Tuesday, June 14, 2005

Jobs in the Holistic Future

The job opportunities of the holistic future are many. Here are a few that I consider to be likely:

  • Naturopaths - the level of demand for these people today is unbelievable, and it will just increase. We need a person who is highly trained, but not like an MD, who can give us our initial checkups and help us with everyday problems without a high cost for an appointment. Most likely, these practitioners will operate completely outside the health insurance structure.
  • Nurse-Practitioners - another first line of defense practitioner who we see before the doctor, similar to a naturopath except a nurse-practitioner may be more acceptable to people who are stuck with a Western medical thought pattern, if naturopaths are too large a shift for those patients.
  • Midwives - this is a burgeoning profession today, and it's illegal in most states! Imagine what will happen when expectant mothers have a real choice between a sterile, dangerous hospital environment and a home birth with experienced midwives.
  • Holistic Center Managers - this is a really difficult job and is seldom done well today. Someone with incredible management skills who is a fairly hands-off manager when it comes to the medical skills but a great coach, motivator, organizer and teacher of business skills for the holistic practitioners.
  • Holistic Lawyer - the evolution from Western medicine to holistic health will be fraught with lawsuits. Western medicine ain't going down without a fight, and that fight cannot be made on the merits of drugs and surgery, so it will instead be pushed into the courtrooms. Lawyer who understand the urgency of this change and who are passionate about helping it happen will be needed everywhere, as Western medical hospitals, doctors and pharmaceutical companies sue everybody in sight.
  • Holistic Lobbyists - the holistic economy will need to make changes to the Western medically-focused laws on the books in most states. Lobbyists who can help build grassroots movements to change these antiquated laws will be in high demand.
  • Holistic Center Franchise Builders - holistic health centers are almost completely "one off" businesses today. But there is an evolution toward a franchise model, as evidenced by the Massage Envy businesses springing up in the U.S. This will continue, and the businesspeople who are able to create franchises from their own successful clinics will profit handsomely.

I'd also like to highlight the ecologically-oriented industries that are growing rapidly today, and will accelerate in the coming years. I take these from Lester Brown's excellent book "Eco-Economy."

  • fish farming
  • bicycle manufacturing (mostly overseas)
  • wind farm construction
  • wind turbine manufacturing
  • hydrogen generation
  • fuel cell manufacturing
  • solar cell manufacturing
  • light rail construction
  • tree planting
  • wind meteorologists
  • family planning midwives
  • foresters
  • hydrologists (scientists who can find sources of water)
  • recycling engineers
  • aquacultural veterinarians (restoring health for fish in fish farms)
  • ecological economists
  • geothermal geologists (scientists who can determine sources of geothermal energy)
  • environmental architects
  • bicycle mechanics
  • wind turbine engineers

I think it's exciting just to start thinking about these possibilities, ecologically and holistically.

Don't you?

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