Purpose: Starter client sessions are designed to help Mediums feel more comfortable during the early stages of their work with non-medium clients, enabling them to learn and grow more quickly.
Background: Mediums often begin their developmental journey by practicing primarily with other Mediums. Because most Mediums are driven to serve well, Mediums who are very
capable can sometimes find it challenging to begin client work. They can get too comfortable working with other Medium partners who may be providing too much assistance in evidence
recognition.
Starter client experiences are like removing the training wheels from a bike. These sessions enable Mediums to get real client experiences with less pressure so they don’t have to worry about letting someone down or risking their own reputation.
Starter Client Volunteers are a critical component to this experience. As an SCV you provide upcoming Mediums with a safe opportunity to practice working with clients. We hope to encourage capable Mediums to extend their practices beyond the mediumship community so that they can learn more quickly from more diverse experiences.
Expectations of Starter Client Volunteers:
To help facilitate the best learning experience for the Medium, we ask that you do the following:
- Be yourself. Mediums do need to learn to work with all sorts of people, so diversity in personality, etc., is all good.
- Be on time. Mediums can get nervous before their first client sessions and so have worked to prepare themselves mentally. Late arrivals and no-shows can be detrimental so we ask that you sign into the Zoom link a few minutes early. Also, if you need to cancel or reschedule, please make every effort to do so at least 24 hours in advance.
- Enable a good session environment. Don’t attempt to participate in a session while driving, distracted, or in a busy or noisy area. Reduce background noise as much as possible by turning off all electronic devices.
- Take notes. Mediums will deeply appreciate a review of the evidence you noted after the session so that they can gauge where they might have over-interpreted an item or under-valued information.
- Treat feedback as a gift. Mediums taking this step to begin working with clients are very interested in developing their skills and deeply appreciate every piece of feedback, even if it’s not always glowing. They appreciate honesty and candor as they continue to refine their skills.
- Arrive with appropriate expectations of a practice environment vs. a professional
session. These Mediums may still be learning to:
- Do strong introductions for role clarity and to help set the right session energy.
- Manage their nervousness to remain fully open for potential communicators.
- Not get distracted by the new diversity they will encounter with clients.
- Hold focus on the communicator while still interacting with the client.
- Share the evidence as it is shared with them without adding interpretation.
- Smoothly wrap up the session and take questions afterwards.
Other Heads-Up for “Starter” Client Volunteers:
- From time to time a Medium may be unable to establish a good connection. It is a natural stage of the development process but still can be disconcerting for a Medium. So please be supportive if the Medium needs to take a pause and/or end your session early to regroup.
- Mediums value you and your time commitment. However, they are learning on multiple levels and some schedule adjustments may be necessary from time-to-time. We ask that Mediums try to give at least 24 hours’ notice on changes or cancellations. Mediums will be encouraged to limit their availability in the first few weeks to allow for time to digest their experience in between sessions. We do appreciate the flexibility of our “Starter” client volunteers.
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Sometimes a medium will need to change or cancel an appointment with less notice. For example:
- When stepping out for the first few times, they may need some unanticipated recovery time after a session that was particularly challenging for them.
- Sometimes Mediums will choose to adjust course in terms of the depth or breadth of clients they feel currently ready to work with.
- Many newer Mediums are still juggling full-time jobs and other responsibilities, so are still in the discovery stage of what works for their schedule.
- Also, like everyone else, sometimes they will have emergent personal needs that they hadn’t anticipated. Mediums will work hard to avoid schedule disruptions.