It’s Time to Collaborate (Part 1)
Seemingly, everyone is on board with our mission to get health + wellness practitioners - across modalities - working together. To get the Alexander Technique teacher, Ayurvedic coach and somatic therapist talking about a shared client. Asking questions about a shared client. Creating a comprehensive plan around a shared client.
Collaboration is an easy mission to get behind.
Less easy is the ‘how-to’ of collaborative care. How to work with other practitioners when you haven’t. Or, you have...but it’s been in more of an ad hoc, when you remember, text-based way.
Believe it or not, there’s a way to integrate collaboration into your everyday so you don't think twice about it. A simple way to talk to colleagues about what you’re doing...what they’re doing... and how to do it better together.
Here’s how to collaborate in broad strokes:
Meet + maintain relationships with practitioners from different modalities (to grow your network). The local nutritionist probably has a lot of clients who can use Pilates, and the crowded yoga studio can surely recommend students to your sound therapy services.
Learn which practitioners to work with (from your network). There‘s no gold-standard method of choosing collaborators. Ultimately, it’s up to who your clients need as part of their care team, who you have access to, and who you trust. You’ve got to meet them...to learn about them... to vet them.
Create and organize information to share (before you need to share it). Do you take notes on your phone to remember what you did with your client each week, but never look at them? Do you have intake forms stashed somewhere in the corner of your space? Or, maybe you’re not sure you need to write anything down since you work intuitively? All this information is gold - for the way you take care of your clients, and for other practitioners the client is seeing.
Communicate this information (confidentially + with consent). You know that your clients’ care is private and should be handled discreetly. Validate your intuition by reading more specifics (and tips) here.
We’re here to help with the how.
‘Cause it’s all well and good if we wholeheartedly believe in collaboration and intend to reach out to colleagues. But we’re only effective at it if we actually do it.
Time to align intention and execution ⏰