Commonly asked questions

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Privacy policy

We are committed to protecting the privacy of all individuals that provide Personal Information to us, including the data collected through our website. All identifiable information is kept strictly confidential. Only information that is agreed upon will be shared. A parent must introduce teachers or other professionals via e-mail with explicit consent as to what can be shared.

Disclaimer

Coaching is not therapy. Coaching is not a substitute for therapy. Sessions give clients the chance to develop their executive functioning skills and improve the quality of their lives.

Costs and Insurance

Time is billed and invoiced equally. This includes time spent in sessions, time responding to e-mails, document preparation, phone consultations, in-between session meetings, etc. You get to decide how much time is useful to you.

Dr Rick Smith Limited does NOT accept insurance for payment of services. Sessions are billed as a consultations and may not qualify for insurance reimbursement.

Payment happens via bank transfer, cash, or credit card. Invoices and receipts are sent via e-mail. 

24 hours notice is needed for a cancellation. Missed sessions are billed at the full rate. I'd rather not charge for a missed session but doing so is in line with helping others and necessary to make working together possible and effective. If something unavoidable happens, like illness or accident, I need to know about that too. 

FAQs

All identifiable information is kept strictly confidential. Only information that is agreed upon will be shared. A parent must introduce teachers or other professionals via e-mail with explicit consent as to what can be shared.

The typical young person needs 8-12 weekly sessions to begin to see changes. There are two factors that predict success. Those factors are:

1)    Practicing skills in between sessions.

2)   Parents work to reduce the amount of accommodations.

If young people begin making changes but the home environment does not change, those changes won’t stick.

Parents are part of the child’s life and are part of the solution too.

Very often, parents can feel frustrated and powerless when they see their loved one’s struggle. That’s why I am always available in between sessions and why I will ask for parents to be willing to have a parent-only session. Our work is a collaborative experience. You must be willing to support the plan that we co-create.

(Most) adults need support too. I ask adults to responsible for their own feelings. That means that they may need to recruit their partners help during moments of high-stress or overwhelming emotion. This might also mean finding their own outside support.

Reviewing assessments, teacher notes, case management and professional evaluations is part of the intake and included in the costs. Collaboration with other relevant professionals, such as teachers, therapists, or psychiatrists via email, follow-up calls is always included.

Many times, when young people are under stress and anxiety, they will also externalise problems, including rage, aggression, or destroying physical objects or property. Even when otherwise calm children experience accommodations being reduced, they may react with irritability, aggression, or anger. Children use their parents to escape distress, so when parents refuse to accommodate, the child’s distress escalates. Children go into fight or flight mode. Parents can find it difficult to follow through on plans to reduce accommodations when this happens. It’s important to understand where this aggression is coming from and what it means so that parents can avoid escalating it and to determine how to respond. The key is realizing that we’re always reinforcing something, so try to only reinforce desirable behaviours. Typically, unless the child is putting themselves or someone else in danger, the best response to an aggressive child is no response at all.