Wellness providers, coaches: We’re in the midst of a metaphorical storm. Shall we pause for a moment to assess and consider how we're moving forward, individually and together?

A series on tools, resources, and support for health and wellness providers to practically rebuild or refine how they serve.

Providers face a completely changed landscape.

Have you ever walked the land after a flood or storm where rivers overtook their banks or ocean waves crashed over new territory? Places you knew your entire life can become unrecognizable.

It’s breathtaking. You look around with a sense of awe. During the storm, the raging wind and rain were accompanied by strange cracking and creaking sounds, but now everything is calm and quiet. And strange. Structures you thought of as permanent can be damaged or washed away. Fallen trees and diverted water can create a new landscape that messes with your mind as you seek landmarks for the places you’ve always known and now can’t find.

We’re in the midst of a metaphorical storm and the landscape is changing as we speak. Dead wood is being carried away, never to be seen again. Once towering trees have fallen across the river, damming it up and redirecting the flow. The diverted water appears to be carving out a whole new channel through the earth.

We see evidence of the dammed flow and the new channel when we see how many medical providers have left institutional confines, and how more people are making new and independent decisions about their health and lifestyle.

More people are more open to considering different lenses of understanding, to making different choices, to trying new things, and to changing their lifestyle. But many are, of course, uncertain, distrustful, or fearful as the storm rages. The sights and sounds during the storm are strange and scary and they indicate certain change.

Each individual, including each provider, is navigating this time in their own way. Many are too afraid to look directly into the storm, unable to grasp what has already changed and the implications for the future. But some of us have experience with storms; we’ve got boots and overcoats. We’ve stepped out into the windstorm, and we can see where the new channels are being carved. We know to shore up certain foundations, to save important things from being washed away, and to turn our attention to the new landscape and the opportunities it provides.

This is a challenging, but opportune time. What are you seeing?

• What have you noticed about how some people are changing their perspectives and decision-making regarding health and lifestyle?

• How has your work as a provider evolved as a result of these changes?

• How has your evolution related to the changes we’ve experienced from the Internet, from smart phones, from independent publishing, from censorship, from AI?

• What’s your vision of how you can best serve now and over the next couple of years?

There’s a change happening right now that is huge, with practical implications. The opportunity to use your passion and skills for actual, real-world improvement has never been greater.

Old ways of doing things are falling apart before our eyes. The old ways relied on long-standing professional organizations, regulatory bodies, and “standard operating procedure”.

Whenever something was found to be successful or popular, a middleman or monopoly would pop up, often in the form of professional associations, government regulatory organizations, educational standards, publishing pathways, technology platforms, and corporate mergers.

With the best of intentions, people supported these middlemen as a way to uplevel professions, improve client safety, and increase efficiencies. They submitted to monopolies in medicine, in technology, and in food because they weren’t aware of downsides and corrupt influences, or because they didn’t think they had a choice.

But we find ourselves in a brave new world — a phrase that is used to communicate irony, referring to misplaced hope in a world presented as a utopia. A few are falling into the tired propaganda trap that utopia is found in the next corporate and technology revolution. And some are focused on resisting the crumbling of old structures, doubling down on compliance with legacy systems, and refusing to try out new ways of thinking and being. But something else is happening too. More people than ever before are aware that, finally, the old systems and the old paradigms that rely on establishment, corporate, and technology “leaders” are hopelessly corrupt, having betrayed humanity in ways beyond comprehension, and they are finally falling away.

This is an unparalleled opportunity to create a brave new world in the best sense, meaning that we are free to recreate how we choose to live, work, and interact — without middlemen and corrupt authority structures, but instead with collaboration, community, and accountability.

Have you considered how you’ll evolve your collaborative efforts?

I’d like to invite your consideration on how collaboration among providers can help us all to be more effective. I’ve been thinking of collaboration in these broad categories:

1. Resource-sharing, off-loading tasks

2. Professional collectives, alliances, coalitions

3. Community, social collaboration

I’ve spent some of my time since the early 90s involved in the latter two activities, but the vast majority of my life, particularly since 2012, has been spent in the first: specializing in a service that enables providers to off-load tasks be more prepared, and free up time to be more present and effective with clients. That’s still my passion and focus.

But I recognize that a vital opportunity has opened up that involves the second two ways of collaborating and building community as well.

Due to my work and my interests, I’ve long been aware of providers of all types who serve from an evidence-based, independent mindset. And I’ve noticed a change in the past few years. I’ve seen a dramatic surge in professionals freeing themselves from systems that denied them autonomy to serve in the best interests of their clients and patients. For example, far more world-renowned medical providers and researchers have become independent in the past few years and, in some cases, they’ve formed alliances and collectives defined by common values and priorities.

Looking ahead.

I’ve been meeting regularly with a colleague who has been a leader in collaboration and community-building activities for decades and is passionate about supporting others in developing and sustaining community in this new environment. As a result, I’ll be supporting his efforts and incorporating some new tools in my own offering.

Meanwhile, I wanted to lay some groundwork with this post because:

1. It may seem like the right time of year for you, also, to pause and reflect on how you view the current landscape, and how you want to navigate the near future. (As always, I invite your thoughts.)

2. Perhaps the storm metaphor can provide a common language for us to discuss this chaotic time and our visions for the future in a more productive framework.

3. Over the next weeks and months, as I continue to bring you free services and paid opportunities alike, I’ll be able to point to this post to communicate a perspective I’m using to guide my approach.

Sincerely,

Shelly Thorn

How Providers Serve

A series on tools, resources, and support for health and wellness providers to practically rebuild or refine how they serve.

1. Providers Face a Changed Wellness Landscape (you’re here) — We’re in the midst of a metaphorical storm. Shall we pause for a moment to assess and consider how we’re moving forward, individually and together?

2. Symptoms, Conditions, Root Causes — Use these teachings to help clients and students frame their situation by differentiating symptoms and diagnoses, underlying conditions, and root causes.

3. Evidence-Based Decision-Making — Help clients move from the illusion of making evidence-based decisions to actually doing so.

4. Using Context to Individualize Wellness Strategies — A decision can be helpful in one situation and not in another. Providers need concrete ways to evaluate context with authentic and practical tools that hold up under real world conditions.

5. Foundational Considerations, Universal Truths — A springboard for client discussions or workshops on health and wellness: universal truths. These significant and practical teachings create a strong foundation from which to build.

6. Incontrovertible Facts about Germs & Immunity — You know this, but many clients need to see the evidence for themselves. AMA research published in 1919 proves without a doubt that germs don’t cause disease. How immunity works and why we must dismantle false beliefs to inspire people to identify the real causes of illness.

7. Chronic Inflammation — Teach about chronic inflammation. It’s rampant and causes an extravagant number of symptoms & chronic diseases. Get comprehensive summaries of 100% evidence-based root causes & reversal therapies.

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