Hello everyone,
We are in the processes of tweaking and refining our contracts for different services, especially the psychotherapy, counselling, and psychological support services.
It is Autumn, and in the agricultural year, it is a time of gathering in, harvesting, sorting which crops you want to keep and which crops not to keep and to discard (this can be really useful for a client reflecting on the tools and learnings in their therapy or coaching), and thinking about what to plant. This seems a good time to go over the written contracts and policies and parameters etc, which we haven't since 2021 for some, though we updated some parameters etc. last Autumn.
In this age of lots of zoom work and the digital world being pretty central to much of the world, we decided to take a fresh look at parameters, boundaries, and ways forward with boundaries and ethics around digital sessions and spaces. Individual practitioners will have different preferences for this and there is no set right or wrong - the main thing is 'do no harm'. Technology can fail and it is helpful to look at what to do if this happens too! We had a written contract we wrote for groups when we worked at a previous workplace that carried over into Physis, as most of our clients were in our groups too, or had been. Not much more than an additional verbal contract/ contract reinforcement and assessment was needed for starting one to one therapy; however, with the addition of more online work, and just wanting to address more thoroughly certain areas of contracting, we are producing a new written contract. In my experiences of personal therapy and training from many years ago and over the years, I rarely was given a written contract, though we discussed parameters and guidelines etc. However, times have changed and additional issues have arisen that practitioners need to take into account for good practice. We do not want anyone to worry about this - nothing much will change in the way we are working, and any tweaks can be discussed in sessions. We are constantly wanting to refine and regulate practice and do our best by every client, student, and more that we work with, as well as making sure we are caring for ourselves and each other as practitioners. We like this harvest time review idea (not that we haven't done it before and we do ongoing review as per need of the client too), and we would like to do a review with each season (nothing heavy and actually can be quite fun), that will help propel us in the working alliances into the next phase of the work together. It is kind of like sorting the wardrobe each season, which many know I love doing! I review my own life too and what is needed. I enjoy a good review and reset ;-) This is also a good time to tell you all I have written a new coaching programme, which can be used in standard coaching or therapeutic coaching, and it is currently being piloted and tried out and tweaked with a couple of people. It is based on the cycles and seasons in Nature that span all our lives. I am really proud of it and am even using it on myself! Watch this space for more details as the Spring season and launch happens. But first the harvesting tide/Autumn and then the resting tide/Winter (which doesn't mean we will be stopping, but will be listening deeply to body and soul and taking that time and putting boundaries around it - again why re-writing contracts and parameters is good). Moving forward, we hope to help other practitioners navigate reviewing, refining contracts and parameters, and navigating boundaries, ethics, individual differences, limits, self-care, and more. It is an ongoing learning curve, and often the learning comes from mistakes! Be kind to yourself in the mistakes, repair any ruptures, review, receive support if necessary, and step into a new season. With warmest wishes,
Leighah (and of course Hannah and Masuma Sloth)
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