Learning Bridge Through Swahili


I had been thinking for some time that I really would like to learn how to play Bridge. Most of my family play, and many of my friends do too. I just never got around to learning. I was in the local public library recently and they were selling off surplus stock books, and there at the top of the pile was “The Complete Guide to Bridge.” I was sure it was a sign that this was the right time for me, so without playing cardsopening the book, I paid over my €3 and took it home.

You can guess what’s coming, can’t you? I couldn’t understand one word of it! In my innocent enthusiasm, I assumed that something called “The Complete Guide…” would tell me everything I needed to know, which it probably would have done, had I known the game to start with. The problem was, it assumed I understood what the game was about and how it was played, whereas I understood none of that. The terms and conventions used were meaningless to me. It might as well have been written in Swahili.

I often think it’s that way for therapists about building their practices. Marketing, promotion, and business books or workshops assume that the person they’re talking to already understands the language, and has their head in the right place, which for many therapists is just not the case. In most cases, learning how to be a therapist teaches you little or nothing about how to build a practice.

We’re not alone in this, by the way. Most professionals who emerge at the end of their training with their hard earned qualification in hand, quickly learn that that’s only the start of the learning process. And unless they come from a background which showed them how to go about the next step of setting up their business, they may find it very hard indeed to get their practice off the ground. For therapists, it’s probably harder still, as many of the skills of creating and running a business are so different from those used in the room with the client.

Lost and Confused SignpostThat’s why I do this work. When I first trained, it seemed to me that there was little or no information or support for therapists and counsellors about setting up their practices. And even though I know the language, and have some experience in this area, (I ran my own accountancy practice, and was a partner in another. I also worked with other accountants in relation to these same issues) I still found it difficult to start with.

If you find it hard to understand the language of marketing or business, if you cringe at the idea that you might need to understand the language of marketing or business, or how such an understanding might affect you, then maybe I can help you.

Contact me here to make an appointment or to avail of your free 20 minute consultation. What have you got to lose? (Or gain?)

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