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At the White Picket Fence Counseling Center in Winter Park, Florida, I had a building full of professionals to consult with and refer clients to. It was an ideal system; they were pre-screened, we knew how each other worked, and sometimes clients would even pass back and forth between us more than once.
Having sold my building and now having an almost completely online practice, I’m always still trying to look at what will be the most ideal treatment modalities for my clients. After thousands of client hours and advanced professional training, I have a good idea of what works. And I’ve also watched protocols and methods evolve.
Being licensed in four states and having several certifications, I need to take multiple continuing education units (CEUs) and training each year to maintain these licenses and credentials and stay up-to-date. I also choose to continually upgrade my professional knowledge and practice with new modalities such as Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART) and SoulCollageⓇ.
Ongoing training and learning have opened my eyes to whole new ways of doing things, benefiting both my clients and me.
Intensives
Something I’m offering more and more are intensives—where I meet with people for either three-hour sessions, or a total of nine to ten hours or over two to three days; then we check back in six weeks.
Sometimes weekly sessions just don’t do it for people. In terms of trauma recovery, hashing something out week to week is tough to do. For others, it helps to laser focus on an underlying issue like body image, and then continue working on the broader eating issues over weekly sessions. And for a modality like ART, longer sessions—especially the first time—can be particularly effective. Each client has a unique need, and so the treatment protocol is highly personalized.
Relationship therapists have been offering intensives for years, and I’ve seen how individual clients can really move forward in their progress and their growth. It’s so rewarding to see people progress through a problem, issue, or trauma in a quicker amount of time with a focused plan.
While it’s not yet an official offering on my website, I welcome your questions about whether a customized therapy intensive might be right for you.
Support between sessions
Did you know that my therapy clients have access to a secure online portal where they can message me as often as they like, and I respond and give them support?
Some clients use this for accountability to help them follow through on their goals and plans. For someone who’s just done an intensive, this access is invaluable because of how much can be covered and uncovered in those longer sessions. Others just appreciate a chance to vent.
People are complex, and so are the problems they deal with. One day they might need help with a food choice. Another day, something they’re obsessing about. Any of these concerns could also signify a more deeply rooted issue. And that ongoing contact helps us filter that out and address what we need to.
Another way I support clients and all members of this community is with journaling prompts for inspiration and guidance. Simply text JOURNAL to 1-833-522-1088, and you’ll receive a journal prompt by text three mornings each week at 9:00 a.m. Use it to journal that day, or you can reflect on each prompt for a couple of days to fuel a daily journaling practice.
While we always endeavor to come up with a customized treatment plan for each client, sometimes the treatment plan is the treatment itself—letting that change and evolve based on the individual. I’d rather do that than someone pay me for a set program and then feel like it failed them, or even worse, that they failed. Sometimes the plain truth is just the timing wasn’t right, or the plan or program wasn’t specific for their needs.
And just like in my days at WPF, if there’s something a client needs that I don’t know or is outside my area of expertise, I will quickly refer them to someone else, whether it’s for a one-time consultation or if it’s best they move on to work with another therapist on something outside the scope of my training.
My goal now, as it’s always been, is for my clients to have the best experience possible. Let’s talk!