Why Is the Initial Consultation so Important? What Factors Will an Ethical Therapist Cover at This Time
Embarking on a therapy is a decision not to be taken lightly by a client in the same way as researching a job role is important. Quite often it is common practice for therapists to offer initial consultations with a client to establish whether both parties are suitable to work together. An ethical therapist will take many factors into account in the initial consultation; these will be discussed alongside the pros and con’s of why an initial consultation is so important. Factors such as a therapists own expertise, misconceptions of hypnosis as a therapy and rapport building with be explored.
Meeting a client face to face in an initial consultation is important on many levels; one instance where this is apparent is when the therapist can assess the client’s suitability for their expertise. In order to do this the problem which the client presents needs to be “within our professional competence as psychologists and psychotherapists to treat” (Karle and Boys, 1987). This is paramount as it would be highly detrimental and unethical to take on a client or patient that is out of a therapists’ realm of expertise. An initial consultation is an ideal opportunity to look for “physical conditions which might underlie an ostensibly psychological problem, the presence of major psychiatric illness, and so on” (Karle and Boys, 1987). In cases where it does seem apparent that a patient is presenting with symptoms of say schizophrenia then they would have to refer them on to a more appropriate treatment suited to help them. However in cases of say depression, through an initial consultation, the therapist could “seek to differentiate between appropriate depression of mood (such as grief at loss, reaction to major life changes such as a job redundancy and so on), neurotic or reactive depression, and endogenous affective disorders” (Karle and Boys, 1987). Hereby the therapist could ascertain whether the patient is suffering from depression at a mood level and therefore hypnosis as
Meeting a client face to face in an initial consultation is important on many levels; one instance where this is apparent is when the therapist can assess the client’s suitability for their expertise. In order to do this the problem which the client presents needs to be “within our professional competence as psychologists and psychotherapists to treat” (Karle and Boys, 1987). This is paramount as it would be highly detrimental and unethical to take on a client or patient that is out of a therapists’ realm of expertise. An initial consultation is an ideal opportunity to look for “physical conditions which might underlie an ostensibly psychological problem, the presence of major psychiatric illness, and so on” (Karle and Boys, 1987). In cases where it does seem apparent that a patient is presenting with symptoms of say schizophrenia then they would have to refer them on to a more appropriate treatment suited to help them. However in cases of say depression, through an initial consultation, the therapist could “seek to differentiate between appropriate depression of mood (such as grief at loss, reaction to major life changes such as a job redundancy and so on), neurotic or reactive depression, and endogenous affective disorders” (Karle and Boys, 1987). Hereby the therapist could ascertain whether the patient is suffering from depression at a mood level and therefore hypnosis as