5 Tips On How To Stay Centered As Ketamine Clinic Owner

Being a centered ketamine physician doesn’t just mean that you take care of your patients, but you take care of yourself as well.

You may recall that the last time you took a trip on an airplane, the flight attendant reminded you to put your oxygen mask on before helping someone else with theirs. We love this reminder not just because, well, that makes complete sense in an emergency on a plane…but also because it is a great illustration of what we need to do as healthcare professionals and business people. It’s tough starting and running your business. Plus it’s also tough to take care of patients who have dealt with treatment resistant depression, other mood disorders, and chronic pain conditions. Take it from us, since starting our ketamine infusion clinic in 2018, we have learned the importance of taking care of ourselves. We also realized that we need to stay centered so that we can provide the best care not just for our patients, but also for our business. So in this blog, we’ll cover some recommendations on how to stay centered when taking care of patients and running a ketamine infusion clinic.

It can be so easy to get caught up in your work 24/7, but it’s important to draw the line so that you also have time to rest.

Tip #1: Set boundaries

When we first started out, we talked about our clinic all the time.  We would reply to emails and work on marketing past midnight. We’d answer our clinic’s phone during vacations. We became unbalanced and we started to lose sleep. We were beginning to burn out and decided that we needed to set boundaries to keep our sanity. But more importantly, we wanted to maintain the other aspects of our lives we valued, like our child and our personal health. We know setting boundaries isn't easy, and in no way are we experts on how to set them. BUT they need to be set and more importantly maintained. How we set boundaries is by creating a set of rules. Here are a few examples;

• No clinic-related work after 6pm

• If we must work past 6pm, then taking care of our health and kid comes first (i.e. exercise first and or put our kid to bed first)

• Saturdays are work-free days

More often than not, business “emergencies” don’t actually need your immediate attention. Most of the time, it helps to pause for a bit before taking action.

Tip #2: Take a moment to pause

We have learned over these past few years that there are really very few business-related emergencies that need immediate action from us. Note that when we say “business”, obviously we are excluding medical emergencies! So there are very few times that we need to react on the very instance an issue or situation arises. We don’t need to be reactive, and as we have learned over the years, being reactive can come from an illogical and emotional place. And you want to be as logical and centered when making business and medical decisions. This goes hand-in-hand with setting boundaries. Sometimes we plow right over a boundary because we think something needs to be addressed in this very instance, but it isn’t true. Does that email replying to a patient really need to go out now? Do you really need to reply to that voicemail now? More often than not, you don’t. A lot of the urgency and sense of rush is an illusion. So you can let it go and give yourself a pause, a moment to breathe. 

When you have that moment of pause, as we have learned, you go from reacting to responding. You can think carefully and mindfully about the action you want to take. Often we find that instead of immediately “taking care of something” and allowing a bit of time to pass, things work out on their own or in a way we could never imagine! 

Working out not only helps your body physically, but mentally as well, which is important to help you manage your business at your best.

Tip #3: Move your body

We know we’re preaching to the choir here. Not only is exercise good for your physical health, but it’s also important for your mental health. If we’re in a funk and stressed about our clinic, we jump on our little trampoline or do some squats. If we need perspective on handling a situation or challenge that comes up, we go for a walk with our human and fur children. 

In fact, there was a recent study that found that even just 10 minutes of moderate-intensity running can already boost brain processing. This is because running increases blood flow to the various loci in the bilateral prefrontal cortex, which is basically the part of the brain that plays an important role in controlling mood and executive functions. So if you feel stuck or in the middle of a rut, go for a quick run!

You are the most important aspect of your business, so you need to take care of yourself holistically.

Tip #4: Take care of your mental, emotional, spiritual self

Starting your own business and taking care of patients add a lot of complexity to your life. The trade off of working for yourself and calling your own shots is that you can easily take all the work and stress home with you. And let's be honest, even for your regular clinical job where you are salaried and can clock in and out, you still are taking the work home with you. Speaking from personal experience here, you are still thinking about, “Did I make the right diagnosis?” or “Did I choose the right treatment?” Add those same questions to the new ones of “Did I hire the right medical assistant?” or “What should I do If there is a ketamine shortage?” or “What should I do if I catch one of my staff stealing ketamine?” 

Stressors will come up, plus you are taking care of patients with lots of emotional and physical pain. Put that all together and that can take its toll on you if you don’t take care of yourself. Are we talking about self care here? Of course. But more specifically we are talking about taking care of your own mental, emotional and or spiritual self. That can take on the form of talking with a therapist or life coach, and working through your own traumas and issues. Throwing yourself into your work will only be an escape from dealing with the root of the problem. Remember you are the core of your business and the rock for your patients, so be mindful of keeping yourself centered and strong.

As physicians, we have a tendency to be tough on ourselves when things don’t go our way. But sometimes, we need to cut ourselves some slack and take mistakes as learning opportunities. 

Tip #5: Be kind to yourself

There is a good chance you are a perfectionist like us. Many healthcare professionals are like that or have developed perfectionist habits. Whether that is due to the nature or nurture of the medical education, the drive for perfectionism can lead to being pretty hard on ourselves. Will you make mistakes? Yes, we did and will continue to do so. There will be times you second guess yourself, wish you had done things differently, or make the same mistakes multiple times. 

Know that you are doing your best. Take on the mindset that you are. And that even if it didn’t come out the way you really wanted it to, you did the best in that moment. Even the bad or less than ideal outcomes are good and maybe even what’s best for you. Take on the perspective that every challenge or even setback is here for your growth and learning. 

Your business is a reflection of you and how you take care of yourself. 

Summary: You Are Your Priority

A lot of the ways above, if not all, are pieces of advice we also give not just to people in our KSU course, but to our patients as well. So we practice what we preach. Also, a lot of these ways were developed from the experiences we had as we took care of patients and ran our business. But really, the bottomline here is that yes, no doubt your business is important, but YOU should be #1. If you are burned out or not well, your business will not run without you. It may sound selfish to put yourself above all else, but trust us when we say that when you are at your best, your business will be at its best too. We share these with you so that you can avoid our mistakes and learn from us. Of course, sometimes you just have to learn these lessons yourself. 

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When you own and run a ketamine clinic, you become both a business owner and ketamine doctor. Not only do you have to make sure your business is running smoothly, but you also need to take care of your patients as well. It can get overwhelming. In this blog post, we share some tips on how to remain centered despite all the busyness.