For Love or Money by Marcia Hill Ellyn Kaschak

Author:Marcia Hill, Ellyn Kaschak [Marcia Hill, Ellyn Kaschak]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Health & Fitness, Women's Health
ISBN: 9780789009555
Google: 4mNXuPTMuWcC
Barnesnoble:
Goodreads: 8533187
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 1999-01-15T02:16:09+00:00

POLICY AS PROMISE

A promise is assurance given from one person to another that the other has a right to expect a particular action will take place. This is the underlying assumption of a scheduled appointment for therapy, that the therapist will reserve the period of time agreed upon exclusively for the client and will schedule no other appointments for that time. In accepting the promise, the client agrees to attend during the designated time so the two can consult for her or his benefit. The therapist is entrusted to keep the promise but has the additional responsibility to protect the promise from unconscious challenges made by the client, which sometimes come in the form of canceled or forgotten appointments. These unconscious challenges are usually signals that the client is experiencing a difficulty which she or he is unable to articulate. It is the responsibility of the client, in accepting the promise, to give appropriate notice, to turn up for the appointment, or to pay the fee. The failure of the woman in the opening paragraph to mention her obligation to pay shifted the responsibility back to me to remind her. Part of my work in keeping my promise was to help this client honor her acceptance of the promise, which she was unable to do at the time, for reasons we did not yet understand.

Promises are often problematic for clients who may have experienced countless unkept promises as children and adults. Past experiences of broken promises may have led the client to undervalue the promise of a scheduled appointment and to expect it to be undervalued. As the therapy progresses, an increasing and possibly conflicted dependency on the therapist and her promise to be present at the sessions may develop. Therefore, it is important in making policy that the practitioner determines exactly what the agreement will be, taking into consideration her own needs along with those of the client. However compassionate it may seem to allow client self-determination in matters of keeping appointments, or, on the other hand, how punitive it may seem to set and enforce a policy, caring for clients includes providing them with a clear statement of the promise made to them along with the implications of their acceptance of it. Conceptualizing appointment-setting and policy as a promise removes them from the realm of punitive interactions and places them in the realm of assisting the therapy process.

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