I have been teaching since 1989. I like teaching because I get to do most of the talking, I get to tell people what to do, and my students laugh at my jokes! When I completed hypnotherapy school, I faced the same dilemma as everyone else. How was I going to attract clients? How was I going to let people know that I was in practice? One day a little voice in my head said, “You could teach a workshop.” When people at school asked me how I planned to start my practice I would say, “I am going to teach a class.” Then I would look around, wondering who had said that. I felt uncomfortable talking even to two people at once! How could I teach a group? However, teaching held a certain fascination for me and was sure to build my practice, so I forged ahead.
Increase your income
Whether you are starting in practice or would simply like to increase your income, teaching can help you. If you teach a 5-hour workshop to ten people at a cost of $125 each your income for the workshop is $1,250 or $250 per hour.
Another positive aspect of teaching is that you can reach more people at once than with private sessions. Your students will spread the word about your workshops and send their friends, neighbors and relatives.
Many of your students will ask for private appointments, of course, which is the point of initial teaching sessions. However, some of your private clients will benefit from the workshops you offer and ask for more! You may find that regular workshops become a strong component of your business.
Topics to teach
The next question is what to teach? Here’s a list of topics which have drawn the most interest from people. I think that it is more important, though, to pick a topic that interests you.
Think about your specialty as you look at the following list. What tools do you use with clients to resolve issues in these areas? How could you incorporate those tools into a group format?
▪ Stress relief ▪ Pain management ▪ Overcome fear
▪ Weight ▪ Self hypnosis ▪ Self-esteem
▪ Smoking ▪ Test anxiety ▪ Past life regression
▪ Learn self love ▪ Develop intuition ▪ Explore dreams
The time commitment for each workshop varies; for example, I currently teach self hypnosis in a five hour format, two, 2½ hour sessions. I offer stress relief as a single 2½ hour session, self-esteem in two sessions, 2½ hours each. The fear class required a longer time frame–2½ hours each for six to seven weeks.
The only area in which I had enough confidence to teach immediately after graduation was self hypnosis, and I taught it for 16 years. When students have learned how to do self hypnosis, they are then prepared to apply their knowledge to other topics such as to self-esteem, stress relief, and pain management.
After developing my basic workshops I began a series of six-week workshops. The first was healing the inner child, based on John Bradshaw and Catherine Taylor’s work. Preparing for classes was a tremendous amount of work and a great learning experience for me.
My next topic was healing codependency, based on Melody Beattie’s work (she is an expert is the field of codependency). After seven years in Al-Anon, this was a subject close to my heart. Again, the course required an enormous amount of work, but I learned a lot about myself as well as contributing to the knowledge of my students. I sometimes think that I gain more from researching and preparing for these workshops than my students.
I got the idea for another workshop while I was driving home on the freeway. Well, that is not entirely true. I worried about giving up my thirty years of bookkeeping and planning a full-time hypnotherapy practice. It brought up a great deal of fear! A friend suggested that I teach a fear workshop. Teach a class about fear? What a terrible idea, I thought.
However, in the mysterious way of things, about two months later, while I was on the freeway, this great, inspired idea hit me–I could teach a workshop on fear! It was always a good idea. I just had not been ready to hear it the first time. When I was ready, my subconscious grabbed my attention and reminded me of my friend’s suggestion.
Listen to your clients and the people around you. What are the issues they are dealing with? What interests them? Make your workshop timely. Many people I see are angry, fearful, stressed and lacking in self-esteem. It makes sense, therefore, to address those issues in workshops.
For a really dynamic workshop you can also combine topics. For example, I blended my codependency and fear workshops. There was not enough time to teach both and the topics work well together. Let your intuition guide you in picking your workshop topics.
There are so many benefits to teaching workshops. People really do enjoy learning in groups. It fits better into their budgets, they can share the experience with a friend and learn, first hand, if they want to book a private appointment with you. I have field-tested curriculum listed here or you can do the research and write your own material. Either way, get started today!
Excerpt from Business Solutions: Build Your Successful Holistic Practice
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