If you are in private practice, it is likely that your first client contact will be over the phone. How do you connect with the potential client appropriately and ethically?
Therapists often struggle with how to balance being a therapist with being a small business owner. Meaning, how to balance empathy with business. One of the problem areas is the initial phone call from the client. Obviously, you want to be empathetic, but too much empathy can turn the phone call into a session. But you also need to talk about your hourly rate and how to make an appointment. So, how do you strike that balance?
First, let’s examine the ethics. If a client begins to go into a lot of detail about their personal issue(s), and the counselor continues to engage with the client, a counseling relationship may be assumed by the client. The problem is the lack of informed consent.
According to ACA ethics code A.2.a (Informed Consent): “Clients have the freedom to choose whether to enter into or remain in a counseling relationship and need adequate information about the counseling process and the counselor.”
In this situation, the client has not been advised of things like limits of confidentiality, and many other items typically found in an informed consent document. Therefore, our ethics code dictates that we cannot yet enter into a counseling relationship. And this means no detailed conversations about the client’s issues at initial phone contact.
Boundaries Are Important, Too
The other problem with such conversations has to do with professional boundaries. The best way to establish boundaries with clients is at first contact because it establishes an implicit contract. More specifically, if the client gets the impression that they can just call and get free counseling, they may continue to attempt to do so. If they do, it will be much more difficult for you to stop giving away your services. Further, if they are permitted to permeate this boundary, they will be more likely to attempt to cross others.
In my next post, I will make specific suggestions about how to establish a connection without crossing boundaries.
Yours in the Joy of Knowledge,
Dr. Barb LoFrisco
