Some people are terrified of making a referral, thinking it shows them up as having failed. That’s a bit like the contracted painter-decorator going into a spin because they can’t also mend the boiler and get their customer’s kid to ace his school tests. Be a specialist. Own your authority and expertise. Then it will become a joy to let your client realise how connected you are to other specialists and how knowledgeable and selective you are; how you can source them the best of everything, and how fortunate they are to know you. (Personal opinion; just saying).
What is a referral?
Referrals are times when you source and recommend another service to the benefit of the client. This can mean:
- Another EFT practitioner in exactly the same field to take over instead of you
- Another EFT practitioner who specialises in something outside your current focus or skill set, to take over as above.
- Any number of practitioners or services, complementary or mainstream that may provide a beneficial ‘next step’ to your client once your contract is complete
- Any person or service that may be of benefit to your client concurrent to, or as a pause between your continued work with them
- Their doctor. Although this is a special case that needs recording separately, technically if a client asks your advice about anything medical you are duty-bound to point out that their doctor is their medical advisor and to strongly recommend that they make contact. This one is slightly different to the others because it’s a referral you may have to make multiple times.
It is up to the client to accept the recommendation or not. It is also up to them entirely whether you are able to explain their situation as part of the hand-over.
Permission needed during referrals
Referring on:
If you are ceasing your involvement completely, the kind of permission you may need, signed and for the record, maybe to:
- Communicate the general personal data of the client (contact details etc) to the new service, or
- Communicate the sensitive personal data of the client (situation, difficulties etc) in whole as a copy of session progress notes and intake, or as a general summary/overview
Remember that this will also become a part of your own records.
Referring out:
However, if you are sharing care of the client and expecting them back straight after the extra service, or continuing to see them throughout, then you will also need written permission to receive the same kind of data back from the other practitioner, ie to have two-way communication about the client’s progress if needed.
Example: I once had a client who wished to continue working with me but felt progress was blocked by an entity. They were unable or unready to observe or communicate with the energy, so I sourced a therapist (not an EFT practitioner) who claimed to see and clear negative entities. My client went there, completed work that aligned with their belief system, gained a sense of relief, and then came back to me to continue the work on the original presenting problem. In this case, only general contact details were handed across with permission, as it was not necessary to go ‘into the story’.
Referring back or up:
These may not be an issue for you depending on your style of practice and your client base.
Referring back : referring a client back to the mainstream support and services they are already supposed to be using, for example, their medical professionals (GP, psychiatrist, etc).
Referring up: instances where you need to inform those specialists or get approval from them to work or continue to work with their patient.
Permissions you need to gather for these situations can include:
- Permission to safeguard: At intake and in the contract you already gather client agreement and the means to breach confidentiality by contacting the named medical professional, if there is a safeguarding issue that warrants it. Generally, even if this action is needed it should still be done with the client’s specific and recorded consent at the time, although you may not be able to get a signature to go with that.
- Permission to seek clarity or approval: This happens when the client comes to you seeking support alongside a medical condition or medication. If the client has or receives a diagnosis or prescription that may raise questions about the suitability of your work – this time it is the medical professional who holds the desired answers so you will need two types of permission – the client’s permission to you to contact their GP, for example, and also their permission to the doctor to release or discuss the relevant confidential data. It is an obvious courtesy and time saver for all concerned if you collect both at once and send them together, keeping copies for your records.
- Permission to make contact on the client’s behalf: If the client feels uncomfortable contacting or ‘bothering’ their doctor but agrees that this is necessary, they may give you written permission to contact the professional on their behalf. Try and time this so that it includes approval of the wording you have used.
Other times you need permission
These are listed in the Code of Ethics.
- Permission to share with your team: eg if you work as part of a group or multidisciplinary clinic.
- Permission to record: This includes permission to make audio or video copies, to be subject to CCTV (even if it is not recording but has someone monitoring). By extension, permission to have other parties present including the paying customer if that is not the client or the client’s parent or guardian.
- Permission to touch: If a technique you use happens to involve touching the client in any way then this process must be clearly explained ahead of time and permission gained. If this is your main or usual technique (eg EFT) then you can cover this in the contract and intake forms.
- Permission to discuss ‘disguised’: This means permission to use case notes in a way that the client remains anonymous. This can be any situation from using an element when providing mentoring or training, or in receiving supervision, or as a case study or success sorry elsewhere such as in your marketing. According to the EFTMRA code, using disguised case notes as part of your supervision is the only time you need to get the client’s approval but not necessarily proof of permission.
- Permission to discuss ‘undisguised’ i.e. to use any element of the case notes in such a way that the client becomes identifiable. This has to be clear and signed (provable).
Just a note to the new and enthusiastic: ‘Undisguised’ can include avoiding names but mentioning the case to people who might reasonably work out who you mean, eg “I loved my client this morning! She has come so far!” on your own Facebook page where your friends or theirs can work out that the visit ‘this morning’ must have been a client session.
Author: Cheryl White, EFT Test Manager