Becoming a Qualified Holistic Therapist – A Practical Business Guide
Becoming a Qualified Holistic Therapist – A Practical Business Guide
Essential tips on insurance, contracts and client confidentiality for newly qualified complementary therapists.
If you are celebrating the completion of a Life Arts course, chances are you are one step closer to realising your dreams as an independent holistic therapist. To help you on your journey, we have gathered some advice about the practical side including insurance, client confidentiality, contracts and more…
Insurance
As a qualified practitioner, you will need insurance. This can be to cover incidents as innocent as someone getting injured in a fall on your premises, to someone claiming for personal damages. There are lots of insurance companies that specialise in providing cover for holistic practices such as the http://www.balens.co.uk/. If you don’t have insurance and someone wants to make a claim against you, your personal finances could be affected. When getting cover, make sure you consider the following:
- Public Liability
- Product Liability
- Malpractice and Professional Indemnity
- Working from home, a client’s home, or at any owned/rented premises
- Accidental loss or damage to your business stock
- Accidental damage to your property or rented/hired third party premises
Client Confidentiality
Ensuring that all information about clients remains confidential is essential. You will be the keeper of their personal details such as name, address, and bank details, and quite probably very personal details about their life and wellbeing. Offer your clients a signed form to reassure them that you are taking care of their information, make sure you tell them how you plan to store their information, how you will keep it safe and state that you will never share it. You should also include circumstances under which confidentiality may not be protected for instance:
- Threats are made to harm themselves or another person
- If a child, an elderly person or someone who is incompetent is at risk of neglect
Patient Consent
This is essentially your contract with your client, whereby you state your procedures, your prices, the fact you have insurance, your policy on missed appointments and cancellations and how payment should be made.
Displaying Certificates
Firstly display your qualifications… with pride! You should also display your insurance certificates too. Other information such as your code of practice or ethics may be interesting reading material for patients or clients while they are waiting for their appointment. If you plan to open a business where you employ others, the law requires that you display your Employer Liability Insurance Certificate.
Interested in becoming a qualified holistic practitioner? Why not enroll on one of the courses at Life Arts – Anatomy & Physiology, Reiki, Reflexology, Thai Yoga Massage, Indian Head Massage, Hopi Ear Candling and Holistic Facial Massage.
How to Practice Complementary Medicine Professionally
“I endorse the book 100% as essential reading for all practitioners and students of Complementary Medicine!” Chris Cozens: Life Arts