Dear Friend and Reader:
I thought I would drop in on the class of someone who was influential earlier in my astrological career — Donna Cunningham. Her class topic was sensible tips for astrological counselors.
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Donna is from the “ask your clients questions till you figure out what’s really going on” school of thought that is so near to my heart. She’s also an advocate of getting the astrological jargon as far from readings as possible, so that you can have a real dialog with people. Many astrologers still give a litany of aspects, transits and progressions and call that a “reading,” which most clients are not in a position to interpret themselves — that’s why they come to an astrologer.
If you pelt them with astobabble, you may only make things worse. “Before they were just worried about their mortgage. Now they’re worried about their South Node in the 8th house,” she said.
She encourages astrologers to dialog with their clients and break the expectation that they are a divine oracle of some kind. “We think we have to do it as a monologue,” she said. “We don’t have to buy into the expectation” that we’re the one with all the information.
Cunningham suggests that astrologers get into habits that help them facilitate their own work. For example, she suggests starting every session with an agreement about what the client wants or needs from the session. She suggests that astrologers be well informed on topics outside the astrological field that their clients are going to ask about. She suggests that astrologers take a long view on the developments of a chart, and she advises them to know their limits and therefore, know when to refer their client for help elsewhere.
She also suggested that astrologers not attempt to make specific predictions about peoples’ lives, despite the expectation that they will be able to do so.
I consider her book a must-read for anyone who plans to do astrology as a professional or serious amateur. It gives suggestions for how to structure a session, how much to charge, and how to handle difficult situations with clients that typically arise.
You can get this book easily from the Astrology Center of America (their button is on the top left of this page).
