How to Explain Your Modality to Clients

Congratulations on finishing Healthy Boundaries Month in July! Now, you're ready to go even further to uplevel your practice by stepping up and having a plan for success.

It's time to really show up as the professional that you are so your clients not only get excellent results, but your business begins to take off.

It's no longer OK to be flying by the seat of your pants when it comes to your practice. You need to be Driving the Bus, both in your work during your treatment sessions, and also in your business -- it's the only way to create a safe container so that your clients can truly be in a healing space when you work with them.

And a great way to begin creating that safe container is to be able to explain your modality clearly and concisely.

The mistake we bodyworkers make is to try to get all technical when we explain what we are doing.

I know I did this myself. For years, I spoke with clients about their intracranial membrane system and their cerebrospinal fluid, not really paying attention to whether they were "getting it" or not.

I mean, I was super stoked to even know terms like the spheno-basilar synchondrosis, wouldn't they be so stoked too?

Well, no.

They didn't know what the heck I was talking about, so their eyes just sort of glazed over, and they often didn't book another session with me. Of course they didn't -- I didn't clearly explain how my modality could help them to feel better.

So, how CAN you explain your modality in a way that gets through to your clients and lets them know how it can help them?

Become fluent in the languages of anatomy, energy, and props.

The most important thing you can do  when you're communicating with your clients is to mirror them by speaking their language.

If they come to you and tell you that their energy is off and their heart chakra feels closed, you need to be able to communicate in that language. They will connect with you when you speak about how your modality can open chakras or shift energy.

You don't want to respond by giving them a run-down of the cellular components of fascia and how that might be contributing to the feeling of being closed off in their thoracic inlet.

They'll tune you out, and not get the most from your work together because you're not meeting them where they are.

Similarly, if a client tells you that she's struggling with headaches that seem to be coming from the tension in her shoulders, it doesn't make sense to begin talking with her about how your modality can clear the dark areas of her aura.

Most clients are somewhere in the middle -- they may be interested in both anatomy and energy, as it pertains to the issues they're struggling with.

Either way, it's helpful to use props or pictures to explain, so that your clients can get a visual picture of what you are trying to communicate.

I work with lots of folks with lots of different types of headaches, so I have a model of the cervical vertebrae and occiput that I use all the time to show people what's going on in their body.  It also helps me to explain how CST techniques can help with their pain.

Think about your own modality this week, and how you can use the languages of anatomy, energy, and props to more clearly explain it to your clients.