LearningMethods Sessions by phone
 
 

Below is the complete text of my Policy for Phone Sessions.
Last updated 12 September 2007

  
Policy for Telephone Sessions

It is always best to be clear from the beginning about practical details, so below is my policy about how the phone sessions work, about fees, cancellation, and so on.

Who Can Benefit

LearningMethods is usually helpful for any sort of problem you may experience, from physical pain, tension, or stress to anxiety, panic, stage-fright or phobias to compulsive habits like smoking, over-eating or over-spending to relationship conflicts, difficulty raising children, abuse or self-esteem issues, to learning blocks, and more.

You will benefit greatly from the LearningMethods work if you want to learn how to solve your own problems, to understand the way your thinking and emotions work and to learn a set of practical tools to explore and discover how to navigate successfully through your life.

If, after a course of sessions, I cannot help you directly, I will be glad to refer you to another teacher or someone who works with a different method who may be able to help you.

Confidentiality:

As with any LearningMethods session, confidentiality and trust is very important. It is your session, so you are free to tell anyone you like about what happens, but be assured that on my side everything we say and do is kept in the strictest confidentiality.

Student Teacher Expectations

The first session begins with a short period where you can ask any questions about this policy and we will discuss why you have come and what are your goals for the sessions (if we have not already done that in an initial talk). This first session may last up to 2 hours (a half-hour longer than normal sessions afterwards).

When you have a session, your feelings of privacy are always respected. You are free to bring up any issue you wish and also free to stop at any time or to refrain from answering any question if you'd rather not.

During a session you are encouraged to stay in touch with your responses and inform me if anything makes you feel uncomfortable or unsafe, either physically or psychologically. If anything like this happens, please speak up immediately. I want to know as soon as possible.

If the issue you bring up is full of emotion, you will have whatever time you need to go through any strong feelings. Usually this does not take long, but remember, the sessions are for you and you are in the driver's seat.

Usually the session will last the allotted time, but if I choose to extend the time because of what we are in the middle of, there will be no change of fee.

Scheduling:

Once you decide to go ahead and book one or more phone sessions, we will communicate to schedule a mutually workable day and time. Each session is usually about 1½ hours (90 minutes), give or take a bit depending on what we get into. The initial session may be up to half an hour longer (though at the same fee as a normal session).

If at some point you wanted to schedule ongoing sessions for a while to work through an issue or series of issues, we can arrange a regular slot, that is, the same day and time each week or every other week, etc.

Fees:

The fee structure varies in different countries so we will communicate about fees when we arrange a session. For the first session, fees must be paid in advance. Subsequent sessions may be paid before or directly after the session.

The easiest way to pay is online via the LearningMethods web site at this address: www.learningmethods.com/fees-session.htm

Payment online is through secure encrypted servers. You can fund your payment from any major credit card, some debit cards, via PayPal if you are a member, or direct from your bank account (in the USA only). If you are outside the USA, your credit card statement will show the amount in your local currency after conversion from US dollars.

If you cannot pay on-line, it MAY be possible to pay by mailing a personal bank check or international money order in any of the above currencies. Within the Euro zone it is possible to pay via direct bank-to-bank transfer without charge, though sometimes banks take a fee for this transfer. In any case, we will sort out details of fees and payment before the session.

Calling for the Session:

Normally, it is your responsibility to call me for the session at the appointed time at the prearranged phone number. However, if you are in Canada or the USA, I can call you for the session with a toll-free line so there will be no phone charge for you. Unfortunately, I cannot offer this service free outside of the USA or Canada, but we do have a relatively cheap international calling plan, so if it seems that it would be cheaper for me to call you internationally, we can figure out the cost ahead of time and add that to the session payment, thereby saving you money.

Cancellation, re-scheduling and other policies:

Once the day and time of the session is set up and agreed, my policy is that you can freely cancel any time UP TO 48 hours before the session, but if you cancel WITHIN the 48 hours before the session you will still need to pay for the session. The 48 hours is longer than normal for in-person sessions, but takes into account the difficulties of reaching each other internationally across different time zones as well as the erratic delivery of e-mail, delays due to answer machine tag, etc., and of course, of me being able to then reach someone else to fill your space at short notice.

Up to 24 hours before the scheduled session you can also request to change the day or time of the session with no penalty assuming we can find a mutually workable new time within 2 days of the currently scheduled date. Any changes closer than 24 hours to the scheduled session time will usually not be possible.

At the scheduled time for the session I will call you or be available at the prearranged number for you to call me. If, for any last minute reason, I am not able to be there for the session, we will re-schedule a new session which will be free of charge to you.

It is your responsibility also to be available at the appointed time for the session. If you are not, you will still be charged for the session. If you are late, the full session fee will still be payable and we will need to end the session at the appointed time even if this means the session ends up being shorter than the appointed time.

Recording the sessions:

It can often be very valuable for you to be able to listen again to the session afterwards when you have a little more perspective and wish to recall all the detail and richness of the unfolding dialog and the progression of learning. Therefore, you are free to audio-record the session to a cassette tape recorder, minidisk, digital voice recorder, etc. for your own use -- as long as you agree to not make copies or to distribute it in any form to others.

If you can't make recordings on your end but would like to have one, I would be happy to make one for you. I can then convert the recording to MP3 format and upload it to the LearningMethods web site for you to download. Alternatively I can burn the recording on a CD and mail it to you.

I will need to charge you a small fee for the work involved, but I do this at cost because I think it is important that you have the piece to listen and learn from. Currently the charge for this service is US$20 for an uploaded file and $35 for a mailed CD. If you wish me to make a recording, please let me know via e-mail or phone at least a day ahead of time.

Please let me know if you have any questions. I look forward to working with you.

David Gorman    e-mail:    web site: www.learningmethods.com
                        Tel: +1 416-519-5470, Fax: +1 416-519-7470
                        19 Stephen Dr., Etobicoke, ON, Canada M8Y 3M7