Therapy or counseling is actually a contract - an agreement between two parties in which each has appropriate responsibilities and expectations.  Let me spell this out in greater detail.

I.   Our Responsibilities 

As Therapists, we agree to provide the following three elements:

     1) We will provide safety. Our location and work with you is designed to give a safe environment for you to open yourself to the inner work of psychological and personal change. Our office will be free of physical, sexual, and other abuse, threats and acts of violence, weapons, or illicit drugs.

Another form of safety is the legal confidentiality that is afforded your work with us as set out by the laws of the State of Michigan. Further information about this can be found in our specific web page on Confidentiality.

     2) It is our pledge to do our best to be more powerful than your problem or problems. If we need help in fulfilling that, it is our responsibility to get ourselves that help - which can involve reading and research, consultation with other clinicians (not revealing the identity of our client), or obtaining further professional training.

One aspect of the partnership agreement that Mrs. Kimball and I have established, is that we frequently consult with each other about our clients. It is within the legal structure of our business to work together in this manner, jointly supporting your legal confidentiality protection, as well as having each other as a "backup therapist" in case either of us is not available for any reason.

     3) It is also our responsibility to be clear with you about how we evaluate your presenting problems and your ongoing work with us, as well as to explain what our treatment plans and goals are. Our treatment plans are sometimes an ongoing work-in-progress. This means that we are constantly re-evaluating our work and thinking about how best to serve and care for you.

You have the right to an explanation in language you can understand, of potential risks, consequences, and benefits of treatment and methods prior to their use, and are entitled to request and obtain information regarding treatment alternatives.

II.   Your Responsibilities 

As the Client, you also have responsibilities in your work with us.

     1) First, it is your responsibility to show up for client sessions. When possible, client sessions are set up on a regular schedule, which is not just for the convenience of our scheduling. The regularity of your sessions is an important part of your "inside" work. There are circumstances when clients don’t have the ability or luxury of such a regularity. And in those circumstances we work with your schedule as best as we can.

     2) Your second responsibility is to take seriously the work we are doing – to cooperate with requests to do any "homework" given to you, and to spend time between sessions thinking, exploring and experimenting in the areas we are working on together.

     3) Another part of taking the relationship seriously is upholding the financial agreement established with us. When or if circumstances make this impossible or a serious problem, we ask that you be straightforward with us about it, so we can explore additional options available.

     4) You are responsible for being as open and honest with us as is possible. At times this may be your greatest challenge in therapy. And it is our pledge to encourage and honor the specific trust involved in your openness with us.

     5) You are expected to be free of the influence of alcohol and drugs, except with the specific knowledge and approval of the therapist.

     6) When it is time for treatment to discontinue, we ask that you participate in a final session designed for the specific purpose of terminating the treatment contract, evaluating its course, and projecting its benefits into your own future.

If we experience that you are not taking your work with us seriously, that you are not taking seriously the responsibilities listed above, we do claim the right to terminate treatment for lack of compliance. However, this would be considered as a measure of last resort for us, since we realize that once we have agreed to work with a client, the stability of our own work is an important part of the therapeutic relationship.

Bill McDonald