Issue link: https://www.massageandbodyworkdigital.com/i/969285
102 m a s s a g e & b o d y w o r k m a y / j u n e 2 0 1 8 The more hours of professional continuing education (CE) that survey participants completed, the more likely they were to be satisfied with the nature or quality of their practices. This was particularly true for in-person CE (dark green). Conversely, more hours of online CE correlated with less average satisfaction with one's practice. From the 2014 Psychology of a Full Practice survey, courtesy Advanced-Trainings.com. Chart 2: "Clients see my work as valuable" by satisfaction with practice size Chart 3 : CE hours per year, by satisfaction with practice One large-scale survey revealed that the more practitioners thought clients valued their work, the more likely they were to be satisfied with the size of their own practice. Vertical scale: percent of practitioners in each group strongly agreeing that "I think my clients see my work as valuable." From the 2014 Psychology of a Full Practice survey, courtesy Advanced-Trainings.com. Two more interesting facts about value: 1. The 2014 Psychology of a Full Practice large-scale survey of more than 2,000 massage and bodywork practitioners revealed a strong relationship between how valuable we think our work is to our clients, and how happy we are with the size of our practice (Chart 2). 2. The survey also showed that we are more likely to be satisfied with our practice the more hours of continuing education we do (Chart 3), and the more often we receive the work we do; both are signs of valuing and being willing to invest in the work we do. The perception of value may be in the eye of the beholder, but it can have a fundamental impact on the results people get from your work, their likelihood to refer new people to you, and whether they come back. Though we can't directly control how other people think or feel, we have a surprising amount of influence on the value our clients see in our work. The best way is to value it ourselves. Notes 1. Rebecca L. Waber et al., "Commercial Features of Placebo and Therapeutic Efficacy," Journal of the American Medical Association 299, no. 9 (2008): 1016–17. 2. Emma Sheppard, "How Small Business Owners Fell Out of Love with Deal Websites," The Guardian, January 5, 2017, accessed March 2018, www.theguardian.com/small-business- network/2017/jan/05/how-small-business- owners-fell-out-of-love-with-deal-websites. Til Luchau is the author of Advanced Myofascial Techniques (Handspring Publishing, 2016), a Certified Advanced Rolfer, practice coach, and a member of the Advanced-Trainings.com faculty, which offers online learning and in-person seminars throughout the United States and abroad. He invites questions or comments via info@advanced-trainings.com and Advanced-Trainings.com's Facebook page.