0:00

0:35:24

Navigating Client Crises When Your Own Life Hits Hard

Apple Podcasts Stitcher Spotify Subscribe on Android Download Leave a Review Keep me updated!

Navigating Client Crises When Your Own Life Hits Hard

Curt and Katie explore the reality of managing client crises during the moments when therapists are least resourced: when life is busy, stressful, overwhelming, or hitting hard. They dig into capacity, boundaries, communication, planning ahead, and ethical responsiveness so therapists can support clients without becoming a 24/7 crisis service. This episode validates the human limits therapists face, while offering practical strategies for maintaining good clinical care.

Transcript

Click here to scroll to the podcast transcript.

(Show notes provided in collaboration with Otter.ai and ChatGPT.)

In This Podcast Episode: Supporting clients in crisis while honoring your limits and humanity

Curt and Katie discuss what it means to navigate client crises when therapists are dealing with their own stressors—holidays, illness, family responsibilities, exhaustion, or general life chaos. They cover:

Understanding and assessing your actual capacity and bandwidth
How and when to plan ahead to minimize crisis pressure
Creating systems so clients don’t rely solely on you for emergencies
Teaching clients how to communicate urgency and context
Fortifying availability boundaries with informed consent and periodic reminders
Managing the mental load of worry when you can’t respond right away
What to do when it’s late, you’re not available, and there’s no backup
Navigating nights, weekends, travel, and unexpected crises
Building consultation support and emergency handoff protocols
Why great communication systems are an essential form of therapist self-care
The importance of documenting decisions, risks, communication, and follow-up

This episode offers both practical guidance and compassionate reassurance: therapists are human, and honoring that truth is part of ethical practice.

Key Takeaways for Therapists (capacity, boundaries, and crisis responsiveness)

“You are not expected to be a 24/7 mental health emergency room.” — Curt Widhalm, LMFT

Complete a “busyness audit” to know what you can realistically take on during high-demand periods.
Plan ahead (3–5 weeks) when you know holidays, travel, or life demands are coming.
Understand your personal and clinical capacity and pause new intakes when needed.
Clarify your availability in writing and revisit it with clients periodically.
Teach clients how to reach out effectively, including what to include so you can triage well.
Use safety plans and community resources to avoid being a sole crisis contact.
Trim nonessential energy drains—admin tasks, projects, obligations, perfectionism.
If you’re unavailable, communicate your next availability and direct clients to crisis services.
Document all crisis-related communication and decisions as part of ethical care.

“Oftentimes I find myself needing more in the moment, coping, needing more time to be able to calm myself down, get myself regulated, so that I can handle stuff…So for me, it’s plan ahead as best I can and then do a lot of self regulation so that I can be present for my clients when they need me to be.” — Katie Vernoy, LMFT

Resources on Managing Client Crises When You’re Busy

988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline — https://988lifeline.org/
- Crisis Centers by US State and Territory
Local county crisis services (varies by region)
DBT “Cope Ahead” skill (Linehan, 2015)

Relevant Episodes of the Modern Therapist’s Survival Guide

Meet the Hosts: Curt Widhalm & Katie Vernoy

Curt Widhalm, LMFT

Curt Widhalm is in private practice in the Los Angeles area. He is the cofounder of the Therapy Reimagined conference, an Adjunct Professor at Pepperdine University and CSUN, a former Subject Matter Expert for the California Board of Behavioral Sciences, former CFO of the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists, and a loving husband and father. He is 1/2 great person, 1/2 provocateur, and 1/2 geek, in that order. He dabbles in the dark art of making “dad jokes” and usually has a half-empty cup of coffee somewhere nearby. Learn more at: http://www.curtwidhalm.com

Katie Vernoy, LMFT

Katie Vernoy is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, coach, and consultant supporting leaders, visionaries, executives, and helping professionals to create sustainable careers. Katie, with Curt, has developed workshops and a conference, Therapy Reimagined, to support therapists navigating through the modern challenges of this profession. Katie is also a former President of the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists. In her spare time, Katie is secretly siphoning off Curt’s youthful energy, so that she can take over the world. Learn more at: http://www.katievernoy.com

A Quick Note:

Our opinions are our own. We are only speaking for ourselves – except when we speak for each other, or over each other. We’re working on it.

Our guests are also only speaking for themselves and have their own opinions. We aren’t trying to take their voice, and no one speaks for us either. Mostly because they don’t want to, but hey.

Join the Modern Therapist Community:

Linktree

Patreon | Buy Me A Coffee

Podcast Homepage | Therapy Reimagined Homepage

Consultation services with Curt Widhalm or Katie Vernoy:

The Fifty-Minute Hour

Connect with the Modern Therapist Community:

Our Facebook Group – The Modern Therapists Group

Modern Therapist’s Survival Guide Creative Credits:

Voice Over by DW McCann https://www.facebook.com/McCannDW/

Music by Crystal Grooms Mangano https://groomsymusic.com/

Transcript for this episode of the Modern Therapist’s Survival Guide podcast (Autogenerated):

Transcripts do not include advertisements just a reference to the advertising break (as such timing does not account for advertisements)

… 0:01
(Opening Advertisement)

Announcer 0:00
You’re listening to the Modern Therapist’s Survival Guide, where therapists live, breathe and practice as human beings. To support you as a whole person and a therapist, here are your hosts, Curt Widhalm and Katie Vernoy.

Curt Widhalm 0:13
Welcome back, modern therapists. This is the Modern Therapist’s Survival Guide. I’m Curt Widhalm with Katie Vernoy, and this is the podcast for therapists about the things that go on in our practices, the things that go on in our lives. And if you’ve ever found yourself giving world class coping advice to clients while secretly spiraling yourself because you know your family’s in town for the holidays or your dishwasher just flooded your kitchen, you know exactly what we’re talking about today. The therapist’s duty is huge. Sometimes we run into some of our own guilt and stuff when we realize that we can’t be the perfect therapist in responding to clients when they also have their own crises or extra needs that come up when everything is going on. So this episode is kind of a reality check. We’re talking about the tightrope walk that is managing high acuity client crises when we’re stressed, we’re sick, when we’re exhausted. So we’re here to answer all of the tough questions that you wouldn’t think to ask until you’re actually in that situation yourself. So if you are in one of those crises at the moment, I suggest that you listen to this episode on two times speed, so that way you can get all of our advice as we break down some of the ways that Katie and I handle things. So Katie, we’ve been doing this for a while. I’ve known you for a while. When you’re busy, how do you handle client crises?

Katie Vernoy 1:47
I try to plan ahead, so we’ll start with that in a second. But oftentimes I find myself needing more in the moment, coping, needing more time to be able to calm myself down, get myself regulated, so that I can handle stuff, because oftentimes when I’m busy, I’m not at 100% my best and so so I think where I fall is probably our first part of the episode, which is planning ahead. I think where you fall potentially is the second part, which is dealing with stuff when you’re busy and client crises come out of nowhere because you also have a higher acuity caseload. So for me, it’s plan ahead as best I can and then do a lot of self regulation so that I can be present for my clients when they need me to be. But I also was in a highly intensive program for a very long time as a director, so I was, I have a lot of tools in my tool belt as well, so.

Curt Widhalm 2:52
One of which apparently seems to be just have clients that don’t typically end up in crises in the first place.

Katie Vernoy 2:59
Yes, no, I’ve definitely shifted my practice since going into private practice, but, but, yeah, there’s, there’s a lot that can come up that you don’t expect, even when you have, like, I do a lower acuity caseload. So I’m excited to get into this conversation, because I think there’s a lot of folks who get surprised at how overwhelmed they are when things get busy, like right now during the holidays and the end of the year stuff, or getting ready for vacation or getting sick or those types of things. And so being able to plan ahead when you can and then respond in the moment, I think, is a is an underappreciated skill.

Curt Widhalm 3:42
So I think part of what we’re both talking about here is a term that I am inventing kind of on the spot. It’s a busyness audit, and if somebody else has invented that before me, I’m unaware of it. So that’s…

Katie Vernoy 3:58
You’re gonna take, you’re gonna take credit.

Curt Widhalm 4:00
I’m taking, I’m taking credit for at least this podcast, for it. This is just kind of looking at what are you realistically going to be capable of? That if you have family coming into town, if you have children who are going to have holiday pageants or whatever else, that is going to require you to bounce out during the school day that you normally wouldn’t have to do. Or in the case of my children’s schools, the ones that they could totally tell us at the beginning of the school year the dates of when they’re happening, but they don’t happen until two weeks before that really makes scheduling kind of hard to do. But being able to realistically look at what’s going to show up on your schedule, doing your best to plan around it, being able to, for the DBT therapists out there, cope ahead and realize what you’re actually going to be capable of in your own day to day life, so that way you can set some realistic expectations for yourself. And I did start this episode by talking about the perfect the perfectionistic therapist’s tendencies to want to be able to do everything, be responsive to all of your clients, but maybe going back to a little bit of Winnicott’s sort of, you know, good enough therapists in some of this is also being able to put enough on your plate to not have it be overflowing and getting caught by surprise. Now, this is not a perfect sort of system that you’re always going to have some stuff show up. Can’t always predict when a client crisis is going to show up, but being able to do that proverbial put your own mask on in the airplane before helping anybody else around you, this is one of the things that seems like a foundational aspect, is just being realistic about what you’re going to be capable of.

Katie Vernoy 6:01
This is something I do all the time. As someone with chronic illness, I oftentimes have to do that capability assessment I’ll do for me, not busyness assessment and determining how many clients can I see per day, how much can I do in a week? How many networking things can I do without starting to lose my you know what? So I think there’s that element of for some folks, this may be a day to day, week to week thing, and for some folks who don’t have they don’t come up against their capacity very often, this is something that you want to do thoughtfully, conscientiously, when you know that things are going to be busier and you have less control over your schedule. What I find is having a clear sense of my capacity helps when I know I’m going to be very busy and knowing okay, I can go over my capacity on this day because I’m going to rest the next day, or being able to plan what is possible given more of a weekly capacity versus a daily capacity. So maybe I’m getting into the weed, so I’ll move on from that point. But I think there’s, there is a lot of different things to consider when you look at capacity, and being able to do that effectively can mean that three weeks, five weeks before you’re going to be super busy not taking new clients. Or being able to identify when you when you stop taking new clients for a little while, so that you can manage those things. The other thing, and this is part of my reason for having a lower acuity caseload, is recognizing when you might be able to respond to clients in crisis. I think you with a DBT practice, also just who you are, you’re more available to your clients. From the beginning in my informed consent, I talk about when I’m typically not available, and if we’re creating safety plans or if we’re talking about ways to get support, I’m not at the top of the list. I’m not the first call. I’m oftentimes not the third or fourth call. It’s one of those things where being able to really seek resources for the client within their their their community, so to speak, it’s very important to me, because I don’t want them to feel like if I can’t answer the phone or if I’m not available for any reason, that they don’t have those things in place. And I’m not saying that that’s what you’re doing, but for me, especially after being on 24/7 call for several years, I don’t want to feel like I can’t relax or that I can’t step away from my phone or whatever it is. If my clients might be in crisis, I want to know that they are more likely to seek out support from a family member or a loved one. They have resources that I know, that they that are available to them, and so I feel confident and in being able to say, hey, evenings and weekends, you’re probably not going to be able to reach me.

Curt Widhalm 8:47
What you’re talking about is trimming non essential drains on your energy. And this is both professionally as well as non professionally, that there are aspects about our jobs, that when we get too busy, we can try to hand those tasks off to somebody else, or to have any of the systems in place that Katie and I have been talking about for the last eight years, to really remind yourself, I should get those in place so that way I don’t have to respond to every single email. I can put an auto generated response out, or I can have other ways to be able to handle some of the administrative burden tasks that end up being something that drains a lot of energy. This also is stuff where you can trim out some of the non essential drains of your energy and your life. You know, if you need to tell you know, family members Curt and Katie on this podcast, told me it’s okay that I don’t have to go to seven holiday meals at your house this year. You have our permission to say that. So…

Katie Vernoy 9:58
Yeah, blame it all on us.

Curt Widhalm 10:00
But some of this is being able to really, realistically operate within what ends up being able to help you sustain successfully here. And then the next important thing is fortifying those boundaries. It’s being able to have some of your non client contact hours. You’re talking about not being available 24 hours a day. Great. You know, there’s a lot of times when I have life going on, and I do try to be responsive to my clients, but my response back to them is, hey, I got your message. Unfortunately, I’m not going to be available for three or four hours, or I’m not going to be available until eight o’clock tomorrow morning or whatever is the next most appropriate time, and directing them back to whatever safety plans that they have in place that oftentimes, as you’re pointing out are not my responsibility for implementing for them, but I am one piece, and you’re talking about being fourth or fifth down the list on that, but reminding them that these are things that we have in place for this very specific reason.

… 11:59
(Advertisement Break)

Katie Vernoy 11:13
So before we jump into that, I just wanted to respond to the draining, non essential things, because I think there’s another thing that therapists do along those lines, and one is, when they get stressed out, they still are also carrying the mental load of all the projects they’ve not completed. And so looking at, if you’re super busy, it’s not the time to start working on your marketing copy or starting a podcast, or doing all the things that quote, unquote, you should be to be a strong business owner. I think simplifying down to what, what do I absolutely need to be doing during this time and everything else should not only be off the list, should also be put on a list for after that time is completed, so that you don’t even keep, you know, moving it down the list on your to do list, or or having it on your calendar, or whatever it is. It’s determining how do you let go of the things that you are not able to do right now? So I’ll leave that point there. I think it’s, I think that one’s well made. But with responding to clients when you’re not available, I do the same thing, I think. And I’d like to ask you how you handle this, because for me, it’s hard not to continue thinking about that client and worrying about them. And for me, that mental load makes it hard to sit in that space of, hey, I’m not going to be available to 8am sometimes, I guess you get to a conclusion, and okay, I’ll call you at eight, or we’ve got a session scheduled for tomorrow, or we can, you know, you can kind of set those things up, or, you know, they’re going to be okay. But I oftentimes feel pretty worried about my clients if I can’t respond right away. So I know that’s my own stuff, but what is your recommendation, Curt?

Curt Widhalm 12:00
I really try to emphasize with my clients when they reach out how to communicate with me. And I’m not going to talk about my clients, but I’m going to talk about one of the supervisees in my practice, that when they first joined the practice, I’d get these messages that say, Curt, I need to speak with you. And that would drive me nuts. It would just because I have no idea the severity of what’s going on. I have no idea what it’s about. It could be anything ranging from I have a client crisis that is ongoing right now, to I need to reschedule supervision this week. And…

Katie Vernoy 12:00
Yeah.

Curt Widhalm 12:00
So what I try to do as best as possible is not only to say, here’s how to reach out to me in the event of an emergency, but also, here’s how to reach out to me in the event of an emergency. You can message me a little bit more about what’s going on, because if it’s about rescheduling a session or rescheduling supervision, I’m going to wait until the next appropriate time tomorrow. If it’s something where it does feel like it needs to be a little bit more prompt, if I’m in a situation where I can then reprioritize something, get to a more private spot, if it’s something that needs to be handled right now, right now. It gives me the ability to be a decision maker as far as being able to say either I’m not available right now and with the team that I have set up, please reach out to this person on my team who can meet with you earlier, help you sooner or in the case of my supervisee, what I’ve finally got them trained to do is now I get the messages. Hi, Curt, I need to speak to you about a reporting situation. Here’s what I’ve already tried or here’s what I’ve already considered, that makes it to where, if I can give a call back, great if it takes 10 minutes, if it’s something where they’ve already explained their thought process and what they’re doing, and if it’s something that I can read and respond to in an email or a text, or something that helps to be able to speed up a lot of it. So some of this is just training our clients in how to be able to communicate what’s going on.

Katie Vernoy 12:22
That’s a really good point. I guess I’ve done that too, and when I had supervisees, I would do the same thing. This is what you text me about. This is what you email me about. This is what you say for supervision. And being able to make sure that if somebody texted me it was I need an urgent response, and I think that’s really what it’s come to. Every once in a while, I’ll get somebody texting me on the weekend. I’ll say, hey, I need to reschedule session this week, and I’ll respond to them on Monday morning. But I think there’s that, that element of the more you can have clarity on what what this communication is about, the the stronger it is that you can respond appropriately and potentially pretty efficiently.

Curt Widhalm 12:22
You know, as we’re talking about this, in the panacea of therapists self care, this is some of the really under the radar self care that therapists can do. Is just being able to have good communication systems. You know, this is beyond the bubble baths and the you know, take a take a weekend off kinds of things. But self care is really about being able to set up your own systems and communications in ways that you can successfully handle things. And why you point out several times around, you know, the higher acuity caseload that I handle is because I can put in these kinds of systems that do work in a way that works for me, and being able to really be able to support clients who need that, and it’s kind of a All right, meet me in the middle, and I can be actually more responsive without being necessarily more responsible. And that’s kind of a really cool thing that I’m just realizing now.

Katie Vernoy 12:22
Yeah, and you have a group practice, and there’s, I think, a capacity that you’ve created that supports all of that. For those of us in solo practice, when I’ve had clients bump up to this higher acuity level or be in crisis, there’s a few different ways that I manage it. One is, I do have some colleagues who could be backed up if needed to, if there’s a need, especially if I know I’m going to be pretty busy, there might be folks I can say, hey, if I’m not available, can I touch base? Can you be one of my touch base people, where I might send a client to have a crisis call with you, or crisis session with you, if I’m just not capable? And I’ve had that happen, especially like on vacation, those types of things, I think when there’s not a lot of folks available, then it becomes, do I identify a pathway to move out of my unavailability? And so there’s been times when I’ve been, you know, just traveling on the weekend, not vacation necessarily, but just spending time with family or doing something else, right? So it’s not vacation, full-on vacation, I’m not, I don’t have coverage, and I’ll find, you know, a room and do a phone call versus a video session, those types of things. And I’ll, I’ll identify how I can get myself to in DBT, words, wise mind, and be able to do what’s needed for the clients. And so there’s a flexibility that I think is not unique to therapists. A lot of my executive clients end up having to, like, hunker down somewhere in the corner and hop on a laptop and, you know, do something very urgently because of, you know, working across time zones, that kind of stuff. But I think there’s that element of for us to sign on and be able to be present for our client, we have to really be aware of our capacity in that moment. Did we just have an argument with a family member? Did we just share a bottle of wine? Did we do something that may make it so that we’re not truly available to that client, and if we don’t have backup, what can we do? And so I think those are the types of things where, obviously the planning ahead is great, but also having a sense, if it comes down to it, and my client hasn’t ever been in crisis, we don’t have this huge safety plan. This is a brand new out of nowhere kind of crisis. What might we do so that we can help them get kind of to a stabilized place, even if we’re not personally available to support them?

… 19:48
(Advertisement Break)

Katie Vernoy 19:49
Have you had that situation happen before being in private practice or being in group practice, or even in your group practice, if there was no one available?

Curt Widhalm 20:01
Yes, and I think that this does lead to kind of what we’ve eventually ended up developing, which is emergency handoff protocols. What is the least amount of communication that’s necessary to somebody who might be sharing a bottle of wine with somebody and not in the best situation to respond back to a client. But how do we communicate? Hey, I’ve had a client reach out to me. This is what you need to know. And some of that has developed over the years because I didn’t have that in place when I was in solo practice and being able to communicate, or when I’m actually trying to take vacation and passing along to somebody outside of my practice to provide supervision, things like that. Typically when I have somebody covering my practice, or had somebody covering in the past, you were even one of these people is, hey, I’m going to be out of town from this date to this date. I have given some clients your number. These clients have expressed explicit interest in being able to reach out to you, and here’s kind of the bare minimum of information that they’ve given to me to be able to pass that along to you, in case kind of a here’s a pre planning ahead conversation. Here’s some clients that might need it. Say that they won’t, but might need it, because sometimes this ends up happening, and then anybody else on the list, if they do happen, to reach out you as the person covering you can definitely call me and I can be able to pass along. I can step out from a family gathering for a few minutes to catch you up. So that way you don’t have to have hours and hours of background on all of my clients before I go for people who aren’t necessarily going to call. So my protocols are typically almost kind of pre triage, as far as who’s most likely and then what is the least amount of information that’s going to be necessary. Typically, the ones who are in that highest risk category, we’re already going to have safety plans in place, and those might be things that, number one, with client permission, could be easily shared ahead of time. Hey, in case this client calls, here’s what their safety plan is. Or two, if it’s something that’s somewhat readily accessible for you, if you’ve got, you know, an EHR system where you’re able to then, forward it to the person who’s covering your practice at that time, send it in a HIPAA compliant way.

Katie Vernoy 22:51
I’ve also had clients schedule sessions if I’m going to be, if there’s an extended absence, like I just went on a longer vacation, and I had a client, maybe more than one client have a session or two with another provider. So obviously, releases in place. All of that’s planned ahead. I’m actually curious about those moments when there’s not backup and you’re not totally able to be as present as you want to be. I typically go to, what is the safety plan. I respond with the ways that I can, I have in my informed consent that I’m not kind of their crisis response, and so I’m able to potentially sit back, I may not have even seen the the text or the email or those types of things. And so I come back to it, you know, the next morning or the or, you know, when I return on a, you know, the next business day, and I think a lot of folks get worried about the liability there. I think in the past, there have been times when I’ve either responded and just said, I’m sorry I’m not available. Let’s you know, can you reach out to this or if this is an immediate emergency, here’s the crisis response numbers or those types of things. And there’s been times when I feel like I’ve, I don’t think I’ve ever stopped stepped completely across a line, but there’s times when I feel like I’m not responding in the best way, because I’m not at capacity, because I’m there’s like there’s nobody else, and so I’ve got to just say, Hey, can’t, let’s What’s your safety plan? What are you going to do? And if clients have been really in deep crisis, that’s been a bad idea, because it’s, it’s something where it has to escalate in a different way. I think there’s the other thing of, okay, I’m not available now, but I’ll be available in three hours. And it’s like, Okay, let me drink some coffee, let me go for a walk, let me get myself to a place so I can, quote, unquote, get into wise mind. And I feel like that’s a that’s a pretty big lift, and I think it’s hard for us to ask of ourselves as therapists, but a think there’s a responsibility. But what are your thoughts on that?

Curt Widhalm 25:02
I’ll answer this question, but I want to go back just a moment and to be able to say that a lot of what we’re talking about is your best plan of action is to have a plan of action and then follow it.

Katie Vernoy 25:14
Sure.

Curt Widhalm 25:15
And emphasizing: and then document what you’ve talked about with each of your clients in these situations.

Katie Vernoy 25:22
Of course.

Curt Widhalm 25:24
So to answer your question, do we have a responsibility? Yes, we do have a responsibility. Ethically, we can’t just say, You know what, in an extended time of absence. Good luck. You know?

Katie Vernoy 25:37
I’m not even talking about an extended time of absence. I’m saying it’s 10 o’clock at night and you’re not available. There’s no coverage. You’re not planning, you know, it’s, it’s 10 o’clock on a Friday night. You are, you know, going away for the weekend or and it’s not even a quote, unquote, extended plan of absence. It’s, you’re not expected to be working at that time, and so you’re, you can say, and I’ve done this in the past, we can schedule a session for Monday morning. How are you going to get there? And if I’m in wise mind and not in some crisis or otherwise incapable, I think that usually goes okay. But if I’m incapable at that moment for whatever reason, I’m sick, I’m, you know, whatever, right? I think those things can it can be not a good idea for me to try to do that. And so I try to get to a place and say, Hey, I’m not available now. I’ll be available in, you know, whatever, tomorrow morning. But what, what do you feel like is our responsibility in that moment, if there’s no backup, you know, it’s New Year’s Eve, you know, what is, what is it that we are responsible to do in that moment when we’re not planning to work, nobody’s working. And, you know, there, it’s a out of the blue kind of crisis that there’s not a intensive safety plan, because it’s not a client who’s needed one?

Curt Widhalm 27:02
Our ethics codes tell us that we need to let our clients know what our availability is.

Katie Vernoy 27:08
Okay.

Curt Widhalm 27:08
And that is something that I know, it’s in my informed consent and I think that most people have some language in their informed consents around: I’m not a 24 hour practice, when there is a holiday or something such as New Year’s Eve that you’re able to kind of say, hey, in addition to my normal time off, I’m also taking an extra day off at this time that this is why many of us also have on our outgoing messages: If this is a true emergency and I’m not available, call 911, call something that called 988, call some thing, some place that directs to in an absence of my own, you’re able to be covered.

Katie Vernoy 28:01
And that’s sufficient from your mind, because oftentimes we don’t have an automatic text response reminding them about 911, or 988.

Curt Widhalm 28:11
And with many of the available technological tools that are out there designed for practices, this might be something that you look at seeing if this is something that you want to incorporate now. But, realistically, we do need to tell our clients what our availability is. We need to remind them of that periodically, because informed consents are long and lengthy, and I don’t expect many clients to remember something that’s buried on page three of somebody’s nine page informed consent, you know, eight or nine months later.

Katie Vernoy 28:51
Sure.

Curt Widhalm 28:51
So. And then document that you’re returning to these things every so often, but you do hold some responsibility, especially if your regular availability is is altered.

Katie Vernoy 29:05
So it really goes back to communication, planning ahead and doing your best. And if you’re in a moment when you just can’t be available and you can’t be available soon, figure out ways to get that message back to your client, whether it’s an autoresponder or whatever it is, and let them know your next availability. So if it’s New Year’s Eve, my next availability is on Monday. This, you know, Monday the fifth, I don’t know, and we can schedule an appointment then, these are the other things that are available until that point, and you can hold that boundary, and hopefully you’ve already had that conversation with them about how they can take care of themselves when you’re not available.

Curt Widhalm 29:52
So to wrap this up, there’s a couple of things that we’re really hoping that you take away from this conversatio: it’s that you you are not expected to be a 24/7 mental health emergency room. You’re highly trained, you’re a compassionate, professional human being who’s fundamentally going to have human being things happen in your own personal life, and that occasionally throws a wrench into the whole clinical process. Some of these things are things that you can cope ahead. Some of these things are recognizing that having some healthy boundaries around stuff isn’t selfish. They’re actually clinically necessary, because sometimes with clients, you not being available is actually going to be part of their therapeutic growth, that if you’re constantly available and constantly responding, that actually might be creating some dependence and eventual harm to a client. So…

Katie Vernoy 30:55
Yeah.

Curt Widhalm 30:57
One last thing that I want to just kind of briefly throw in is also be a part of consultation groups and get some outside perspective on are you capable of handling what you’re actually going through and it might change from person to person’s opinion. Document all of your decisions. And then go to mtsgpodcast.com to check out our show notes and follow us on our social media to continue on with this conversation, join our Facebook group, the Modern Therapist’s Group, follow us on Substack now and LinkedIn and until next time. I’m Curt Widhalm with Katie Vernoy.

… 31:35
(Advertisement Break)

Announcer 31:37
Thank you for listening to the modern Therapist’s Survival Guide. Learn more about who we are and what we do@mtsgpodcast.com. You can also join us on Facebook and Twitter, and please don’t forget to subscribe so you don’t miss any of our episodes.