ABOUT MBS PROFESSIONALS

“Integration and Inspiration for Mind, Body and Spirit Consultants and Therapists”

(This is a long article. You may prefer to print it out and read it at leisure…)

Mission Statement
MBS Professionals is a business-to-business service for those who work in the Mind, Body and Spirit professions. Our Directory of Consultants comprises those who are properly accredited, either by MBS Professionals (MBSP) itself or by a similarly respected organisation. We will help you to market and promote your skill-set in the UK and around the world, and keep others informed of any events in which you are involved.

Background
This year brings the sad closure of an organisation that led the way in the UK, by developing a close relationship between various Mind, Body and Spirit disciplines. Most organisations tend to concentrate on one subject, whereas the British Astrological and Psychic Society (BAPS) offered a home both for Astrologers and other MBS practitioners.

Now that BAPS has closed its doors and Consultants need to find alternate means of certification, MBS Professionals Ltd (MBSP) has found an immediate and useful purpose. We have extended our reach to include Consultants in the widest sense of Mind, Body and Spirit by being open to practitioners whose skills – for example Reiki, Reflexology and Homeopathy – have to be accredited by their specific organisations.

Consultants need a credible route to proving their accreditation(s) to the public. This may not be legally essential in some cases, but when a potential client seeks a reading, a respected certificate certainly helps to cut out possibly fraudulent or less proficient people.

Certification
We may accept most professional accreditations that you already have (after validation) – you do not necessarily have to duplicate or add to your qualifications. However, most of those who are not certified members of a formal organisation will be able to qualify for their skill-set to internationally accepted levels through accreditation by MBS Professionals.

Nevertheless, we reserve the right to accept or decline any application solely on our own internal criteria which may not be disclosed to the applicant.

The added benefit for existing members of any formal organisation is that you may be able to add new skills to your consultancy without the higher expense of also having to join a number of other dedicated organisations.

A member of our respected and fully qualified team of Consultants will lead you through the accreditation system, and if all is well, you will be awarded our Annual Certificate of Professional Competence.

At present, we accept BAPS professional accreditations that you may already have – subject to our internal selection processes – so, you do not necessarily have to duplicate or repeat your BAPS assessments.

We would like to invite BAPS Consultants to join MBSP on a very similar basis to that which they enjoyed with BAPS. This includes a Code of Ethics, Terms and Conditions, and other parameters that mostly follow the BAPS ethos. Naturally, all these – and other organisational matters – may change in the course of time. We will notify you of such changes; they would invariably be intended for the improvement and benefit of the organisation and the Consultants, and to keep up with developments in legal, social and other relevant matters.

We will accept BAPS certifications until further notice for all BAPS Consultants in good standing who apply to sign up with us, pass our application procedures, and accept our Code of Ethics and other Terms and Conditions. For those people, once signed up and subscribed, we can issue new certificates without delay.

Independent Consultants, or those from other organisations who appreciate the features and benefits in joining us, are naturally very welcome to apply as well. In order to maintain genuine high standards for our members, we are already in the process of setting up new systems.

Subscriptions
The remaining part of the 2018 annual membership subscription fee is £30. Annual subscriptions renew each January, and the fee next year will be £60.

Countrywide and International Reach
MBSP is the new and unique UK home base for all MBS Consultants, internationally as well as those based in the UK. Our Consultants are welcome to be part of as many other organisations as they wish. If one sets up an international practice, it is essential for clients in a different country to be assured that the Reader’s or Therapist’s certification is up to the standards most likely expected in the client’s own home country. Seeing an attractive website and glowing words isn’t enough.

If you move region or country, you won’t need a new website or a new organisation, and we can help or advise you about advertising and marketing your skills around many countries in the world. So, even if no formal organisation exists in your current or new country, you can display your verified credentials online and at work via MBS Professionals.

Membership
After long deliberation, we came to the conclusion that at the outset, we can only offer professional Consultant memberships. Valuable as non-professional people are, providing for non-professionals who may be interested in a subject is not a viable proposition for MBSP at present. Nevertheless, please email us if you are interested, and we’ll do our best to answer your queries.

Visibility
Once validated or accredited and welcomed as a Consultant, your unique skill-set and your contact details will be displayed in our Online Directory of Consultants. All Consultants in good standing will be issued with a certificate on an annual basis. Our intention is to provide a high level of exposure on our website, with as much data on view as is reasonably possible.

Clients – Please Note
We apply our best endeavours to ensure accuracy and validity of certifications, whether issued by us or other organisations, but, as is the case with other fully respectable organisations, neither MBS Professionals Ltd nor its personnel can be held responsible for errors, irregularities or oversights regarding any specific individuals. Should you, as a client of any of our Consultants, become aware of or experience an unsatisfactory session that can not be resolved with the Consultant concerned, kindly contact us at mbsprofessionals@gmail.com with full details of the incident.

  • Some of our available Business-to-Business-to-Client Features and Benefits
  • A website presence to promote your services.
  • Your own email address, if required.*
  • Advice about social media, also access to our blog.
  • Recommendations and advice regarding Public Liability, Professional Indemnity and Medical Malpractice Insurance. We have a Group arrangement with Westminster Indemnity Insurance Brokers, who offer value-for-money cover, and a special discount for our Consultants; they acknowledge that accredited professionals are less of an insurance risk than non-professionals. To our pleasant surprise when investigating their cover standards, Westminster have full cover available for about 400 MBS disciplines!
  • In due course, we envisage that you can sell items or swap them for others in our marketplace.
  • Similarly, we are developing an online shop through which you will be able to sell your own wares related to your membership skill set(s). For legal reasons, selling on behalf of third parties is not permitted.
  • You can promote online any events in which you will be involved.
  • Exchange of news about what’s hot and what’s not. Link to all your social media accounts.
  • Access to member rates from our self-publishing company (Stellium Ltd) and the opportunity of qualifying for a traditional publishing deal with Zambezi Publishing Ltd.
    If you can write a book about your professional subject matter, it raises your credibility with the world at large.
  • Consultants can buy our books (Zambezi Publishing Ltd and Stellium Ltd) at a 50% discount (plus p&p).

Code of Ethics
Everyone involved with MBS Professionals has to read, accept and sign our Code of Ethics. Violation of the Code may mean being removed from all MBSP sources of information, cancellation of the Annual Certificates of Competence and all promotional material, and if warranted, cancellation of membership.

Two obvious questions arise here and now. Other queries about specific details can follow later.

  • Why MBSP?
    The loss of BAPS leaves a gap for a multi-discipline MB&S home base.
  • MBS Professionals Ltd takes the original BAPS ethos one step further – we provide a base for Therapists and most other practices in the wider MBS arena, as well as Readers.
  • MBSP provides for direct accreditation of Consultants, established or new, and recognition of qualifications from validated professional organisations, local or international.
  • We provide a home for any profession that has even a slight link to MB&S subjects, such as hypnotherapy, homeopathy, many other therapies, and many other subjects, all of which are welcome in MBSP – as long as the people are professionally competent, accredited via their own organisation or by us, passed by our assessment processes, and preferably insured for both public liability and professional indemnity. We have investigated a number of insurance brokers and come to an agreement with Westminster Indemnity Insurance Brokers for discounted rates for our Consultants.
    N.B: if you are a new applicant for Westminster insurance, ask us for our Group code before applying, or you’ll be charged normal rates. Call Sasha or Jan at 01752 367 300, or email us at: admin@mbsprofessionals.com
  • Magazine, radio and TV shows often approach organisations such as ours in order to reach genuinely competent practitioners in various MBS disciplines, for articles, opinions or interviews and talks. We already have contacts in the media world, and we budget for advertising locally and abroad.
  • Consultants are welcome to belong to other organisations as well as ours.
  • Online presence is a high priority for us, to help in giving our members an appealing presentation, with opportunities for further promotional features.
  • MBSP is part of a group including Stellium Ltd and Zambezi Publishing Ltd – both of these are publishing companies with twenty years of successful publishing experience behind them. The directors are Sasha Fenton and her husband, Jan Budkowski.
  • This connection opens up the possibility of publishing projects that Consultants may have thought impractical in the past. Whether involving a workshop manual, booklet, a full-length book, a self-published project or many other options, our expertise is on hand and we can help to guide people in their endeavours.
  • MBSP membership will allow Consultants to buy any of our own books at a special 50% discount.

Why Sasha Fenton?
Where to start… Sasha has been an active member of BAPS since May 1982. She has served as Secretary, President and Treasurer at times, and has been an influence for good, time and again – in hard times and better times. She has been instrumental in various BAPS developments, including the accreditation system, courses and the BAPS structure itself. As a Consultant, Sasha is qualified in Astrology, the Tarot and Palmistry. Her years of professional consultancy – as well as publishing and dealing with authors who write about a variety of MB&S subjects – have been the basis for her extensive knowledge of a large range of disciplines.

  • In other spheres, Sasha has been a Chair and Treasurer for the Advisory Panel in Astrological Education (APAE), and an Executive Committee member of the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain. Her writing and teaching track record includes seminars, radio and TV programmes, magazine columns and much more – both in the UK and overseas, including Hong Kong, Australia, the USA, South Africa and even Bophuthatswana.
  • As an author, Sasha’s prolific record includes 135 titles (mostly MB&S subjects), most of which have been traditionally published by HarperCollins, Piatkus, Carlton and Chrysalis in the UK, and Sterling Publishing Inc., Red Wheel Weiser, Charlesbridge and Quarto in the USA. Some of her books have been translated into fifteen different languages. A Google search for “Sasha Fenton” will show her wide range of writing abilities.
  • In short, Sasha has the background and expertise in so many avenues that she can present the top-level credibility and expertise that an organisation like MBSP demands, in order for the public to have confidence in its members’ qualifications.

If you wish to join us, then fill in the Contact form (see Contact Us page in the top menu), or email us at mbsprofessionals@gmail.com or admin@mbsprofessionals.com with your bio and certification details, address, email and phone number. We will contact you as soon as possible with information about our membership procedures.

Finally, if you know of anyone else who might benefit from our organisation, then kindly tell them to contact us as well. Spread the word!