Therapist Isolation Factor - Why being a one to one therapist can be the loneliest job in the world.

Being a therapist/healer/bodyworker can be very lonely.

Once you take your client into the room with you, you're on your own. Encapsulated in four walls doing your life's work - one gig at a time.

I love being an osteopath. I still get a little thrill when I take a new client into my treatment room for the first time. Even after 18+ years of seeing 40 clients a week.

It wasn't always this way, for the first couple of years the 'thrill' was less excitement and more crippling 'fear'.

I have to be honest when I first started it was exciting taking my first client. I remember it well I thought I was good at doing osteopathy, I was more than a little ego driven.

My first client on my second day as a brand new osteopath presented with syringomyelia. Awesome it was not!

It was painful. I thought I knew everything I needed to know, after all, I had been to a private university in London. Touted as one of the best osteopathic teaching institutions in the world.

I had landed a plum job working with a fantastic lead practitioner. He gave me lots of amazing advice and weekly tutorials. There were 2 other senior osteopaths in the practice as well. The stage was set, I couldn't fail! I was on my way.
But once I got the client into the room, all the teaching I had, all the studying I had done all the advice in the world slipped away from me.

It was me and my hands with an expectant client who had bizarre symptoms and violent headaches. My ego started to take a pummeling.
Honestly, for the first 6 months, I felt like I should be paying the clients!

It got better, of course. Those first few months were terrible, and even after a couple of years I would still be with a client and think, "I am at a loss as what I should do next?"

It is a very common feeling among anyone who works with people on a one to one basis.
I call it the therapist isolation factor.
It can be a surprisingly isolated job. Even though you 'see' people all day long it is often a lonely place to be.
Clients are depending on you, often you will be the highlight of their week.
It's a delicate relationship,  get it right all the planets align and they rebook and recommend you to all their family and friends.
Get it wrong and they 'need to check their schedule' before rebooking.

The interesting thing is that the ones you get wrong effect you more than the ones you get right.
Fortunately, they also teach you more.
Unfortunately getting them wrong effects your confidence dramatically. There the ones that you got wrong that you take home and mull over at 2 in the morning.

It is the main reason that I created an online mentorship program as so many of the therapists and practitioners that I treat or have mentored felt alone, uninspired or on the edge of burn out.

I was mentored by a great teacher/osteopath and it gave my work a trajectory that would never have been possible on my own. It also taught me how important it is to have regular interaction with other practitioners.

They don't need to be in the exact same field as you, being a bodyworker or someone who works with clients on a one to one basis is often enough.

There are so few lead practitioners, even in big practices who have the time or the inclination to help nurture new, or struggling team members. The benefits of doing so far outweigh what some see as ' another task' to add to their long list.

Fortunately, I love teaching/mentoring and coaching - almost as much as I love being an osteopath so for me it adds to my work rather than taking away from it.

If you're on your own, feeling burn out, frustration or uninspired mentorship is what will make all the difference.