A Chance to Pause and Consider Elements In My Practice Structure

A Chance to Pause and Consider Elements In My Practice Structure

When someone contacts me to schedule their first appointment, I will speak directly with them. I want to find out what types of treatment they are looking for/why, and be sure they understand what type of work I do. This conversation is usually around 5-10 minutes.

When someone schedules an hour session with me, they will likely be spending 70-80 minutes in my office with me- they will not be in and out in 60 minutes.

This allows us to have time for a brief intake/check-in prior to our treatment; a brief check-out after our treatment; and a few minutes to reschedule and pay for the session.

This does not allow for a more in-depth intake, nor a longer check-out, nor a longer time to look at various rescheduling options and conclude with payment.

COVID closure has given me the chance to pause and consider: to review some of my protocols/structures/policies, to assess how my work has changed and expanded over the past few years, and to consider how I would like to incorporate those changes within the structure of my practice.

Here are some of my conclusions:

Typically, the verbal work prior to beginning our treatment is a brief intake. For certain reasons, this intake can/may need to be longer.

It may be longer because it is your first visit with me- I would need to gather basic information such as a brief medical history, the reasons you are coming, etc.. It may be longer because I have not seen you in a while or you have some specific physical issues occurring and I need to gather basic information about those. Notice I mention “gathering basic information”: it is good for me, as a practitioner, to have certain kinds of information before I begin working with you.

This verbal intake can also be other than “gathering basic information”. It can seek to “connect the dots” between certain events, or to explore more in-depth “what happens when” you do/experience certain things.

The verbal work we do together can thus be just as important as the physical work we do.

This type of verbal work enhances the opportunities for positive change to occur on physical and other levels, and can help people to let go of behaviors/patterns and move forward more readily.

The “check-out” we do at the end of our session also is, typically, brief. A few years ago I began to do some brief postural /verbal cues work with people after their treatment. Many people wanted to spend more time doing this and our session time became longer than what we had scheduled.

As I mentioned at the start of this post, COVID closure has given me the chance to pause- to review, assess, and consider elements of my practice, and to incorporate some changes into my practice.

As I continue doing distance work, and as I come closer to re-opening for hands-on, in-person work, I have been exploring how I might better allow time for initial/in-depth intakes, the deeper verbal work, and the post-treatment postural/verbal cues work, while still keeping to the scheduled session times.

~~ Initial visits will now all include the longer intake/check-in. There are a few options for how to do this:

1) An initial intake/check-in will be done during the scheduled time of our first visit. This means that your treatment time during that first visit will be lessened accordingly.

2) A Consultation session (of either length offered) may be used for your initial intake/check-in. This Consultation session can take place at a separate time from, and prior to, your first session (see Consultations below); or can be an add-on (in price and time) to your first session (this must be determined prior to your first session).

~~ I have added 2 different length Consultation sessions. When I speak with someone initially about scheduling their first session, we may speak as briefly as 5-10 minutes. This does not allow for us to go into that much detail.The shorter Consultation (20 minutes) can be a more in-depth discussion to determine which type of sessions might be best for you and why. The longer Consultation (40 minutes) can be used to explore many potential treatment options beyond what I offer.

Either length Consultation session can also be used as an initial intake prior to your first visit (see above).

Please see the description of “Consultations” on my “Fees” page on my website for more information.

~~ I have added a longer session time for my Distance Dynamic Rebalancing sessions to allow for the more in-depth verbal work for those who are interested. Typically, these longer sessions would include 35 minutes for intake/check-in, 40 minutes for treatment time, and 15 minutes for check-out.

~~ Once I re-open for hands-on, in-person work: for those of you who enjoyed the post-treatment postural/verbal cues work and would like to continue with it, I will ask you either to schedule for an extra 15 minutes, or to understand that, in order to keep to our scheduled session time, we will shorten your treatment time accordingly.

My reasons for some of these changes include the fact that I now need to allow more time in between clients in order for the air quality in my office area to clear, and thus keeping to the scheduled session times takes on different import.

I am also now offering additional types of therapeutic work on a more regular basis, and want to maintain clearer policies that will allow for sessions to include the more in-depth verbal work and the postural/verbal cues work for those who are interested, while still staying within our scheduled time.

As always, I am happy to answer any questions you might have.

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