Theory and Practice of Contemporary Psychotherapies

Buckwalter Informed Consent Demonstration Video Transcript

Speaker 1:  Welcome to our demonstration on going over informed consent with clients. And so, as part of your studies, some of the textbooks discuss the importance of reviewing informed consent and some of the key elements of that for an ethical relationship building a therapeutic alliance. And so today we want to demonstrate kind of how that takes place. The difficulty, I think that Professor Murrin and I have, is most therapists do it a little bit differently. Mostly the same content, but they probably approach it differently. So we're going to actually give you two examples of that here today, those of which you might choose to follow one or the other, or certainly as your own developing professional identity, you'll create your own approach. But we're going to go ahead and give you two options here. So, welcome.

Hello, Ms. Murrin. Good to have you here today.

Olivia Murrin: Thanks for having me.

Speaker 1: We had talked on the phone, I think last Wednesday and scheduled this appoint today. And if you recall, I said that this appointment, you would come out and you would share in detail more of what you shared on the phone about the anxiety that you're experiencing. And as we talk today, I'm going to ask you a fair amount of questions. I just want to get to know your situation, in more detail and understand more of the depth of those symptoms that you shared and some of the surrounding circumstances. At the end of our time, I'm also going to give you some recommendations. In other words, Olivia, here's some things that I think if we work together, we really want to do. And so, I'll lay those out for you at the end of this session.

And at the end of that time, I'm going to say, "Okay, Olivia, you've shared a lot, and I've given you some recommendations. You have the option now to decide whether this is a good place for you, if you feel comfortable working with me. And certainly how I feel working with you. And at that time, you can decide, if you stay or if we refer you to another place or what might be best for you, okay?" So I said that on the phone and I just reiterate that agenda here today. Is that good?

Olivia Murrin: Yep.

Speaker 1: Okay. As you know, these types of things always involve some paperwork. And so, regardless of what we decide to do at the end of this session, we have a little bit of paperwork we're going to go through, and so I want to review that with you.

Now, at New Life, we actually have all of our forms, our consent forms are online. And so you have access to the full form. And what I have here is what we call a cheat sheet that talks about some of the key elements of those forms. And so I'm going to review them with you.

First is our counseling policy. Within the counseling policy, talks about appointments and cancellations. And essentially we'd ask that you give a 24 hour notice on any changes and in scheduling. And if some things come up like snow and sickness, we'll certainly consider those, but we want to try to keep those appointments.

The next one is termination. Maybe, you've gone, you've heard of folks who have been in counseling for six years. We honestly don't do six years here. We want to be really purposeful and direct, take you where you need to go, and when it's time for you to stop, then we want to be able to stop. And if at some point you feel like, I'm not getting anywhere, I'm not making any progress, I need you to tell me. Likewise, if I'm feeling like, "Olivia, I've said the same thing the last three times. You're not doing anything about it. We either need to change how we're doing it or come to an end." So that's the agreement that we make here.

In emergencies, we don't staff the office 24/7. That's why, when you called in, you left a message on the voice machine. But we do provide the crisis intervention number, if you happen to need that. And you can also call 911 as well.

The next one is confidentiality. When you go to counseling, obviously what you say here stays here. There are several limits to that. One is if you express a desire to harm yourself or someone else, I need to contact somebody. Likewise, if I may know of abuse to a minor, I'm mandated to report that, just so we know that that's the case.

All right. The last one here is consultation, education, supervision. So there are eight of us in the practice here and we do meet regularly, to do peer review. And then also I teach at Lancaster Bible College in their counseling program. And I like to use the cases that I work with in there. Obviously change all relevant information.

So where do you live now?

Olivia Murrin: I'm over in Mount Joy.

Speaker 1: You're in Mount Joy. Well, now you just move to Ephrata. And where do you work at?

Olivia Murrin: Right now?

Speaker 1: Yes.

Olivia Murrin: I work at PA counseling.

Speaker 1: You work at PA counseling. So now you work at [Randolph 00:04:28] Industries in Ephrata, and so, all those details get changed around. So, students wouldn't have any idea who you are, so it protects your identity, okay? Do you have any questions about the counseling policy?

Olivia Murrin: No. No, I don't.

Speaker 1: Okay. Two more policies. One is the financial policy. I think when you said on the phone, you do have Highmark Blue Shield. And so I think you brought your card along and we'll get a copy of that shortly, but obviously you're still responsible for co-pays and deductibles. And really ultimately, it's your relationship with your insurance provider.

Olivia Murrin: Sure.

Speaker 1: We'll do our part in billing, but if for some reason Highmark says, "We're just not going to pay." It does come back to you. And just so you're aware of that.

Olivia Murrin: Sure.

Speaker 1: All right. The last one here is our notice of privacy practice.

And this talks about your protected health information. What it essentially says is no one has any access to anything here, unless you sign an authorization for that. So if we need information from a doctor or physician or someone, we can have you sign an authorization. So, any questions about any of those forms at all?

Olivia Murrin: I don't think so.

Speaker 1: Okay. It's pretty simple. It's pretty similar to what you would go to a doctor for. Okay. If that is okay, I'm going to go ahead and give you this form, so you have that. I'll give that to you. And then I have a signature page here that just says that you're of age, of sound mind. You understood what we talked about here. So, if you want to just put your name there and your date of birth here and initial each of these forms that we reviewed, and then a signature down here. And also ask that you give an address down here as well.

Olivia Murrin: All right.

Speaker 1: So, for the sake of, for time here, we won't have her go ahead and do that, but that's a real quick demonstration of how I will go over an informed consent. But my guess is other folks will do it differently, but cover some of the same information.

So, we're going to go ahead and pause this video, and then we'll go to another one.