3 Reasons NOT to work with clients who drain your energy

Are you one of the practitioners who works with anyone who comes, and ends up with 80% of your practice comprised of people who give you 20% of your satisfaction as a Feldenkrais® practitioner?

With 16 years of Catholic education under my belt, I”ll be the first to acknowledge the strong pull of doing pennance on earth to lessen your time in Purgatory. I don’t believe it anymore, but the concept has a certain draw.

For Feldies, the idea that we’re trained to work with ANYone, so we have to work with EVERYone can be an equally strong predictor of finding difficult people in our practices.

Here’s a concrete way to look at it — “Would you work with someone who makes you feel bad about yourself, in order to avoid the certain and incredible, searing pain of a foot full of sea urchins?”

Hmmmm… Tough choice, but having experienced both, I think I’ll take the sea urchins. But if you’re still thinking about it, here are 3 important reasons why you should consider making a shift while you let the question percolate.

First, there’s no reason not to have a practice that plays to your strengths, makes you feel good about yourself, allows your see the value you bring to the world, and feeds your soul. A practice like this leaves you refreshed and interested, eager to get up and work with your clients, and challenged enough to grow without feeling defeated. It gives you the financial security you need to enjoy your free time, the resources you need to attend advanced trainings, and the flame that that fuels your passion.

Second, there are nearly 7 BILLION people on the planet. Why should you work with these few who have a talent for making your life difficult? Where is it written that you can only work with the people who pick you? You’re the one with the skill — why don’t you get a say in the matter?

Third, these people limit your practice, whether you know it or not. Aside from the fact that they probably don’t refer anyone, how could that be true? Because when you have too many people who drain your energy, you associate the Feldenkrais® Method itself with your energy drain.

If that’s the case, every time you talk to a prospective client, or think about marketing, or tell someone about what you do, that bit of you that’s perpetually tired from dealing with the wrong clients will pop up and sabotage your efforts — because that’s the part of you that really knows you don’t need more clients like that. And if your track record isn’t very good with getting the other kind, you have more to gain by NOT getting a new client.

So what’s the way out?
1. Embrace your right to have a practice that fulfills you.
2. Figure out who feeds your soul and find more people like that.
3. Enjoy your practice and feel great at the end of the day!