Most of my active clients know I split my work time between the private practice and a day-job, working as a technical writer for the high tech industry in Waterloo Region As of this past Friday I just wrapped up a fifteen month contract with BlackBerry, meaning I’m back down to just the ONE job for a little while, which is a great deal of relief. It’s not a lot of fun trying to sustain the kind of lifestyle that includes working seven days in every five!

I’m using this time to rest and regroup, and work on some long-overdue professional development. This is partly in response to CRPO’s pilot QA project for its registrants, to make sure as practitioners we’re providing the best quality of care possible to our clients, and partly because I have been itching to dig deeper into theories and treatment approach for attachment style issues. I’m also seeking supervision around better educating myself on PTSD and C-PTSD issues, since trauma and trauma histories are an increasing part of the stories my clients bring into the counselling room, and I want to make sure I’m prepared to meet them in their experiences as best I can.

The fee change announced at the beginning of January takes effect today; full fee individual sessions are now $100/hr, couples and poly groups are $125/hr, and I am regretfully discontinuing the sliding scale for new intakes. We’re hearing stories that some insurance companies are beginning to accept CRPO registration for benefits coverage, but it’s not consistent at all. I continue to advise new and current clients who do have benefits provision for psychotherapy, to continue asking or pressuring their providers to consider CRPO registrants as accepted service providers. Calling your provider and asking *if* they accept CRPO members, and if not, when do they plan to, is the only real form of pressure we can apply directly. So please keep asking! And we’ll keep working inside the College to guarantee the services we provide *ARE* the kind of quality that the insurance companies want.

At this time I am not immediately planning to expand available hours into the day-time slots; I may reconsider this idea later in the year but for now it’s unfair to clients to start them on day-time scheduling only to potentially have to claw that back when a new day-job arrives somewhere down the timeline. If there is sufficient demand to reconsider that, however, I will. And int he short term, I can always make exceptions for one-off or infrequent bookings as needed, beyond the regular evening schedule.

So it’s good to be back in a more focused, single-career mien again, for however long it lasts. I have a stack of books and online courses awaiting my attention!