We were lucky to catch up with Erin Schemenski recently and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Erin thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about how you went about setting up your own practice and if you have any advice for professionals who might be considering starting their own?
I attribute the growth of my business on leaps of faith that included fear but also expansion in my belief that I can follow the bubbling passion. I originally started my practice in the basement of my rental home in south Denver. We had an extra room in the house and I thought, why not buy a massage table from craigslist and start telling people I am offering Reiki and Energy Healing sessions. In 2019, I started my rate at $30 an hour, and quite frankly, I am glad I did. Sessions were running about an hour or so long because in Reiki and Energy Healing, there’s a conversation component to support the client and I really wanted to develop an understanding of my worth from the ground up; sacrificial to say the least.
Instagram marketing was my prime outreach and from that point, word of mouth clients would trickle in. This is when I thought- I should set up an online booking calendar with set days and times between my school classes and nursing job so clients can self-book. My growth was developing and I was receiving support from peers so my prices doubled and eventually so did my client base.
Toward the end of 2020, after about six months of building, everything changed. Three Denver community members in the health and wellness space reached out to me asking if I would join their wellness collective. Upon the first and second request it felt too risky and I politely declined. After the third request, a client said to me “What next step does your future self require?” Despite the utter fear in making this leap and gambling on my current life plan for my nursing education, it was becoming clear something was calling me. I decided to take this leap of faith and go for a part-time room rental.
I started at the brick and mortar community wellness space in the heart of downtown Denver at the beginning of 2021 and my income and clientele doubled. Being in a space outside of my home was giving me professional expansion and the evidence was in the clientele growth. From that point I met an acupuncturist in the space who I really connected with. Another leap of faith presented itself at the end of 2021 to move into our own space despite the financial cost that leases would overlap. But again, something compelled me and I found a way to make the money and make it happen. In this year of growth at the community space, I learned I was more dedicated to Reiki and Energy healing in my own business than I was on my educational nursing path. I decided to leave my corporate nursing position after the weakening of the medical industry during and after the pandemic.
That leap of faith that begged me to quit my nursing plan led me full-time in my Reiki and Energy Healing business which ultimately allowed me to carve out my own office where I had full control of my schedule and work flow. I had two years of sharing a space with others and I was ready to be in my own space again. I developed life long connections and my clients connected so deeply to my work they followed me through my shifting phases.
Word of mouth has now become my main source of marketing and my clientele list has grown year over year. Finding my worth through the process has required me to continue to shift and I keep finding the clients that can match that energy level with me while still maintaining visitors from the days of my basement sessions.
The greatest lesson I learned in this process is fear is not an indicator, it is a motivator to trust the leaps. When there’s fear in a decision but a compelling reason to go through with it, trust that pull and the fear will subside to figure itself out. You have to trust that what you’re doing is being invited to grow. Growth takes time, be patient with yourself, do what you can at the level you can do it, because there will always be another level. Growth levels also aren’t always vertical, they’re lateral, too.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I am a Reiki and Energy Healing Practitioner and I come from a background of western medicine and nursing education. I focus my scope through the lens of an Alternative and Complimentary Healthcare Practitioner as my paths in eastern and western practices ran side by side and even merged for the first three years of my caregiving endeavors since 2019.
I typically coach and spiritually guide people in developing this connection and use Reiki, Energy Healing techniques, and Breath work, to connect to their body and mind on the table. My work results in a spirited human that feels the experience of their own aliveness through a regulated nervous system and creative daydream-like states. The nervous system is a major component of my work because of it’s important role in our primal instincts and development through life’s series of interactions and events that may require healing. My work is set apart from others due to my background, my passion for science and spirituality, and my ability to track the energy of the process in a very detailed fashion.
I was introduced to Reiki through my spiritual mentor in 2017. I had just graduated college, looking for work and the local yoga studio was offering Reiki classes. I found out that Reiki was offered as a complimentary modality to cancer patients at a large Denver hospital and I thought “What a beautiful way to merge both perspectives. Where can I sign up, how can I contribute?” I followed a nursing path from 2018-2022 and Reiki facilitation was right there with me as I offered to cancer patients at the hospital and across Denver through paid and volunteer work. I was studying to become a nurse as a main priority, but that halted as my love for Reiki and its need for legitimate attention grew stronger throughout my journey.
I am currently established in my own office in Capitol Hill of Denver, Colorado where I see 90% of in-person clients and others through the online modality. I have developed an appointment structure that has a track record for supporting people in becoming more authentically connected to themselves in their life and the relationships around them.
Putting training and knowledge aside, what else do you think really matters in terms of succeeding in your field?
A regulated nervous system as a practitioner or facilitator is the utmost importance in this field. This results in the practitioner doing their own healing work and knowing their own energy every time they show up to the client. A regulated nervous system is not hyper, is not down trodden, exhausted, or on over-drive. A regulated nervous system is one that partakes in creating safety through active listening, patience, tracking client reactions, and being a witness to their experience. From this point, the practitioner holds the space for the client to have their very own experience. Of course with training and knowledge comes the ability to know how and when to make the next move. A regulated nervous system sets the tone and safety structure for the client to feel like they are fully invited into their experience.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
A lesson that I am unlearning currently is that giving to others doesn’t necessarily mean it comes at the cost of sacrificing yourself.
The back story stems from childhood trauma rooted in the relationship to one of my caretakers/adult figures in my life. As young children, we are so susceptible to being deeply connected to our caretaker’s emotions in their regulated or unregulated states. We are wired to it through the hormones developed through love, fear, and connection. As young children witness these unregulated states with the adult loved one-our role models, the child reflects “What is this emotion this person is exhibiting? Is something wrong here? Did I cause this?” The child ultimately develops a deep level of empathy for their loved one and in one facet, feels connected or even responsible for the adult’s unregulated state of anger, abuse, sadness, or aggression. The child feels bonded to this person and responsible to help change the adult’s state because of this hormonal and chemical bond. I experienced this increased level of empathy through traumatizing connections with my loved one and could not separate their emotional problems from the responsibility of my own actions. I felt compelled to change, to adapt to their needs and abandon my own. For many times in the situations of their anger and aggression, I was told that I was the problem, and I took that on as my responsibility to fix or regulate both of us. Ultimately, my lack of boundaries between giving to self and others has been a life long lesson and is healing through my role as a practicing professional.
The lesson is teaching me strength in my boundaries, a limit to my capacity to share my energy, empathy, and support for another to avoid draining myself. I can’t be responsible for everyone’s healing but I can hold the space that I know I can offer without draining myself and the rest is up to the timeline required to gently move through this process with the set of tools we all have. This is why healing takes time. It’s a beautiful, yet challenging lesson, and is common across many “healers” and “caregivers” and has become my biggest feat in my work.
Contact Info:
- Website: themindfulbird.com
- Instagram: Instagram.com/themindfulbird_
- Facebook: Facebook.com/themindfulbird
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eeschemenski/
- Other: Booking: Themindfulbird.janeapp.com
Image Credits
Shelby Borer Photography