OPEN LETTER FROM LEIGH ASCHOFF

As I continue to learn and grow as a healing practitioner, I come across guidance and information that does not work for me. In some ways, this has been a heart-ache for me. It has been a disappointment.

I am aware of the great opportunity available in disappointment, spiritually, and also the great expansion available in the process of surrendering. I take this heart-ache and disappointment as a spiritual lesson, as graciously as I am able.

Regarding being a healing practitioner and growing my private practice as I currently am, I have found time and again that people have guided me to behave in ways that I find to be manipulative (in order to grow my business and gain clients).

I do understand that sales and marketing rely on manipulation (because it works) yet I do not align with bringing that method into the wellness community and using it with vulnerable people who are in need of support and healing.

It is well here already; I am aware. Yet, I do not subscribe to it as a healing practitioner or as a business owner or as a person. And, I am willing to start talking about it more.

I have pursued becoming a healing practitioner because I was naturally given healing gifts that I chose to learn how to ethically practice to help others. I am here because I want to support people who are seeking help, support, healing and a better way of being alive. This healing starts with the individual and flows out into the world through everyone the individual is connected to.

This comes from a very personal place because I myself have needed help and support and guidance throughout my life. It is personal because I myself have been through separation, loss, grief, exclusion and deep bewilderment. This is personal because I myself have been manipulated by people in the wellness community.

All of this has become professional because I have committed myself sincerely to and seen through my experiential studies in the various healing modalities and techniques that I chose (or that chose me).

And even though this is now professional (this is my full time job), it does not take away the personal, authentic element of alchemical connection that happens during the sessions. Healing happens in relationship and I honor this relationship with my clients as something very sacred, delicate and also of great value.

I will not aim to “get inside my ideal client’s head” or use emotion to get people to work with me. I find these practices of building a business (which have been suggested to me on multiple occasions) to be unethical because it is basic manipulation. I also do not believe it is possible for me to “get inside my ideal client’s head”. Rather, I see that as a delusional boundary violation.

This type of dynamic also resembles acting as another person’s Higher Power or Source or Wizard (remember that guy behind the curtain in Oz?). I have been taught to claim that I know a certain type of person’s problems and to also claim that I have the cure, solution or answer to those problems. This, for me, is offensive on philosophical, spiritual and human levels.

This dynamic is dysfunctional and I will not participate in it. I can see clearly that people who need healing are often vulnerable, in pain, in need of help and at times desperately seeking a sense of belonging. I have been this person (a vulnerable person in need of healing and belonging). I have been taken advantage of. I will not do this to others as a healing practitioner.

As I move forward building my private practice, I will continue to study, review my classes and be rigorously honest about my mistakes. I will continue to do my best. I will honor the wisdom within each person as the most true solution to problems, challenges and concerns that I will graciously inquire about (to my clients) rather than assume.

I will do my best to be great at what I offer as a healing practitioner. I support people to use their own agency when scheduling with me. I will not claim to know who people are before I even meet them. I will not manipulate vulnerable people by telling them I know more about their problems then they themselves do. I will not coerce people into a business model that is built to serve only my monetary goals.

Thank you for being here. Thank you for reading my letter. It is very important for me to be aligned with the work that I offer and I am only able to do that if I speak truthfully about this and make my way forward with integrity.

In service to education, integrity and person-centered healing,
Leigh Aschoff