Practicing holistic medicine can be quite the adventure.

Despite growing acceptance, there’s still so much about these professions that is new and in development. For instance, the vast majority of us get little to no career advice and only brief, simplistic training in how to start and manage a clinic or solo practice. This can produce problems when we graduate, full of passion for the medicine, but uncertainty about what steps to take to achieve success.

And even when you achieve success, in the form of a great job or a growing new clinic, unexpected challenges can arise.

How to scale so you can make more money without spending too much more time? How do you negotiate for a raise with your employer? How to decide if/when you’re ready to leave your job & start a clinic of your own? How can you shift the population you serve if you find you’re not resonating with who you treat? How do you hire an employee? Should you pursue a Doctorate? Useful help in these situations, depending on your profession, may be challenging to find – or it may be impossible.

And then there’s all the personal, energetic and heart level issues that arise as we do our work.

Again, this work can be an adventure. Most of the time, the adventure is exciting, engaging, stimulating, satisfying. But, it can also be draining, depressing, disorienting and overwhelming, especially at first or when big cycles are starting and ending. When you hit rough patches of course general support resources are invaluable – therapy, movement, spiritual practice, recreation, nature, you know, the good stuff. Whatever it is that brings you back into balance is good.

But there’s also something very powerful in connecting with a community of people who share your specific profession, path and passion.

In asking questions, in listening to others’ questions be answered, in sharing your own expertise and experience, you learn and transform. You start to find traction. And at the very least, you have a group to commiserate with who has been there. Even via digital means and over vast distances, the mutual support & environment of sharing is uniquely powerful for those who spend the time to access it.

The Whole Life Practitioner Learning community seeks to provide the kind of resources, support and space to help holistic medicine students and professionals like you build resonant careers and stable financial futures. I truly believe that we as a profession are better when we are actively working together to build knowledge, skills and solidarity. We’d love you to be a part of what we’re building.

What’s inside?

• Forums : A curated space free from social media overlords & problematic relatives to discuss all things holistic medicine practice. The space is clearly organized and the software is very easy to use. We offer features each week to stimulate conversation – more added as we go. But mostly this is a space for Q&A, sharing resources, celebrating achievements & getting support around struggles and more. Amanda and I watch the space throughout the day and endeavor to offer our take on topics within a business day. But the real magic happens when we all shake off the shyness and apathy and engage with each other as a group!
• Practice, Business & Personal Development Library : Currently containing 8 modules, mostly related to clinic marketing, this is a library of online lessons and mini-courses on a variety of subjects related to holistic medicine practices. My focus, of course, is on acupuncture practices, but the materials are widely applicable. We are currently uploading existing content – when done we’ll be asking for community feedback about resources we will be creating in the future. All materials are engaging, applicable and will be updated as often as possible to ensure the material is relevant.
• Monthly Gatherings : Once a month we gather via Zoom as a community! The goals of these sessions are diverse, but the hope is that participants will come with questions & things to share and that the conversation will evolve organically from there. However, we will also often prepare a short lecture on a topic of interest, which can then serve as a platform for discussion. Gatherings vary in their timing to allow for diverse participation, and they are also recorded!
• More to come : We are just getting started and taking our time to grow sustainably, and in line with our vision. We take frequent polls to determine what the community needs, and will continue to take in as much feedback as we can to ensure we’re creating not just what is cool to us – but also what is useful to you!

Who is this for?

People who own service based businesses in the holistic health & wellness industry are going to get the most out of their membership. Since we own a clinic that includes acupuncture, Chinese herbs, massage therapy, Naturopathic medicine, esthetics and has included a yoga studio, those are the people we can most powerfully advise. Currently most of the people involved are connected with Chinese medicine in some way.

People at any level of business could benefit from their involvement. There are currently people with many levels of experience in the group, and many different levels of understanding of business principles. The resources in the library right now are more oriented towards beginners, but even experienced practitioners who are making a big business change or maybe striking out on their own for the first time could benefit.

Because the majority of communication is asynchronous and the live meetings recorded, you could be in any time zone and have any type of schedule. That said, you are going to get the most out of this if you can spend an hour or two chatting & sharing & learning per week. You should also feel like spending that extra time looking at the computer will be worth it for you, and not feel like a burden.

What if I find it’s not for me?

Right now, we’re offering a 30 day free trial for everyone – so if you try it and don’t find value you can just cancel within that window and you won’t be charged.

But, regardless, cancellation is easy and there will NEVER be any hard feelings if you decide to go at any point in the future. The Circle platform has a very transparent cancellation policy, decent help documentation and good support response times. So, you’ll follow their instructions to cancel, and when your membership expires you’ll lose access to the library and all the conversations and will no longer be invited to the monthly gatherings.

What does it cost?

We are currently offering an introductory price of $25/month for the first 100 people to sign up. This first 100 will be designated “Founders,” and not only secure this low price for the life of their membership, but also will get some as yet unrevealed perks for supporting this project while it is young.

If this message is still here, then there are still Founders memberships available! Hurry over!

For that, you get quick & relevant answers to your questions, a supportive community to help you towards professional & business success, a growing library of engaging educational content on important topics & an opportunity for more direct engagement during our monthly Zoom gatherings. It’s hard to find that kind of value for $25 these days. 🙂

How to sign up?

Signing up is easy, simply use the button below to be taken to a page where you can securely enter your payment information and desired login details. You will receive at least two emails after your payment is processed – a receipt and a short welcome letter with the link to login to the community.

If you run into any issues, such as not seeing those emails after searching Spam & Promotions tabs, just reach out to us using the contact form on this website. We hope we’ll see you inside soon!