Alright, so I can’t teach you how to leap tall buildings in a single bound but I can show you how you can make big leaps towards uncovering your Naturopathic Super-Powers! I often marvel on what I now know, that I wish I had been privy to as a new graduate and while it’s true some things can’t be rushed and only come with time and firsthand experience – my career path and those of so many others was made harder by the silo-esque way we were all encouraged to transition into the clinic: unsupervised, in solo practice, and without a formal support network. Each one of us trying to reinvent the wheel over and over again. Twenty years later, what I do know now, is that there’s a better way.
There is a bucket load of resources, skills, short-cuts and tips that can be shared with you by a good mentor and good practice supervision, can radically accelerate your progression to becoming the best clinician you can be.
I believe that one of the true strengths of our profession is our sense of community and connecting with that community. When I see this power leveraged to the benefit of the newest, and in some ways the most vulnerable members of our profession, it is a community of which I am genuinely proud of.
When you first start your clinical practice (suddenly now without a net!) you’re full of enthusiasm, overloaded with theories and have a heavy sprinkling of hopes but at the same time, often a tad overwhelmed by the very realness and responsibility of being, ‘the one they came to see and pay (!) to help them’. Making the transition isn’t always easy. Belief in your knowledge and trust in your own competency doesn’t come with your certificate of completion. Nor should it. You’ve still got training wheels on. But how reassuring to know that you can be amongst others in the same position & that together you can build skills and confidence with the help of one another and me. I’ve been there too and I know how important it is for me to share my 2 decades worth of experience (ouch!), not just for the benefit of you, the clinician but for every individual that sits in front of you. Because that’s why we took on this role in the first place, right?
“I am so happy my younger graduate Naturopath self had the insight to invest further in my knowledge and skill set and join RAN mentoring. As a baby naturopath of just over 5 year clinical experience, I have been able to grow my confidence in my clinical skills at an exponential rate thanks to mentoring. Rachel, thank you so much for being an amazing mentor and sharing your knowledge with us. I will continue to do group and individual mentoring for the rest of your career! (if you will have me of course!)”
Tess Doig, Group Mentoring 2018
Our profession thrives when we thrive as individuals and central to this is building networks of ‘similar others’ in order to find your tribe and benefit from the ‘collective’. Group Mentoring allows you to connect to a community of like-minded, similarly-skilled practitioners in a structured teaching environment. You’ll be learning core clinical skills that you can apply in realtime to your practice and be able to ask questions along the way. The most valued aspect of the mentoring is the ability to discuss practice experiences with the mentor and to hear and learn from all the group members, sharing experiences, knowledge and learning as we go during the sessions.
Joining Group Mentoring is a great way to develop your confidence, skills and knowledge. The bonus of these sessions is you’ll find your tribe, gain support and radically build your toolkit through…
- additional resources – Mind Maps, Timelines and Mental Health & other screening tools.
- quick accessible tools for discerning between supplements.
- the basics in pathology interpretation including introducing you to our pathology template for recording and analysing your patient’s labs
- the best places to access specific online resources for reference ranges, research etc. for free
If you’d like to hear a little about my own journey from the seeds of my childhood (yes seriously we went waaaaaaay back) that helped me make the decision to pursue this career path, through to teacher and now mentor…but the eternal student as well. Check out the FxMedicine podcast “The Value of Naturopathic Mentoring with Rachel Arthur”.
Have you put your name down on the waiting list for 2018 group mentoring?
Read here for more information on the programme.
Applications open mid October, but you can put your name down first by emailing [email protected] today.