The Over-committed Healer / Under-committed Client Syndrome

Healers tend to be over-givers.  It’s just in our nature to want to give!

Part of our journey is learning to have healthy boundaries around your time and energy so that you can be as effective as possible at your work. (And also model being self-honoring to your clients!)

When I was a brand-newbie practitioner just starting out, my time boundaries were so loose that I’d bend over backwards to make a session available to a new client because I was afraid that, otherwise, they would walk-away.  I’d often go over time in my sessions…

When you’re having some of the struggles listed below, you may be OVER-committed, and thus making space for UNDER-committed clients in your practice.

…going over time in sessions

…saying YES to fitting someone in last minute when it’s very inconvenient for you

…opening up session times that are outside of your working hours

…not having the time off that you need to get resourced

…feeling resentment at times for all that you give / do

…feeling like other people take advantage of your good-hearted giving

…discounting your prices when someone says “I can’t afford it” 

…charging prices that you know are too low

🙀It’s not your clients’ fault (or responsibility) if you don’t have clear boundaries and are over-giving. 🙀

If you’re struggling with these things, then you need to focus on two things:

  Inner Work: Exploring the root of why you don’t have self-honoring boundaries, why it’s hard to say-no, or give up any people pleasing tendencies. (These are normal parts of being a human, and they must be addressed in order to have a healthy healing practice.)

  Strategy Work: Part of making this change is having the right STRUCTURES in place within your healing practice so that you don’t even have these problems come up in the first place. Things like:

having a clear agreement / contract with your new client so they know exactly what to expect, and so that you can refer back to it if ever needed.

blocking time so that you’re not spreading yourself too thin

moving away from 1-time hourly sessions into enrolling clients into deeper work together (so that they are more committed from the outset!)

I share with you all about how to create this balance in my free workshop: The 6 Step Roadmap To Find Clients & Make A Great Living.  You can check it out here .