The Art of the Referral

Ask any health care professional or healing artist their favorite way to receive new clients and - far and away - referrals are the star! While SEO, paid ads and digital strategies might cast a wider net, word of mouth and organic referrals from our existing clients and relationships tend to bring the most aligned & delightful people to work with.

The 'medical industrial complex' route of referrals - limited by who is in your insurance network, names in a directory, waiting weeks to get a referral, etc. - is highly impersonal and inefficient. As more and more health professionals opt out of the insurance system and choose to work directly with clients, we have much more freedom to collaborate and refer -- and serve public health with the flexibility of choice and options.

However, without any bureaucracy-laden system in place for referrals (and if we want to keep it that way!) we can all - both practitioners & patients - work together to create new frameworks for health & healing that simultaneously support both our clients and our colleagues.

✨ FOR THOSE SEEKING REFERRALS:

Please respect the time and professional boundaries of the person you are seeking a referral from...

- Please do not ask for free consults and referrals over social media, Facebook messenger and LinkedIn. Is your doctor available 24/7 for online questions from strangers? Nope! Please treat other healers with the same respect for their time & boundaries, too.
- Please do not make text message introductions, even if you have our phone number. Websites exist so the public can learn all about our work and contact us in a professional manner. 🙏🏽
- Please remember that when you are asking for a referral you're asking for time & attention that takes away from our direct work with our clients; please be respectful, concise and appreciative of our time and finite energy.

✨ FOR THOSE GIVING REFERRALS:

I give out, on average, 7-8 referrals for many different healing modalities each day... here are a few of my best practices for the process and protecting the professional time of my colleagues.

- I send the client the website of the person I'm referring, and let them know to mention me to the practitioner when they visit or apply.
- I do not always notify the practitioner (unless I happen to be talking to them anyway) since people sometimes wait weeks, months or years to follow through on a referral.
- If I'm making a direct introduction via email in some cases, I'll be very brief and to the point, and clear that 'I'll let you two take it from here!"... eliminating long and distracting email threads.

🌅 One of the biggest challenges is - culturally - we don't quite know what to do with 'alternative' (ancient, indigenous, natural) healing modalities, so the public sometimes confuses these fields as a "hobby" rather than a "profession." But healers can only do our best work - with high vibrational, clean and sustained energy - when we feel nourished, supported and spacious in our lives. When you treat healers as human search engines, unpaid personal researchers or roving secretaries to the world, you detract from their ability to serve and be at their best.

As healing artists and health professionals, we elevate our fields and shift healing to the center of society when we respect our time, expertise, value and professional boundaries. We protect our colleagues from burnout and overwhelm by holding them with the same professional stature as any other accomplished and sought-after professional in another field.

✨ All of us love the freedom and flexibility to meet our clients exactly where they are, to refer and collaborate with ease. None of us want to go the 'known route' of gate-keeping, authorizations, mazes of bureaucracy and administration that will only take away from our time with clients and add to the cost of working with us. But elevating the model means elevating the mindset, and calls upon all of us to do our small part in caring for the people who care for the collective. ♥️