eiseEducation

How often do you pause to contemplate the therapeutic changemaking journey you take your clients on? Therapist training tends to focus on the theory, skills, and other characteristics of therapy. Therapists are not often encouraged to contemplate the delivery of therapy as a series of stages, perhaps for fear of rendering it a rigidly prescriptive and disconnected manualised act. Nonetheless, the research literature does note the presence of broad and fairly distinct stages in the therapeutic changemaking process.

Contemplating your consultation process as a series of interconnected phases, each with unique goals and techniques, can be invaluable without falling into the trap of turning it into a manualised service. Each phase of your service delivery comes with different goals, activities, techniques, and outcomes. The phases must work seamlessly together and support therapy’s dynamic and iterative nature. What phases need to be included or excluded? Which techniques need polishing? Do your phases match your chosen clinical approach? Insights from questions like these can help you improve your service delivery and identify opportunities for innovation.

Your consultation process (distinct from the in-therapy interpersonal/intrapersonal process) also affects your client’s experience of your service and their progression. Insights from walking through your process in your client’s shoes can also contribute to your continual improvement and client retention.