Consultation / Interview

[Han]

I think you can do it anyway that works for you! What I do is offer free phone consultations or emails when people have questions before the session. It really helps to build rapport with clients. On my website I offer a 30 min phone or video consultation for $50 either before or after the session. But, no one’s taken me up on that yet. I mostly put that so that people know that long phone conversations are not free. I’m curious what other practitioners do!

[Irina Nola]

I ask in an email about main reason for the session, gender, age, occupation, general health and Rx meds they take. If they are taking any psychotropic meds – I ask more questions, and I might ask if we can talk on the phone. If I feel that I do not want to work with this client as their mental or emotional condition is beyond my ‘scope of practice” – I send them to a psychic or a shaman, who journey on their behalf. I am also careful about clients with life-threatning conditions – like recent heart attacks, siesures etc. If they want to talk to me on the phone – sure, we can have a chat, but I do not let them talk for very long, 15-20 minutes max – because I will not remember any details, I’d prefer that they tell me everything right before the session. If they are not from the USA or other English-speaking country – I ask to have a quick chat on the phone to make sure we do not have a language barrier.

I do not agree to do consultations in person for free, if they want one – 50$ an hour, but so far nobody wanted to pay. I had clients who wanted to meet in a coffee shop etc – no, I do not do that. I feel that this is unfair to me – they will want my attention and energy, and they might decide not to have a session, I do not feel that I have to ‘audition” for the client. Psychologists offer free consultations – but they enroll the client in a long term therapy, insurance will pay for many sessions… I do not take insurance and usually meet with the client for 1-2 sessions, so it not worth my time. If they want to “check me out” or look at my space – they have to pay something for my time and house cleaning! I had a client who told me upfront that he had OCD – I let him come by and look at my place. I will also allow this to somebody claustrophobic, as my place is rather small. Or they can just add Uber fee to the cost of the session – and I will go to their house.

This is how I do it. But you can do what feels right for you. I can imagine that somebody who is just starting might be way more agreeable to the clients’ terms.

[Candace Craw-Goldman]

BQH says you can separate out the “interview” or pre-talk and the session if it works for you that way. Consults are a far different matter in my opinion. Some do them, some do not. I love to do them for a number of reasons the top reason is an hour is a lot easier to fit in a schedule than a full blown session.

SOME people only want a consult- and do not need or are not a real fit for a session, but they don’t know that right off- so I personally offer them a consultation and tell them something like, “If you’d like to book a consult that may be all that is required, and if you do end up having a session, you will certainly be more prepared/ready after our consultation.”

I have found that people are wonderful about consultation rates and grateful to have a block of time to talk about whatever is important to them. If you are BRAND NEW to this work, you may not have, or feel that you have, the kind of experience, background or resources to provide consultation work by the hour. I know I could not have done this early on…but I came into my own after a while and gained the confidence to consult.

Some of this work and this business just takes time.

As far as AFTER a session, that is different. If someone has already gone through a session, and they contact me about it with questions that, to me, that client is simply continuing our session as part of the “debrief” that just may happen a bit later. Now, if they are needing more than just some simple advice or confirmation, I suggest more regular consultation sessions or possibly another session down the road.

Newer practitioners might definitely benefit from a bit more conversation and exchange prior to the session. This may change as you gain more experience or get busy.

Thanks Helen for attending the webinar. What a day yesterday was for our family, and I am tickled that we managed to get the webinar going despite the challenges!

Love,
Candace

[Stephanie Shek]

Thanks for this post. I like the idea of paid consultation but like Candace said, probably I wouldn’t do that till I’m confident about charging for it.

I ask potential clients why they want to have a session. What I do next depends on their answers. I’m at the moment learning to be precise in my answers to their questions, without feeling the need to give them extra information. It took too much time and sometimes I think maybe I scared people away with too much information.

So far, I had offered once to have an online chat with a male client to better answer his questions. The real reason I offered this was because his emails were written in a strange way and I wanted to figure out if he was genuine person before finalizing our appointment. He turned out to be a really nice man and I decided to have him as a client. Please note that our safety and comfort is way more important than earning money.

I had met with a woman potential client once for coffee. At the time, I wasn’t comfortable with online chat and I saw it as a chance to get out of the house in this new country I’m living in. We decided to meet because we weren’t sure if this person’s English was fluent enough for the session. Ended up it wasn’t but I was glad to have a nice chat with a local person.

I guess I haven’t had enough clients for me to develop a pattern/rule yet.

I used to be like what Irina said, ‘way more agreeable to clients’ terms’. Right now, I’m more about me because I can only be the best practitioner that I can be when I’m at my most comfortable. And I find that real sincere clients are actually very agreeable to my terms which are very reasonable anyway.

[Irina Nola]

I never thought about charging for consultations untill a woman wanted to meet me in a coffee shop before scheduling a session…I did not know how to respond politely, so I came out with an idea of charging for a consultation in my office after asking questions on this forum.

[Angie Dollar]

Helen_McGill said:

After I listened to the q&a webinar earlier I was wondering if people do separate consultations prior to the day of the induction do you charge one price for everything or is /can that be separate ?

This is my preference: Once a client has paid for the session, I send them a pre-made email of what to expect the day of, how to prepare, how to write questions, question samples, etc. In a separate email, separate so it is not overlooked, I send a link to my calendar. I tell them I feel it is best to do the interview and question discussion one day before if possible so that it is not such a long day on the day we have the session. I feel this allows them to get to know me some so that they are more relaxed and trusting the day of. It also gives us both some time for the questions and interview to simmer overnight. I don’t charge extra for this. It’s time I would have given them the day of. Many of my BQH clients are my prior energy clearing clients, so they already act like I’m a trusted friend of theirs, and I already know most of what they are going to want to know. For them, I wouldn’t generally offer the day before time. The day of session for them will go quickly.