I cannot imagine not having a physical location for my counselling practice. That was, to me, an essential building block to set up my practice. Whether it was private or in an organization, I have been fortunate enough to always have a space to operate from. But I sometimes find it to be restricting either geographically or in terms of the hours of operation. E-counselling has more flexibility when it comes to space as the barriers to accessing services are reduced.
I read about a counsellor who has a mobile office-an RV that goes into the community and acts a safe space that has all the necessary amenities and prerequisites to make it and actual ‘office’.
If there are any counsellors out there who are mobile, it would be interesting to get their view point on this and their pros and cons of operating from and office vs. doing e-counselling and vice-versa. We often talk of meeting the clients where they are at, so why not making ourselves mobile, accessible and transportable? We tell ourselves to be creative and think out of the box, so why not work out of a restrictive boxy immobile space?
*The views expressed by our authors are personal opinions and do not necessarily reflect the views of the CCPA
Please can you reference that reading about the motorhome idea? I have a motorhome that I adore living in, when I can, and I have this past year been thinking about the opportunity it may offer in my counselling services. The area of Manitoba that I live in has an outlying area of smaller towns and communities that lack in accessible mental health support services, so it has occurred to me that I could address this gap in some way. However, I question how cost effective the use of a motor home would be as opposed to paying rent and utilities for a conventional space, I suppose. A business model would be the best way to begin ?
Grateful that I am not the only one with this idea!
Laura Jeanne Thompson