Making clients relax and feel they can trust you to open up is vitally important. I have tools -humour, empathy, but the most important is focus. I have to be focused and that means listening on multiple levels.
Before an appointment starts, I shift the level of consciousness that is my normal playing field. If you meditate you’ll know that state where you are aware of your thoughts, but you see your thoughts as if they are outside of you. Well, that’s the awareness state. So I just wanted to let you know that, before I share with you some stuff that has gone wrong in a consultation.
These are the consolation bloopers!
1 – This happened when my dog was much younger. I’m on the phone to a client who is emotional, when my dog got sick and systematically pooped, whilst looking right at me, in little drops all over the floor – like she was making the spots on a dalmatian. Nothing I could do, but watch!
2 – When I had my office downstairs at my home, a client turned up unexpectedly with her whole family. They were upstairs in my living room whilst I was downstairs with the client. I could hear the kids upstairs running around. As they left the Mum said ‘I love your new book’ ‘What new book?’ ‘The one you’re writing, I’ve been reading it over there on your computer!’ UGH! (I know, boundaries!)
3 – Skype – Gets its own category.
* Video Skype makes me travel sick if the person has the camera on anything other than a flat surface.
* When the screen freezes on a funny face the client is making, but I can’t laugh or tell them about.
* I need to look away from people’s eyes to hear my intuition, so video is hard for that, when in person that’s normal. The ego always wants validation, so I can’t have ego on and intuition on, so I need to not look at the client’s reactions – I know, it’s weird and I look rude!
I hate it when I get into a flow state. That’s when I give advice I learn from. Have you ever done that? Said something in a conversation to someone else you have thought ‘wow, that’s great, I needed to hear that?’ I do that all the time in sessions. That’s when you know you’re in a higher level of consciousness. But then the client says ‘what did you say, I missed that, Skype froze?’ That’s why I record sessions as it’s hard to go back and remember two seconds after you said something that came through you.
In short, I don’t like video Skype, phone Skype is so much better!
4 – Finally – the moment a delivery comes to the door, but you can’t answer as you’re with a client, so you just hear the letter box as the white card is dropped through the door.
Not too much goes wrong. It can’t be classed as a dangerous job, although I have had some very weird things happen. One client said to me ‘Why am I obsessed with your boobs?’ I told him it was because I was nurturing him and he wasn’t breast fed as a baby. He wasn’t and was amazed I could see that intuitively. I was just pleased for some eye contact! ;)