Whether you’re an energy healer, medium, clairvoyant or some other spiritual practitioner, one of the hardest aspects you might face is managing clients – especially when it comes to setting boundaries, and knowing when a client just isn’t the right fit for your work. Hannah McIntyre, a fabulous medium and clairvoyant who hosts the brilliant podcast Mediumship Matters, freely admits she’s made plenty of mistakes with managing clients over the years – and so have I. Recently we teamed up for an Instagram Live conversation sharing advice for other spiritual practitioners. Here are some of the key takeaways.
1. Manage client expectations
Hannah talked about how the public often don’t understand what terms like ‘psychic’, ‘mediumship’ and ‘clairvoyance’ mean – and they can be used in different ways within the spiritual community, too. That means you’ll have to manage their expectations by making it clear exactly what you do, and what people will get out of a session. Hannah found this is particularly important for mediumship, as people may expect a particular loved one to give them a message, and could be upset if this doesn’t happen.
“When I first started doing live demonstrations, I could feel, as people were leaving, that deflated feeling of people who hadn’t got a message. It would be the thing that would keep me awake at night, just wondering if I shouldn’t push myself harder. So one of the best pieces of advice I can give is, make it clear upfront what you are able to provide. It’s actually now on my booking process.”
(Photo by Elia Pellegrini on Unsplash)
Like Hannah, I am careful to explain to people what my services deliver, to make sure they’re not coming in expecting me to predict their future or tell them what actions to take (I don’t do either of these things). I explain this when they email me to make a booking, then again in a free 10-minute phone conversation I do before the session, and again at the start of the session.
This might seem repetitive, but keep in mind that sometimes people don’t actually know what they want – they’ve reached out because they’re responding to the practitioner’s energy, and might not have researched what we’re offering. Educating them on what they will and won’t get out of a session means less chance they’ll be disappointed – and less chance you’ll end up frustrated.
2. Have service conditions
Setting clear conditions about your service, particularly around payment and cancellations, will be your saving grace later.
“People pay upfront when they book with me,” says Hannah. “For one-on-one readings, my policy is no refunds or transfers within 48 hours. I think the client who pushed me over the edge was the client who just didn’t turn up. And when I messaged them they said they hadn’t bothered to tell me they wanted to cancel because, ‘I thought you were psychic!’”
Like Hannah, I make sure people pay before the session, which is really important for distance work. And an important policy for me is that I will only wait 10 minutes for people, so if they’re late, they’ll forfeit the session. Of course, if something unexpected or serious has happened, I am happy to reschedule, but I can’t have people cancelling or postponing regularly with no good reason – because that means they’re not valuing the work enough.
3. Set clear boundaries
Last Christmas, Hannah learned a hard lesson about boundaries. Because she’s a medium, she can often get an influx of grieving people missing their loved ones in the festive season.
“One lady in particular sticks in my mind, she was trapped in rural Scotland, her husband had passed very, very suddenly, no signs beforehand. We got to the end of the reading and she knew he was there, but she just said to me, ‘Well, that’s all well and good, but I’m still on my own’. I remember ringing my friend and just sobbing down the phone… I was finding it really hard to let go. I just got so full of everybody’s sadness. And so I’ve taken the whole of this December off because I want to spend it with my family.”
(Photo by Green Chameleon on Unsplash)
I have to set clear boundaries around my time, too. I never answer the phone out of scheduled times, I never respond to emails in the weekends and I don’t reply to Instagram DMs straightaway. I prioritise regular downtime so I can recharge my batteries, otherwise my ability to show up for this work will be depleted.
4. Know your value
Many spiritual practitioners undercharge for their services, but Hannah and I both feel it’s vital to charge what you’re worth, so that you can attract a good calibre of clients who recognise the value in what you do. People who don’t think my services are worth paying what I’m charging are not going to act on any of the guidance I bring through in a session – because they don’t value it (more about that here).
Your prices also need to reflect your ongoing spiritual development and training, adds Hannah.
“I’ve spent an absolute fortune getting myself to the standard that I’m at, and I’m still continuing to develop. I’m still spending an absolute eyewatering amount of money to take my mediumship further,” she explains.
5. Recognise red flags
One red flag for Hannah is when people tell her they’ve had a bad result from other mediums.
“I had one lady say a medium refunded her because they weren’t able to get anybody through, which for me is a bit of a red flag that that person is not providing the right energy for the medium. If they’re bringing in negative, judgmental, greedy energy, it is going to be much harder for that medium to connect to the spirit world.”
This is so important. In my pre-session chat with people who want to book a session, I always ask whether they’ve worked with spiritual practitioners on this issue. Because if someone has bounced around from medium to psychic to energy healer and all around the place asking the same questions, they are probably looking for someone who’s going to tell them what they want to hear and not what they need to hear (more about that here).
6. Be wary about gift vouchers
Hannah no longer offers gift vouchers for people. Why? Because someone who has been gifted a voucher by a friend or family member (even though they probably had very good intentions) might not be very interested in what you’re offering – which means that very little of what you tell them will resonate. That’s a frustrating waste of time for a spiritual practitioner. (Check out a hilarious example of that from Hannah’s social media here.)
“I think people have to come to this sort of work when they are ready,” Hannah explains. “If they’re not in a space where they’re able to contact you, book a session and pay for it themselves, then they’re not ready for the work.”
I totally agree. Occasionally I do provide gift vouchers if one of my clients asks for it, but I ask a lot of questions first to make sure the person they’re buying it for is already invested in the work I do and will get value out of it.
7. When starting out, go gently
Hannah’s top tip for people starting a spiritual practice is to start slowly.
(Photo by Rodolfo Sanches Carvalho on Unsplash)
“I’ve taught reiki to people who will go out and get a room and they’ll do eight sessions back to back because they’ve got to make the room work. And then they have a healing crisis, because they’re suddenly channelling a huge amount of energy,” she says.
“Go slowly and take your time, because there will be things that you get wrong, that you wish you’d done differently… you will need to allow time to think about that, learn from it and integrate it. And if you’re going from nought to 10 clients a week, you’re not going to give yourself that processing time.”
My advice is to make sure you have regular sessions with a spiritual coach, healer or mentor. This work brings up a lot of your own stuff, and clients will challenge you, so you need ongoing spiritual support from someone more experienced than you.