ANNUAL REVIEW - blue skies

Each August I tidy up my records and do a more in depth review of my own diary; work hours; work-life balance and also of each client’s process.

Join me in this cleaning process ready for the new academic year.

1 I ask you to do a new REGISTRATION FORM

I don’t know if you remember? This is the weird one where I ask you to book onto a non existent class so that the system gives you the chance to register with me.

I can’t fill in the Reg Form from my end (I assume it’s something to do with permissions to hold your contact details and data).

The contact details are for your safety and so you and I know you are held physically as well as psychologically. For example, if you fainted during a session and you are 200 or 2,000 miles away, it is helpful for me to know your medical conditions, medication taken and your address so I can contact first responders.

(This has never happened by the way.)

Sometimes some of your emotional symptoms might be side effects of medication or a physical condition and it’s helpful for us to have the whole picture.

This is the Registration Link and you just need to book this class but not attend it: https://bookingmiriamgrace.as.me/REGFORM4MIRIAM20252026

My data protection policy is detailed (following my training in this area for therapists) so if this interests you, you can find it here: https://blue-skies.org.uk/privacy-notice-%e2%80%a2-consent-form-%e2%80%a2-digital-policy/

The client contract, I suspect you’ve not read since we started, so here’s a reminder: https://blue-skies.org.uk/client-contract/

2 Payments, appointments and dates

Please do not interpret my confusion with a lack of interest in you. I suspect I’ve undiagnosed discalculia and I remember things that don’t have numbers in. I find giving therapy a natural process and in alignment with my skills and capacity. I believe owe you good and efficient admin, which I have to do myself due to the personal and confidential nature of our exchanges. To do my admin I have to focus and concentrate and push myself. I also have to double and triple check things and deal with manageable but uncomfortable feelings of confusion, doubt and overwhelm. I take the responsibility seriously but I acknowledge that I sometimes fall short of the standards I aspire to. Please encourage yourself to be assertive with me in all matters but especially if you need clarity regarding payments, appointments and dates.

I’ve made a new rule, that from August 2025 onward, that if I find a payment inconsistency I will only mention it if it is less than 6 months ago. I am currently sending each client their annual receipt and any queries but after this I will send them at the end of the financial year (March/ April) and before the academic year begins September/ October). For 30+ years I’ve had a battle with this but a couple of years ago a friend and colleague and I made ourselves accountable to each other. We have a weekly session together on ZOOM, cameras on and mics off and we do our accounting and bookkeeping and I’ve been up to date now on my Tax Return etc for nearly 2 years! I’m sharing this because it might be helpful for you with some tasks, because I want to take responsibility for my part in admin mistakes (it isn’t always me of course but I don’t assume it is the other person either).

3. Opportunity for your personal review

As you know, I ask you most sessions how it is going and make space for review and feedback regularly. You can formalise this or ritualise this if you like by taking some quiet reflection time and thinking about therapy and emailing me any thoughts about going forward. We will discuss your email in the next session.

You could ask yourself these questions:

- - How was I when I started therapy?
  - What did I hope therapy would achieve?
  - How am I now?
  - What have I addressed?
  - What have I not addressed?
  - What is my therapy focus going forward?
  - Have I communicated this wish to Miriam yet?
  - What surprises have come up so far?
  - What ways could I avoid getting what I wish?
  - How could I help myself?
  - How could Miriam help me?
  - How have my needs changed since I started therapy?

What to expect from therapy with me?

Welcome, and thank you for trusting me to work with you, therapeutically over the next few months.

Because I am thoroughly and completely trained in three different disciplines with considerable further training in three or four others, you may find my approach, familiar, or unusual, depending on any previous experience of therapy.

When you read the contract, probably the most important part of the contract is the expectation that we assess, review, feedback each session and that you commit to participate (and even initiate that at times). Usually I ask how the therapy is going, but if I don’t your experience will be greatly enhanced bye you raising any potential misunderstandings or miscommunication between us .

I want you to feel heard and I want to adapt my approach to your personal needs. It’s important that if you don’t understand what I’m doing that you ask. I share my thoughts and over view of our work when asked but try to avoid too much “psycho babble” and “talking about” therapy.

Please note that with trauma work, I will not go in deep until we have established a therapeutic relationship, and until I am sure that it is psychologically safe to go there. My training includes working with the Rothschild’s approach, which includes “putting on the brakes”. Succinctly, if your nervous system arousal is above a certain level, trauma work could re-traumatise you, so I might discuss safe topics with you until an equilibrium is restored within you. I also won’t open boxes on issues that may spill over beyond the 55 minutes unless you are in weekly therapy. It’s not in alignment with best practice to open these “boxes” when we are approaching a break; if you are engaged with a here and now stress (exams, court case, medical investigations); or if you think you may be overhead at your end.

If any of this is confusing for you, please just say. On my part I aim to clarify our approach and how we will attempt to meet your aims for therapy. This may seem time consuming but in the end we will move faster by slowing down.

The starter package lasts for 8 sessions and at this point you and I should have a better idea about whether this is a good fit. It is fine to end therapy at this point or to book weekly sessions paid monthly. We will once more look at our expectations for the next chapter, and the methodology, and check we understand and then book you in.

I see therapy as similar to a story arch. We know we are at the beginning and we will feel it for sure when we are right in the middle at the top of the curve. After this as the therapy arch begins to travel towards its conclusion some clients go to fortnightly or monthly sessions.

Finally the 55 minute hour is designed for therapists’ convenience not for the unique clients. I find that some clients due to their uniqueness (often neurodivergence) require shorter or longer sessions and longer or shorter gaps in frequency. We will start out with the 55 minute hour and learn as we go along what adjustments we may need to make.

I aim to be a flexible as I can to work with as wide a range of diversity as possible. At the moment I do not work with men for therapy, though I see them for supervision and in couples therapy. I do enjoy working with men, however, I am reducing my work hours incrementally and want to work in a particular area to enhance my research and writing.