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New Plan, Now, Forming the Structure

By Amy Nielsen

I have discovered my personal Tabula Rosa, my Rosetta stone, my thesaurus.

Let me explain. I was lucky enough to go to a weekend-long immersion conference for healing arts. While listening to several different teachers, I discovered a way to relate to my specific chronic illness that makes so much sense to me it’s like someone opened a lock. Literally, it feels like a door inside my head opened up. It was just a simple drawing. But it was the key.

I have a very specific path I want to take for my own healing. I know this is going to take a lot of personal work. In order to do that I need to be able to travel to the teachers and healers I need to see to do the work and learn the lessons myself. From there, I want to share what I learn in the way I know it with other people so they are able to start to have the door opened for them too.

I have a very specific kind of theory I want to teach. I know also that I want my job to involve travel. I have decided on my target clientele. I know where they live and what their median income is. I know what their level of disposable income is and how they prefer to spend it. I know how they best like to be targeted for shopping in a way that fits the needs of my teaching style. I know how to tailor my classes, workshops and client sessions to fit well within that community. I lived it. I am that demographic. Using this clientele helps me more easily be in the places I need to be to see the healers I need while still working and teaching along the way.

The material I want to teach lends itself well to a structure based on 8, which makes daily planning a snap. A full workshop day usually runs eight hours: seven hours of teaching time, two fifteen minutes breaks, and one half hour lunch; assuming you can provide lunch or it is easily accessible. I can easily break classes over two days and condense them by allowing for more discussion time and exercises..

I have a tiered approach in mind for the class structure. I know right now I can comfortably lead local herb walks and teach classes on kitchen herbalism. I also know I can teach a myriad of fermenting and kitchen-based classes. I can lead kids and adults of mixed gender for this level of class. Within that structure I can layer the overarching topic of my Tabula Rosa: the what, how, and why these ingredients are important in this structure of healing.

I also know that within the next six months or so I will feel confident enough in my own journey to be able to work up the next level of lecture style class, where I can get a bit more in depth into the actual structure of healing and how to see it working in your own body. I am not the healer, you are. I am sharing my healing path with you and learning from you just as much as you are learning from me. That’s how teaching works. As I increase my knowledge and complete the classes I am currently working through, I will have more structure to move forward from. I will have more material to teach.

 It is my hope that in the future as I get farther along in my personal journey, people will fall into my space for mentoring.


I will not specifically be a teacher, though the relationship can start off in that formal setting. I want to be someone more than that, someone who is more than friend, someone who primarily teaches but also learns. The mentee - must find a different word for that - is accomplished at their own level of expertise in a different area of a similar art and is looking to expand their knowledge into another area with more formal study with a practioner of a similar lever of skill to theirs. The mentee needs less beginner work and can have a faster learning curve as they can draw from similar experience in their own craft or art.

This relationship can work in a more formal setting as with a master and apprentice relationship, or less formal in a personal coaching relationship. Not only am I looking to find other mentor relationships and teachers to follow for my own journey, I am also looking for people to mentor so they can share this with other people. The whole purpose of this is to help other people by teaching them this system to help themselves and then passing that along to other people.

Each of these levels teach the same principles, just at different depths and energetic levels. I feel like I have a good structure to teach from and to do the actual work of the business from. I know who I want to work with and why. I know how I can help them deal with our specific set of stressors and circumstances in such a way as to make their lives easier. I also know that my personal journey will inform my business journey and vice versa. As I learn more, I can teach more. As my light grows I can illuminate more.

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