I think that the period after qualifying is very often the make or break time for graduates who want to become full time professionals. Post training support is essential, finding an experienced mentor who has or has had a busy practice of their own is a good investment.
Coming up to the time of your final exams is probably the one time in your career that you have the most information at your fingertips. Your treatments will be “textbook”. They need to be after all, you are focused entirely on meeting the requirements of your examining body.
It can be frustrating, you have learned a huge amount during your studies, you’ve come a long way but you still feel that there’s so much more to learn.
But, actually you have much experience under your belt already. Don’t fall into the trap of just doing your “textbook” treatments. There are three reasons why:
1. You’re going to get bored. Often you will experience a raft of clients all with the same problems, all coming at once. Doing the same style of treatment based on the same diagnosis will be uninspiring and disheartening.
2. You’ve got the freedom to try various techniques and approaches to similar problems. You’ve got the freedom to experiment and learn from your successes and failures
3. You are starting to build on your greatest asset…YOU. To stand out from the crowd you must develop your own style. Experimentation and the courage to make mistakes is THE fastest way to stand apart and attract new business.
So, get creative, no ones testing you on your technique.
What’s important to your client is the question “Will this work?”
Don’t be afraid to experiment, but don’t spend an hour on the right foot, when it’s the left shoulder that’s the problem!
Your client wants to feel heard, make sure they do.