It's an Inside Job

Quite a few years ago I noticed a change of emphasis had occurred in my consultation work. The focus of my work became less about curing peoples' health problems, and more about helping people tap into their own wisdom and bring forth the latent potential that already existed within.

Without realizing it fully at the time, my role was developing into something more like a coach and less like a therapist. During the years that have followed, there has been a widespread shift in consciousness in a similar direction, with more and more people seeking ways to transform and empower themselves, rather than becoming dependent on external sources of help.

The internet has undoubtedly played a role in this shift, and has become the most powerful self-help resource in the world. It is not uncommon now for a person to know more about their specific health problem - with the help of Google - than a general medical practitioner could ever know, which changes the dynamic of the healing relationship forever.

I have often said that the practitioners who will thrive in the foreseeable future are not the 'authoritarian experts' who maintain their status by disempowering others. Rather, it is the ones who share their knowledge and simplify their understanding, making it accessible and available to everyone who wants to learn, who will find themselves in demand. 

I have also come to believe that when real inner change happens, it tends to happen rather quickly. There is a popular idea that long-standing problems take a long time to resolve, but this hasn't been my experience. 

Usually I find that a lack of resolution is the result of addressing the issue on an inappropriate level, such as attempting to get something in the outside world to change, when it is an internal shift that is required. Or looking for resources on the outside that can only ever be found on the inside.

And this has become the thread that runs through all of my work these days - recognizing the correspondence between the external and the internal, and helping others to discover for themselves that when it comes to inner transformation, we always have everything we need. 

It's just that we forget this, sometimes, and the best kind of help we can receive at those times is a timely and gentle reminder of what we already know to be true.