are being directed by something other than the client we are serving.

We are also familiar with how that diagnosis code impacts cost-centered rather than patient-centric authorization processes that every medical professional in the 3rd-party payer system is burdened with.  

We also know that a differential diagnosis does NOT create any clarity in the underlying cause of many of the mechanical dysfunctions we treat daily in our practices.  In my experience, although there is many times a pathology or condition, it is RARELY where I can serve a client with my clinical skills.

In thousands of hours of continuing education, those that I consider masters are something more than experts in a given approach.  They minimize bias by working beyond a singular paradigm, they focus on attention rather than intention, and most definitely see the need of a client holistically rather than by a system.

And finally....

I don't treat pathologies.  I serve people. 

And I serve people by treating integrative and complex human systems including structure, physiology, movement, relationships, behaviors and beliefs.

I don't coach programs.  I serve passionate individuals committed to taking the next step in life.

I coach individuals uniquely experiencing life and I serve only their needs.  I am fully committed to their fulfillment and joy.

Given all that we have discussed and how I serve, I no longer spend time learning techniques but rather working to see what others cannot.  To fill the gaps so that something more is possible.

For my clinical practice, accumulation of the expansive knowledge of anatomy, biomechanics, psychology, quantum physics all in order to sense and FEEL the body's current state and what is needed for health and vitality.

For my coaching practice, finding the common thread in what has positively impacted the human experience across centuries, and weaving them together for today's way of life.

Life is made more beautiful in expanding our experience. 

Live.  Feel.  Think.  DIFFERENTLY.