updates

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I know I keep promising posts and links and updates, but the summer is just slipping away from me. In case anyone ever tries to convince you that therapists are on the ball and have their acts together and are cool, calm, collected individuals… it’s lies, ALL LIES, I tell you!!

Part of the delay is long-overdue website updates on the backend. I’ve got a really great team in Opal and Paul at www.DesignAndDevelop.com. Another lifetime ago when I still worked in IT/software, Opal came to work for my tech writing department as a co-op student. She has since gone on to be so much more, and do things I can only dream of, mostly because I don’t understand any of it at all.

Recently she updated the WordPress installation on which this site is based, and began the slow process of guiding me into updating my search engine optimization metadata (the stuff that search engines use to match my content to your web queries and hopefully match me well enough to put me higher in the rankings than my competition). It’s all very smelly, tedious, detailed, arduous, dull-as-nails, needful work, and Opal has developed an inestimable amount of patience and skill in using the little words with some of her more reluctant clients (*ahem*me*ahem*).

So hopefully as I grit my teeth and get a handle on the SEO tweaking, we’ll be able to resume regular blogging here. There’s been a lot happening lately in the world, and a lot of interesting, needful, difficult things trickling down to therapists and clients alike. Lots to talk about, and hopefully I can slide a few coherent posts in between the gripes and grumblings about website updates and other more tedious aspects of the business side.

I hope everyone is finding what joy you can in this glorious month of Augtober!

Practice News

It’s been crazy-busy here, straddling two professional careers for the past three years as I bring the private practice up to speed and phase down or out the technical writing. The F/T writing contract I began in late May fell between two unexpected expansion booms to the client roster, and it has been a summer of exceedingly long, often challenging days (contract in Guelph from 8am-4pm, seeing clients at the home office four nights a week from 5pm-9pm).

As I finally near the end of the delicate balancing act that was getting through the summer, I’d like to thank my clients for toughing the transition out with me, even when it meant some serious scheduling shenanigans trying to fit everyone on the increasingly solidly-booked client calendar. With the contract finally wrapping at the end of November, I am pleased to reintroduce weekday, day-time hours to those for whom the evening schedules just weren’t working. Standard session times will be:
11am
12:30pm
2pm
3:30pm

(The evening slots will continue at 5pm, 6:30pm, and 8pm.)

2013 was also good for the practice in terms of moving into some greater visibility through the Psychology Today profile, and officially joining the Dalton Associates network. Since the majority of the client contact I receive starts with someone’s web search for a local therapist, these two networked links have been really helpful in connecting people with me or with these resource networks. In addition to continuing to work with Garrett LaFosse, a well-respected local AAMFT supervisor, I’m also now working with two new group supervisors, which is both challenging my own professional development in good ways, and making sure I stay on my best game for my clients by providing me with a support community and network I can tag for information and perspective as needed. I’m definitely looking forward to having a little more time in my own schedule before the end of the year to also get caught up on my reading and research. Why is it that the book stacks never seem to get any shorter??

Stay tuned for more news as the year winds down and the practice ramps up. I’m looking forward to continuing to build the best services I can for my clients and community well into 2014 and beyond!

Technology

I should know better than to try to do business admin late at night, but a random email from the PolyResearchers mailing list prompted me to finally try to update my professional listings on both the Poly-Friendly Professionals and Kink-Aware Professionals directories late this evening.

Of course, on a brand-new laptop, I’m running all new browser versions for IE, Chrome, and Firefox… which means not only do I have to try and remember the dashboard login credentials to my own site from memory for once, but neither directory website’s scripts support the latest-and-greatest anything. Much frustration ensues, but hey, it’s great opportunity for the Buddhist Therapist to practice what she preaches about mindfulness and self-soothing techniques in the moment, right?

RIGHT??

Yes, it’s true… even professional therapists want to throw their office equipment out the window into the rain in frustration sometimes. You’re not alone in this, I promise.

Colour me bemused. I think I will wisely leave trying to add graphics and logos for another, non-midnight-update time.

(And both sites have updates; the PFP site has both the out-dated and new listings, and the new KAP listing is awaiting moderator approval. They’re there, I promise… I think. ?Or hope, really.)

Technology

Please bear with us, as the very patient team at DesignandDevelop.ca and I work the bugs out and get this site live!? At the very least, the contact information is online and accurate. I understand email far better than I understand editing custom CSS templates. One skill at a time, one day at a time!