As a Professional Diplomat member of the Association of Systematic Kinesiology I am required to undertake 3 days of CPD (Continuous Professional Development) each year.     For someone like me who LOVES learning new things this is absolutely no problem at all…!  Continuous learning is essential for anyone in any profession but with new discoveries being made in the Natural Healthcare field all the time, it is even more critical for us to keep aware of developments.

As part of my general thirst for knowledge – and nothing necessarily to do with CPD – I have just read “Dirty Genes” by Dr Ben Lynch.   As a child, many excuses were made for a range of health problems, one of which was “its genetic” or “it’s in your genes” –

This was the heading of an email I received last week:

"Are you too Judgemental to Help Heal ?"

Interesting question - the gist of the email was saying that if a Doctor asks you questions and you perceive that you may be "told off" for a response (ie how many units of alcohol do you drink) then the chances are that you would lie.  Likewise if you are expected to answer in a certain way you will try to please (ie Health Practitioner asks - how many glasses of water do you drink)

The world needs more alternative treatment therapists: Where are all the men?

When attending the Annual Association of Systematic Kinesiology (ASK) Conference at the Arora Hotel Crawley earlier this year, I was fascinated by a fellow kinesiologist who spoke about new industry research. The main chord-striker was her observation that there were a distinct lack of male therapists in the audience (which was made up of ASK members like me) – interesting, no?  

Spread the kinesiology wealth

I am sometimes asked “why do you teach kinesiology?” The general assumption is that I would want to keep such a wonderful specialism to myself. Well, no actually. 

One of the things that astonished me once I started working as a Professional Systematic Kinesiologist back in 2008, was that no-one asked me for copies of my hard-earned qualifications or insurance.  I spent 6 months training for my Foundation Certificate and 1 year for my Practitioner Certificate followed by 6 more intensive modules to gain my Diploma.  As part of the course I had to complete 2 case studies at least per week, carry out 2 observed kinesiology sessions on an independent person (ie not another student) and many many hours of practical training.  Additionally I hold Anatomy & Physiology ITEC level 3, Emergency First Aid at Work and a Nutrition Diploma - not to mention hundreds of hours CPD, and Tutor Training - all of which are required to be registered by my Professional Body - the Association of Systematic Kinesiologists.

The onset of ill-health or disease (dis-ease) didn’t happen overnight – it was a process – for some over many years.  Similarly the journey to wellness won’t happen overnight either.

I am an impatient person – I like things measurable and I like to see results.  When I was running customer service training courses one of the elements we included was managing expectations and communicating clearly – one clients’ expectation of a fast response was within the half hour whereas another may well be happy with the following day. 

Communication and the management of clients’ expectations is a hugely important part of the Practitioner/Client affiliation.  Positivity, encouragement and motivation must go hand in hand with setting up a wellness plan together, rather than the client “handing over” responsibility to the Practitioner for “getting them well” as has historically been the case in Doctor/Patient relationships.