Meet the People

Practioner Profile: Susan Merrett

Susan Merrett is an Aura-Soma practitioner from Adelaide.  She was introduced to Aura-Soma at a Mind Body and Spirit Festival and also read an article on Aura-Soma in the New Age Guardian.  Susan has completed the Advanced level and has been giving consultations for about 3 years.  Her practice is very successful and she is also the South Australian distributor of the Aura-Soma products

 Career background

Aura-Soma Kronicle:   Susan, what is your career background?

Susan Merrett:  I’ve been involved in sales and training for over 10 years.  The last 5-6 years has been in the cosmetic industry as a trainer.  Now I work in retail fashion.  In all I’ve done there has been a close association with colour.  I have a fascination with colour.

Colour and fashion

ASK:   How do you work with colours in the fashion industry?

SM:      As I began to learn Aura-Soma, I could link it back to the external colours that people wear in clothing and make-up.  In fashion, you can tell a lot about a person by the colours they are wearing.  In this area, Aura-Soma is an invaluable tool.  I can work people out before I even speak to them.

It helps me with people who, for instance, are going for an interview and want to buy something to wear.  I ask them what position they are being interviewed for and from there I suggest some colours and use my colour information to help them with what they want to achieve.  For an executive position, I’d probably recommend something in navy blue, certainly one of the blue colours and preferably getting into the deeper shades.  This would show that they are an authority figure and they could be trusted.  Blue, being a communication colour, mid-blue down to royal blue, they are saying you can communicate with me plus you can trust me. 

Aura-Soma as a life changer

ASK:   How has Aura-Soma changed your life?

SM:      Aura-Soma has changed my life in many ways.  It’s certainly brought a deeper meaning to the way I look at a lot of things in life and the way I look at people too.  It’s taught me to use my intuition a lot more than I did before and my intuition has developed.  Since I’ve been practising Aura-Soma as a consultant, I’ve found more and more that my intuition has joined with the knowledge.  That has made me a better practitioner.

Handling a difficult consultation situation

ASK:   What sort of challenging situations have you experienced, and how did you handle them?

SM:      I once had a client who was a barrister.  Her first bottle was Orange/Violet and it related to the grief and trauma that my client hadn’t released from the past.  In the middle of the consultation she said something like “what you’re saying could relate to anyone”! She actually shook my confidence.  So I told her that she didn’t need to pay me and then I ended up doing a 2 hour counselling session for no charge!  After I said she didn’t have to pay, the whole story came out about her reaction to the death of her daughter who had died in a car accident and it fitted perfectly with the bottles.  What I really needed to know was how to deal with that situation and go on from there in a professional way.  I should have trusted that the information that I was giving her was the best information I could give to her. 

It took me a long time to get over that one.  It doesn’t happen often.  Now if I was faced with that situation I would say, ‘I’m sorry I haven’t been of help to you.  I hope something that I have said will be of benefit to you but if you don’t want to continue on with the consultation, that’s fine and we’ll end the consultation here.  But if we continue on with the consultation, then I’ll ask you to pay for it’.

I believe now that, as a practitioner, you need to stand in your own power and when someone says they’ll have a consultation with you, then they pay for that consultation the same as they would pay for a consultation with a counsellor or a psychologist.   I do feel that some counselling skills and some sales and marketing skills are very important to have so that you feel confident when you go out there to practise. 

 During the courses when you give consultations everyone is reasonably friendly and open, there is no scepticism.  But a situation like with the barrister is one you may face when you are out in the public arena.

Favourite Products

ASK:   What are your favourite Aura-Soma products?

SM:      The Pomanders are my favourite products.  I work with them a lot personally.  I recommend Pomanders a lot. The Pink is my favourite Pomander.  Everyone gets a Pink Pomander from me.  Deep Red and Orange are also my favourites.

My favourite Quintessence is El Morya.

The bottle that has the closest connection with me is B32 Sophia Royal Blue/Gold, the first bottle I ever chose and I chose it for a year in first position.  I don’t choose it in first position now but I still have a strong association with it.  At the moment my favourite bottles are Archangel Gabriel B95 and Archangel Michael B94.  I remember at the first Aura-Soma consultation I ever had I stood outside the door saying I’m going to choose something with red, because I wear a lot of red.  I walked in, sat down and chose Sophia, not knowing that it had red in top and bottom.  It was interesting to me that although red is important to me, when I was asked to choose the one I love the most I chose the royal and gold and they have a strong connection to me.  I nearly always choose a bottle with gold in the bottom fraction so it seems that the gold ray is the one I came in on, I think.

Product recommendations at a consultation

ASK:   Can you tell us how you go about making recommendations at a consultation?

SM:      When I give a consultation I have a consultation sheet.  At the end of the consultation, I write down the bottles they have chosen on that day, and possibly their second choice.  I explain how they can continue on with that.  Then I find out if they are working in a healing field and if so, what they do.  I recommend Pomanders that might be useful for them in their work.  I also recommend products like Serapis Bey Air Conditioner to clean their rooms with and I write that down under my ‘other’ section.  I always recommend at least 2 Pomanders, sometimes I would have 3 or 4 lined up there.  If they work in a relevant field I recommend Orange for shock and Red for grounding people with.  If they are working with so many clients in a day that they need their own space or may need to clear their space between clients, I recommend either the Olive or Emerald Green Pomanders.  Then I would recommend a personal Pomander from their consultation.  I explain that they can use more than one a day, and select the one(s) that they feel are necessary.  I write down the Quintessence that is relevant to their consultation.  If they want to work with them in their healing work, I might talk about the Presentation Set.

I normally recommend the Quintessence that relates to their consultation and you have them using that for a period of time, whereas with Pomanders you have the ability to be able to recommend more than one.

As you know, when there is a master or light [ie pale] bottle in the 3rd position then you recommend the Quintessence that relates to that.  Lately I’ve had a lot of consultations where the client has chosen a master or light bottle in the 3rd and the 4th position. As well as recommending to the client that they use the 3rd position Quintessence, I’ve been really drawn to recommend that they begin working, in about 3 months time, with the Quintessence that relates to the 4th position bottle.

Often I recommend Serapis Bey to clean their rooms etc.  At the end of the consultation I look to see if they are high or low in any of the primary colours and if so, I like to recommend that they work with the Tinctures for that.  For example if someone is high in blue in their consultation, I explain to them what that might mean, like there might be trust issues in their life and I talk to them about the different trust issues that are associated with blue.  Then I often recommend to them that they use the complimentary colour to help balance back the blue, so I would recommend the Orange Tincture, and I always put Rainbow in too.  The main Tinctures I use are yellow and orange; they come up a lot.  People always tell me they feel better while and after taking the Tincture.  From the consultations I do, 80 – 90% of people are high in blue and some of them considerably high in blue.  That comes from the violet a lot of the time but would come back to the primary, blue.  I love the ones that are high in yellow and the people are totally confused about everything that is going on in their lives, but that doesn’t happen very often.  And there are not many that are high in red.  It’s usually the blue.

I’ve given almost 400 Aura-Soma consultations now and I’ve only ever had 2 consultations that I haven’t sold a product in.

Normally I devote 2 days a week to Aura-Soma consultations and I would have 6 to 10 consultations over those 2 days.

Best quality as an Aura-Soma practitioner

ASK:   What is your best quality as an Aura-Soma practitioner?

SM:      My best quality is enthusiasm.  I’m so enthusiastic about the Aura-Soma products and the information that I’m getting out to people.

They often ring me even before they’ve got their product to tell me they feel better just from speaking to me.   Or they’ll ring up and want to do an Aura-Soma course or want more information about it. I find that it’s interesting and exciting, and my practise is growing all the time.

Tips for new practitioners

ASK:   Do you have any tips for new practitioners?

SM:      It would depend on whether they just wanted to be an Aura-Soma practitioner or whether they already worked with massage, or whatever.  If they didn’t have anywhere to work from, my tip would be to find somewhere, as I did, like Quantum Books [a book store] or Eternal Spirit [a new age shop] - somewhere where someone could promote them so they would have some work to do without spending a lot of money on advertising.  Often I feel that it’s better to do it out in the public rather than working from home.  People see you in a more professional light if you’re out in the public arena, unless you already have an established business from home and you already have clients.  If they d like, I’d be happy to help them to find a place to work from. 

My other tip to new practitioners is to make sure they are organised to step into this public arena; that they have all the things they need to help them do that, like a set of bottles and a tape recorder.

New practitioners may need to go to the place they are working from even if they don’t have any consultations, and sit there and talk to people and be prepared to do 1 bottle complementaries at no charge for a while until people get to know who they are.  That’s what I did quite a lot at the beginning.

Client responses

ASK:   How do your clients usually respond to consultations?

SM:      Many people have actually called me and thanked me for the consultation and let me know that they got a lot out of it.  Once they’ve started working with the products they also call me to let me know that the Aura-Soma products have made a difference and a change in their lives.  That’s been on a lot of different occasions.

My motivation in being a practitioner is to be able to help people in that way.   I always tell them that it’s not just the Aura-Soma consultation, even though that may be very helpful.  But by working with the Aura-Soma products that will help them with whatever they are going through at whatever level they need it, be it physical, mental, emotional or spiritual.  Whatever bottle they have chosen to work with and whatever backup products they are using, are what’s going to help them get through that time and help them with the changes in their life as well as what I have told them in their consultation.

Fees and promotion

ASK:   How much do you charge for consultations?

SM:      I currently charge $45 for an hours consultation but I’m about to charge $50.  I tape the consultation.   I also colour in the consultation sheets and provide them the next week when they pick up their products and I provide follow up service along with the consultation, so I think that $50 is fairly reasonable.  I feel that if I start giving backup consultations then I might be able to reduce the price a bit.  Like if you see a chiropractor.  The initial consultation is $60-$70.  For follow up consultations they don’t charge quite as much.

I met a lady at the opening of the new Dulwich rooms who had had an experience with Serapis Bey.  She had been complaining about not being clear and not being able to sleep.  A practitioner had given her some Serapis and she’d used it a few times.  She had much more restful nights and was clearer, and so she was totally impressed.  I was introduced to her and everyone said you must give her a consultation.  So I gave her a quick consultation in the corner and that quick consultation ended up ¾ hour.  She decided it was fabulous.  She owns a big chiropractic clinic and she wants to recommend people to come and have consultations with me.  She asked me what I charge for my follow ups and it made me realise that I need to think about this. 

In the first consultation you take a lot more time to find out about your client.  I’ve had a lot of clients lately that have had Bottle 2 Blue/Blue hidden in every position.  We’ve taken time to talk about possibly their father, authority figures, communication issues, are they standing in their own authority or do they need to speak up for themselves, or are they controlling with their communication.  So we take a long time in the first consultation finding out exactly what that colour is meaning for them. 

 In a follow up consultation, if those colours come up again, then you’ve got an idea what that colour means for that person and so you don’t spend as much time.  In the second consultation you also give them an hour but you may be exploring different things.  You may be exploring things a little bit deeper.  You’re also talking to them about how the bottle went, and what’s been happening in their life while working with the bottle.  You’re not doing anything less but it may be a marketing strategy advantage in offering a reduced charge in the follow up consultations or in offering a programme of 3 or 4 consultations.

The other thing I need to look at is a programme for recommending Aura-Soma to practitioners.

I don’t know if any other practitioners deal with the following. I find that, because I deal publicly at Eternal Spirit, where they have Shiatsu massage, a Reiki master who also does kinesiology, healers, a naturopath, counsellors and every single one of them uses Aura-Soma, they recommend to other practitioners that they call me and talk to me about Aura-Soma products.  Some of them want to come in and see me.  I really need to come up with something where I can possibly charge them for about ½ hour of my time where I find out what their business is all about and I can recommend products that they can actually use in their business.  I need to work out how I can have a night where I can advise practitioners on Aura-Soma products in their practices.  It’s finding out exactly what’s going on in their practice.  For example, sometimes with the massage people I recommend a rainbow tincture cream to use on the face rather than an oil, and they love that.  So it’s like tailoring a little Aura-Soma package for their practice.  If I could do this then they will order their products on a regular basis. 

I find that if a practitioner takes up ½ - ¾ hr of my time, it’s time that I could have been doing a consultation in and being paid for. 

I thought I could run a night for practitioners to come along and then I could talk to them individually afterwards.  The benefit with practitioners is that I often get their clients coming to me for consultations or for products which the practitioners have used on them in their sessions.  Often they’ve been having a Shiatsu massage with Steve [a practitioner] who uses Yellow/Gold oil on their hara, and a Pomander around them.  He even uses Yellow and White Tincture when he wants clients to do a detoxification and a cleanse.  Also Yellow and White when he wants to work with the digestive system.

 Why only a few active practitioners in Adelaide

ASK:   There are not many active Aura-Soma practitioners in Adelaide.  Do you know why?

SM:      I don’t know.  Nobody seems to want to go out and do it, or from their home.  They seem to use Aura-Soma as a self-development thing, which is great.  I believe the training doesn’t encourage people to go out and be practitioners.  When you think of the Intermediate level, when people are qualified to go out and be a practitioner, what skills have we given them apart from the skills of reading the colours in the bottles and knowledge of the Poms and Quins etc.  What practical skills have we given them to go out and start practising, unless they already have those skills for themselves.  I find the majority of practitioners have never been involved in sales or training.  A lot of students come from healing backgrounds so they can incorporate Aura-Soma in the healing work they do.  But if they actually wanted to be a consultant we don’t give them many skills to go out there.  Either at the end of Intermediate or before Advanced, we should have a little course which says ‘if you want to be an Aura-Soma practitioner, then this is a course that you need to do’, or else you need to have something in Intermediate which everybody does, whether they intend to be a practitioner or not.

A lot of people tell me they don’t have the courage and the confidence in themselves.  By showing them what they can do, maybe they will say, “Hang on, I can do this”.  If they had the guidelines as well as the information, then maybe a lot more would step out.  A lot of people seem to think it’s all too hard.  I feel that at the end of the Intermediate we could do some practice.  You know how the readings in the courses are very casual.  If we actually set up something where we had to be quite professional – perhaps if we had a little table set up and you had to go and invite your client in and give them a consultation as if you were professionally out there. 

As a practitioner you can have a preconceived idea about what a bottle means for you so I feel it’s very important to keep listening to your client to make sure that that’s what it means for them also.

Between the Foundation and Intermediate Courses I think it’s up to students to go and explore the bottles for themselves and see what they actually mean for them.  The bottles each have personalities and they all mean something slightly different to each of us. 

Clients ask me what is this bottle going to do for me, what am I going to feel.  I just tell them that it depends on the person and which level of the bottle they are working with.  Each of us will have a different reaction to how the bottle is working with us and exactly what we need from that bottle.  For example, you may have more an emotional reaction to the bottle, or a physical one, or you might just feel an overwhelming sense of peace.  I tell people that at different times they can call me and talk to me about using the bottle, and what’s happening to them.  I think that’s part of a consultation too.  You don’t have to be available 24 hours a day but you might like to give people certain times of the day when they can ring you. 

My first bottle that I worked with was Bottle 40, the ‘I Am’ bottle.  For the first 5 days nothing happened. Then on the 6th day, I felt like someone was shaking me from the inside out.  I didn’t feel I could phone the consultant and speak to them about what was happening.  After using that first bottle I wouldn’t use another one for about 3-4 months.  It actually frightened me that anything could make me feel that way.  But if I’d had someone to talk to I would have felt reassured and ordered another bottle straight away.  It made me aware of the need to be there for your clients to talk to.

Brochures

ASK:   What brochures do you use to promote your practice?

SM:      I really love the little brochures that Aura-Soma Australia provides because they are purse size and the same size as a business card.  We can each put our stickers on the back and use them as our business cards.  Not only are we giving out our own business card but we are also giving a little business card out on Aura-Soma because it has all the information on Pomanders, Quintessences etc.  People love them, they are a great size and they catch people’s eyes. 

The extra information you get on the Pomanders and Quintessences in the presentation sets is also good.  When people buy a number of Pomanders to use in their practices, they are looking for some extra information.  So copies of the sheets from the presentation sets would be good. 

Because I work with Tinctures, I don’t think there is enough information on Tinctures. And there isn’t any information on Tinctures in the Foundation workbook.

I have a package to give out after my consultations.  The next week when they come to pick up their products, if I haven’t been able to give them their products on the consultation day, they get a clear plastic folder.  In it they get a consultation sheet where the bottles have been coloured in, and things like, for example, Mission Bottle No 24 Violet/Turquoise, and possibly the name of the bottle followed by Gift and Challenge bottle etc.  The recommended products are written down the bottom.  I put the bottle(s) in for them and a sheet telling them how to use their bottle, their Pomander, their Quintessence.  If they have a Tincture then that is in there with a thing that tells them how many drops to take.  When I first started I used to write out some information on each of the 4 bottles but I don’t do that now because I give them a tape of our session. I’m surprised how many people have rung me up recently and told me that they have relistened to their tape a number of times.

The future

ASK:   What do you feel is your future with colour?

SM:      I’d like to one day work with colour as a full time position.  Aura-Soma is the key to making that possible because it was what got me interested in colour on this level and it is a very important part of whatever I do with colour from now on.  I guess it has changed my ideas of what I would like to do with my life as far as work goes.