As I sit here this Sunday having worked for the past 14 or so hours (from 7:30 am till 21:50) on Energy Healers Organisation admin I thought about the process and the time I have spent over the past seven years, with blood sweat, deprivation and no small amount of tears going into the starting, building, planning and supporting of the initial dream, then the poor who we have helped and the vulnerable people who have become healthy and well, drug addicts who are now employed and free. Not to mention the abused women who have been freed from the situations through being trained making it all worthwhile, making the abject pverty caused by many factors no less easy to bear but glad that we are able to do just that little but to help our fellow living beings.

We chose to bring up this fledgling and have managed with many, many days, hours and weeks of work by our dedicated team to helping the people of South Africa and in the Energy Healing world to benefit.

Respect and the Practitioner

This brought me to thinking about how full time & Part time practitioners and trainers in South Africa have to experience horrible clients at some point in their working day, week & month, wealthy people who come to them  who disrespect practitioners.

Practitioners are people who are there to help them & they treat them with distrust and suspicion.  Often I hear stories similar to what happened to me when I was a full time motor mechanic and sadly this is in my experience unique to South Africa.

According to the law you have the right to be fairly paid for services rendered. The Tax act as well as many other pieces of legislation mention this including the NPC and NPC regulations for non-profits. It is also included (by instance of the Tax exemption unit in our updated constitution in section 3.2) as you have the right to be paid for your time and experience, not work as an unpaid slave.

I have always found it weird how people who demand payment for their own salary at month end resent paying people who are helping them, people who, unlike most wealthy people who have paid up houses and property, have rent to pay and expenses in order to provide a fair service, hopefully an excellent one.

Practitioners who are working full time have a “real job” and are feeding their families deserve respect because they are working full time at providing a service, deserve to be paid the proper going rate of R650 – R1350 per hour for their time and expertise.  Rentals in even the smallest room can cost almost three quarters of the amount charged when you add in the other expenses, so charge what your market can handle and do offer special rates for bulk bookings in advance if you feel its the right thing to do for your market but never let anyone disrespect you or cross question your integrity when asking for results.

Examples of people who will come to you and how to deal with them.

“How dare you charge so much”, is a common example I hear of by practitioners clients’ who, after making an appointment and cancelling at the last second, complain when practitioners correctly charge for the waste of their time and resources.

You have the right to charge if they do not notify you  24 hours before, they are going to cancel (as long as it is on all your pamphlets, web site and email signature).

The simple truth is you have to prepare the premises and this often involves spending money on electricity, preparation can involve other expenses like towels, coverings and even incense sticks.

Its about respect for yourself and for the client, clients who do not respect people often have poor self image issues and if they do not accept that your time is as valuable as theirs then often the best response is to say “I decline this kind of treatment,  please find yourself another practitioner” and remember to write it up.  No matter what they pay you, they do not own your soul.

Just remember you provide a valuable service and that demands respect, your time is valuable and you should get paid for your time and expertise. If you should choose to offer a special discount, that is up to you. Some offer discounts of 12 sessions for the price of 9, or 6 sessions for the price of four, this works well and helps the practitioner to ensure that they get the monthly rentals covered and the clients return business.

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