Today is a great time to become a Healing Touch for Animals^® Practitioner (HTAP). Popular demand for complementary and cooperative therapy for animals using energy medicine is increasing. The Practitioner Support Center was developed to provide information to help you build a Healing Touch for Animals^® private practice.

Healing Touch for Animals^® Practitioners are animal advocates with a variety of personal and professional backgrounds. Individuals become HTA Practitioners out of a loving bond and a deep caring for animals. They share this work with many animals across the globe assisting them with their health and well-being.

The HTA office has worked with many practitioners from a wide variety of personal and professional backgrounds in the development of their private practices. We are pleased to share information they found helpful on how to develop a successful business.

Being a Healing Touch for Animals^® Practitioner is a career and a lifestyle.

In This Section You Will Find:

• Marketing Essentials for your Healing Touch for Animals^® Practice
• HTA Community
• Recommended Steps to Establishing a Successful Healing Touch for Animals^® Practice
• Local Areas of Assistance
• Frequently Asked Questions
  
  

Marketing Essentials for your Healing Touch for Animals^® Practice
HTA offers standardized, professional and customizable marketing materials to promote you and your HTA practice.

Our Practitioner Brochure supports your professional image. The brochure is visually appealing, easy to read and available with or without your customized name and address. The brochure includes a clear explanation of Healing Touch for Animals^®, how energy medicine works and how HTA benefits animals.

Healing Touch for Animals^® Practitioner Business Cards are a vital part of promoting your practice and can be customized to incorporate a complementary practice.

The Healing Touch for Animals^® Practitioner Directory allows animal caregivers to search for practitioners in their area and review practitioners’ services and background information.

The Physiological Response Chart is a great visual tool to display in your office/treatment room. The chart helps clients understand how HTA works and its benefits for animals. The chart is also available as a free download, subject to a use agreement, to display on your own website or other marketing materials.

Healing Music for Animals and Their People, Volumes I, II & III, was written and recorded specifically for animals and their caregivers. These CD’s can be used during your HTA sessions, purchased by clients for their animals or used for human energetic balance and healing.

Healing Touch for Animals^® Treatment Forms can be downloaded to your computer and edited to fit your needs. The download includes treatment forms for each HTA Level (1 through 4). Six specific treatment forms are included in each level.

• Feline
• Canine
• Equine
• Blank Animal Form (for other animal species)
• Human Female
• Human Male
  

We have partnered with Lands’ End for your HTA apparel and promotional needs. Their top quality logo clothing includes embroidered polo shirts, dress shirts and outerwear that display your professional branding as an HTA Practitioner.

For more information about these and other tools that will enhance your success as an HTA Practitioner, visit the HTA Store.

Healing Touch for Animals^® Community
Stay connected with the HTA community. Whether you have only completed Level 1 or are a certified practitioner, the HTA community welcomes you. We share learning opportunities, ways to grow our practices and ways to share the benefits of energy medicine for animals and people.

HTA Newsletter
Join our email list to receive the HTA Newsletter. The newsletter keeps you up-to-date on HTA happenings and gives you ideas for self-care and suggestions for using essential oils. The newsletter also includes special announcements.

Course Schedule
The course schedule offers a complete list of HTA courses across the country and around the globe. Use this schedule to find classes in your area to recommend to friends, to repeat or to continue to the next level.

Free Mentorship Teleconferences
The HTA Mentorship teleconferences give you the opportunity to ask your questions and to benefit from the answers to questions others have submitted. In the hour long teleconferences, Carol Komitor shares her experiences and knowledge of energy medicine. Carol offers suggestions for the use and application of HTA techniques in relationship to the questions submitted. Teleconferences are offered the last Wednesday of each month, January through November. Register to join us for the upcoming call.

Educational Coaching Sessions
Carol Komitor offers individual educational coaching sessions to HTA Practitioners and those who have human Healing Touch training. Carol uses her energetic detective work skills to guide you in strengthening your energy medicine facilitation. In coaching sessions Carol addresses case specific or generalized questions about HTA techniques, Healing Touch, essential oils, sound therapy using tuning forks and the energy medicine perspective of animals and people.

Practice Sessions
HTA Practitioners (those who have completed HTA Level 1 or more) often have opportunities to participate in HTA practice sessions in their local area. HTA Coordinators and Instructors typically facilitate these sessions to benefit animals in the community and to assist practitioners gain experience, have their questions answered and gain confidence. Practice sessions help you fine tune your HTA skills, but are not a replacement for course instruction. Only HTA practitioners are eligible to participate in practice sessions.

Recommended Steps to Establishing a Successful Healing Touch for Animals^® Practice

Determine if you have what it takes
Research indicates successful entrepreneurs have many similar traits and characteristics. Below is a list of these characteristics. How many of these traits do you have?

• Persistence
• Inquisitiveness
• Good listener
• Strong drive to achieve
• Goal oriented
• Independent
• Self-confident
• Creative
• Innovative
• Visionary
• Committed
• Problem solver
• Strong integrity
• Highly reliable
• Personal initiative
• Ability to communicate clearly
• Strong management and organizational skills
• Strong desire to achieve
• Desire to work hard
• Adaptable
• Challenge oriented
• Idea oriented
  

Stay positive/keep your vision
Create a vision for success and keep focused on that vision. Make a list of goals within your visualization of yourself as a successful HTA Practitioner. List your big goals followed by the little goals that support making your vision a reality. Believe in yourself and your work. Allow your passion for helping animals drive a successful outcome. Stay positive.

Create a supportive environment to facilitate your HTA work. Connect with someone who brings you joy and believes in you and your vision of success. Identify other supportive people who can provide encouragement as you build your business. These people could be relatives, friends, clients, the HTA organization, fellow practitioners and/or HTA practice groups.

Find the beauty that surrounds you; expand your awareness. Many practitioners find inspiration and added drive by reading about other successful people and how they accomplished their goals.

Continually work to remove fears and obstacles that hold you back. Shed the fears like water rolling off a duck’s back. A constant refocus on your original goals will provide the added drive it takes to triumph. Remember a successful business generally doesn’t happen overnight. Your hard work and dedication will be rewarded by a successful HTA practice.

Be organized
There are many tools to help you stay organized. Computers, day timers, calendars, email and voicemail are just a few. You can also designate a filing cabinet or drawer to store your treatment files. Consider putting together an organized treatment bag so you are ready to go when a client calls. Having your HTA bag ready sets the clear intention to use energy medicine. In addition your treatment tools are easily accessible.

HTA tool bag

• Business cards and brochures
• Treatment forms
• Pendulum
• Tuning forks
• Essential oils (with a small cooler during warmer months)
• Pens and additional paper
• Kneeling pad
• Boots (for the barn)
• Scheduling calendar
• Be professional
  • Be on time
  • Be prepared
  • Dress appropriately
• Ground and center before you meet your client
• Use energetic vocabulary to describe your assessment and treatment findings
• Have your business cards, brochures and session tools readily available
• Give an extra business card to your client to pass on to another potential client
• Follow up. Call your client and check in. Ask about the progress of the animal and if they have questions.

Determine your business name
Determine whether you want to use your name or a business name or both as the official name of your HTA practice. This is called branding. Branding is a name, term, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of these intended to identify goods and/or services and to differentiate your services from those of other sellers/providers.

Register your business with the state
Licensing is generally handled through individual states or local governments. See Business Licenses and Permits.

Create a logo
A personalized logo that represents you and your practice is another part of branding. If you want to use the HTA logo, you can order marketing materials through the HTA Store.

If you want to have a custom logo created, you may contact the HTA Office at [email protected]. We will direct you to the HTA graphic designer who will help design a logo for your business.

Purchase professional liability insurance
Associated Bodywork and Massage Professionals (ABMP) provides the most comprehensive liability insurance package in our profession. Membership in ABMP includes liability insurance and a host of business management support systems.

Purchase a domain name
If you plan on developing a website now or in the future, consider purchasing a domain name. There are many sites that offer domain names for very reasonable prices.

When you purchase a domain name, you can establish an email address that has that name in it. For example, if you purchase the domain name PetTherapy.com, you will be able to set up your email address as [email protected]. Doing this allows you to have a more professional image in addition to not having to change your email address each time you have a new Internet Service Provider (ISP). You do not have to have a website to establish the email address; however, you must own the domain name.

Develop a website
Many HTA Practitioners have very successful practices and do not maintain a website. If you choose to have a website, you can hire someone to develop it or you can do it yourself. Research the best option for you, including price of development, ease of making changes, maintenance, and annual hosting fees.

Network
When you are in business for yourself, networking is vital! Being at the right place at the right time means you have to be out there! Scheduling blocks of time for networking will increase your business success and help prevent feeling overwhelmed by everything you need to do.

Plan your networking strategy and have a story ready to tell. People enjoy testimonials and stories. Briefly telling about your experiences also demonstrates your skill level and connection with animals. Let your compassion and knowledge come through as you share what you love to do.

Networking at events
Before you attend an event, do your research. Know who you want to contact and their history. People like to talk about themselves, so listen first. Hear what they want to say before telling them about yourself and your practice. When you allow people to talk about themselves first, they are more likely to hear what you have to say. Take this time to demonstrate how your HTA work can complement them and their path.

Always follow up with everyone you contact. Phone calls are best; however, in this technological world, email is also acceptable.

Engage in social networking
In the online world, social networking is the term used to describe the way that users build online networks of contacts and interact with these personal or business friends in a secure environment. Some of the most popular social networking sites include Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

• Facebook is a social networking website that is operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. You can request others, such as business contacts, to be your “friend”. Once you are friends, you can send messages or update your personal profile to notify all your friends at one time about your activities. You can also join networks organized by city, workplace, and school or college.
• Instagram is a free and popular social networking service that enables users to share photos and videos with your followers.
  
• LinkedIn is a business-oriented social networking site. Founded in December 2002 and launched in May 2003, it is mainly used for professional networking.

Develop and maintain a contact database
Many practitioners use Microsoft Outlook as their database. In Outlook you can receive and send emails, maintain addresses and phone numbers, schedule appointments, set up reminders, manage tasks and store a history of your client email correspondence and appointments.

Establish yourself in the community
Develop a quick-witted introduction of yourself and your practice; sometimes this is referred to as a “30 Second Elevator Speech”. Consider including the following in your introduction:

• Your name
• What business you are in/practice name
• A brief touching story
• A reference to the HTA Physiology Chart to demonstrate how energy medicine works through science
• An explanation of what the listener can do to get involved; sometimes referred to as the “Call to Action”
• How your practice might benefit the listener or someone they know

Determine how much to charge for your services
Research what other HTA Practitioners are charging in your area. If there are not any established HTA Practitioner businesses in your area, you might research what massage practitioners are charging. Whatever the typical rate in your community is, consider that rate for your services. Increase your fees gradually as you complete additional Levels of the HTA Program.

Charging too much or too little
Consider your fee structure carefully. Don’t charge too little or you will attract “discount seekers”. Discount seekers are less loyal because they are continually looking for a bargain. On the other hand, charging too much may result in a serious lack of business.

Discounts
To establish your practice, you may consider a referral program that offers discounts to clients of the referring business. Be very careful how you present this concept. Discounting your services may discount the value of your work in others’ eyes and may create a question about the integrity and expertise of the healing sessions you provide.

Determine what methods of payments you will accept
Consider PayPal as a payment method in addition to cash and checks. PayPal is an e-commerce system that allows payments and money transfers to be made through the Internet by an electronic debit from a bank account or by a credit card. PayPal is a payment intermediary service that is available worldwide.

Local Areas of Assistance
The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) was created in 1953 as an independent agency of the federal government to aid, counsel, assist and protect the interests of small business concerns, to preserve free competitive enterprise and to maintain and strengthen the overall economy of our nation. Learn tricks from successful people who have done the work!

Counselors of America’s Small Business Owners (SCORE) is a national association dedicated to helping small business owners form and grow their businesses. SCORE is a partner of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA).

Women’s Business Centers (WBCs) represent a national network of more than 80 educational centers designed to assist women start and grow small businesses. WBCs operate with the mission to level the playing field for women entrepreneurs who still face unique obstacles in the world of business.