Hey Zen Methodologists, long time no see! It is July 2nd 2021, and as we are officially halfway through the year, I wanted to let you all know that my social media silence since the 2020 end of year holidays has not been in vain. During the 2020 restriction of in-home business services and while I did everything in my power to redesign how Zen Method functions within a virtual and remote environment, it occurred to me that I had fallen into a thriving business mostly by word of mouth and recommendations from former clients to friends and associates in my hometown of Philadelphia. When Zen Method was based in Philadelphia, it worked really well for me! I knew the places I was commuting to intimately and got to hear of my clients' successes and pride in their progress from friends and colleagues of theirs, it was wonderful. Moving to a new, less bustling, less familiar setting gave me less options, but pandemic shutdowns also gave me time to decide how I wanted Zen Method to evolve going forward. Many small business owners say that if they could, they would do it over again from the ground up with what they didn't know when they got started, and here I was with that precise opportunity. So I sat with that contemplation and asked myself: "What could Zen Method be if I started all over?" A few things came up: 1) So many of my former clients may have worked with Zen Method to initially help them organize their homes and lives, but near all of them actually gained more in the way of trauma processing, life event recovery skills, and self-actualization strengths than either side had planned. Could I be directing my business more in that direction? 2) Coaching, trauma recovery, and life skills are usually topics handled by life coaches, therapists, and psychology professionals and I am formally trained in none of those things despite my expansive experience within those realms of peer support. Could I engage in formalized training to become educated and certified for one of those paths? 3) Finally, therapy services are often insured or at least able to be petitioned to insurance companies for reimbursement, while consultancy alone is unfortunately not and thus out of financial reach for some. Could becoming trained and certified increase my business' accessibility, range of services, and client progress? After weighing my options, weighing my household's needs, and weighing the accessibility of online education in my new state of residence, the answer to all of those questions was "yes" so I took a leap of faith. In January of 2021 I began a fast-track core curriculum online Psychology Bachelors program at the University of Alabama in Birmingham and am pleased to report that it has so far been a wild, challenging, engaging, stimulating, and amazing ride! I am slated to complete the program in June of 2022 more prepared to help my clients and expand what began as a cleaning and organization focused business into something that can more directly improve my clients' quality of life between their conventional therapy sessions! In response to this new addition of needs I toned down Zen Method's marketing and reduced business hours to allow for full time schooling. Our family's help has been everything uplifting and supportive while I work towards a goal that has been leading me in this direction for over a decade. Thank you to my clients that learned to navigate virtual sessions with me during the pandemic shutdowns and I look forward to taking on new virtual clients as my academic journey continues here in Alabama. Self-progression and life-long learning are something that I have always supported in my work with clients and I look forward to continuing to help clients while I travel this path. If you are considering a re-start or even just need a little help adapting to what the "new normal" could look like for your life, Zen Method is still here, happy to help with realistic life-balance logistics! Be well! Shea Zen Method Huntsville Comments are closed.
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