I’ve been talking to a number of energy healers lately who have asked: How do you convince a skeptic that Reiki or other energy healing modalities really work?

My first questions is, why would you want to?

Yet, when they tell me about all the people energy healers could reach that really need their help (people with PTSD, TBI, physical injuries, emotional injuries, and those with aversion to therapeutic touch, to name a few) I began to see why they’d want to do so.

Convincing someone to believe in your product is about convincing the skeptic to entertain a new belief or consider new information.

While it’s not easy to do, it is possible. Start with discovering these two things:

• What their belief system is around energy healing.

Before you launch into all the reasons why Reiki or your particular healing modality works, listen first to what they have to say.

Belief systems are personal and complex.

According to Stephen Covey in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, when conversing with people who have differing beliefs from yours the most important thing to do is, “seek first to understand, then be understood.”

If you’re like most people, you probably seek first to be understood. You want to get your point across. When dealing with a skeptic, seek first to understand their point of view. Listen to understand. Not listen to convince.

People form beliefs based on their experiences. If you want to convince a skeptic to believe in your product, you’ll have to understand theirs, first.

• What they know or think they know.

It’s not personal, skeptics, in general, are dubious about most everything and everyone. Overtime, they’ve adopted this model of operation as a mode of survival. A self-defense mechanism against being wrong or hurt.

The key to understanding skeptics is to realize that above all else they need to be absolutely sure of their facts before they accept anything to be true. The greater a skeptic’s misinformation about Reiki, Therapeutic Touch, EFT or your healing modality the harder it will be to convince then otherwise.

Therefore, find out what they know or think they know before hitting them with the factual benefits of your healing modality.

Once you know these two things you’ll be able to plot a course of action to increase your chance of convincing a skeptic to try your product.

In my next blog post I’ll talk about specific things you can do to tip the scale in your favor. They are easy to do and guaranteed to at least cause the skeptic to consider your point of view and revise their belief system.

Yes You Can! empowers energy healers to put themselves forward in their communities by starting up healing practices. For in doing so, not only will more people find the healing they need, our communities and our relationship with the natural world will also be healed.

Come join me in this healing journey.

Jan