Long ago, I started my life in the "mind helper" field as a Zen Mindfulness teacher. In my early years I also studied and practiced Morita Therapy, a Japanese approach that insisted on client silence. These were tried and true methods.
As I grew more "into" my own development of Clinical Affectology and its variants, my natural skepticism for traditional and New Age therapies revived itself. My self-questioning always ran to "does this really work?" and "am I on the right path here?" I decided to live my career out in constant testing of myself, my theories and my work. In 1993, I started and developed the system that is now called the ESR system - the Efficacy Study Research system - that is now operated by the International Guild of Affectologists. The history attached to the ESR system is important to lend security for your overview of whether Clinical Affectology is a valuable and efficacious "product" for you. _The Affect System of Client Feedback ...
Its HISTORICAL Importance _Voluntary, anonymous, confidential
and Much More Accurate _
... UNIQUE ONLY TO THE AFFECTOLOGY NETWORK ...
During Clinical Affectology
therapy, practitioners usually explain** the importance and simplicity of the
Efficacy Study Research system and ask each individual client if they wish to
participate.
About four to five months after completing sessions, Practitioners send a brief email reminder to you and alerting that the International Guild of Affectologists (IGA) will soon send a questionnaire - as explained in the sessions. Within a week or two, you will receive an email from IGA containing the questionnaire. This completed questionnaire is then sent by 'reply email' back to IGA (Canberra). In this way the completed forms are kept strictly confidential and anonymous. The information gained from these simple questionnaires is collated by IGA into statistical data and anonymous comments. IGA is the body responsible for monitoring and ensuring the professional standards of its registered practitioners and the effectiveness of Clinical Affectology overall. It sends participating practitioners regular statistical reports that indicate the level of success being experienced by their ex-clients and any relevant, but of course anonymous, comments on their performance. This important data more accurately shows how successful ex-clients have been over time and is used to monitor the professional standards of each registered practitioner. It also provides centralized statistics on just how effective Clinical Affectology is overall and is the basis for the claim that this approach to therapy really does work. Below are some of the more commonly asked questions about the ESR system. We invite you to read through them if you want further information. What is the efficacy study research (ESR) system exactly? Immediate in-session client feedback (in ANY therapeutic approach) and therapist judgments are very often inaccurate, so the ESR system provides a method of research that allows us to more accurately measure just how successful this therapy is over time. Ex-clients are only asked for feedback after about six months has elapsed from the end of their therapy sessions. Do I have to participate in the ESR system? Participation is strictly on a voluntary basis; however after the system has been fully explained we find that clients are more than comfortable with being involved. What happens to my name and email address after I've given it to my practitioner? Your details are sent to IGA. These details include ONLY your first name and email address. This is the sequence:-
Who runs it? The International Guild of Affectologists (IGA) is the research, monitoring and licensing body for Clinical Affectology in Australia. Its role is to gather and relay feedback information in the form of tabulated data, in order to assess the effectiveness of Clinical Affectology overall and to monitor the professional standards of its registered and licensed practitioners. IGA provides this feedback data to individual practitioners; however any client names attached to the "raw" responses are not revealed to that practitioner. Why do it? Clinical Affectology sessions are just the very beginning of the process for change at subconscious level, therefore Practitioners understand the importance of not 'pressuring' clients for information (success or otherwise), during or straight after therapy. We know that in-session client feedback and therapist judgments are often very inaccurate in determining the long-term results of any therapy. This is why the ESR system is so important in providing feedback on the actual results experienced by Clinical Affectology clients well after the therapy. Because of the private nature of our approach it is the only way practitioners get to see the results of their work. Why is this particular system so special? Some other therapies have been known to conduct short-term research, but none - that we know of - conduct our type of feedback system on a permanent basis. Many therapists of other approaches assume that if patients or clients don't return then they must be 'cured'; but Clinical Affectologists often see clients who have been through many other therapies without success. The previous therapists that some of our clients have seen don't know about this because they don't have any accurate system of client feedback. It is mandatory that all qualified Practitioners must permanently participate in the ESR system in order to maintain qualifications. What does it show? The ESR system tells us about the long-term results you experience after your three sessions. Therapeutic history is full of instances where people have reported feeling 'great, relieved, relaxed' or 'released' soon after the completion of therapy, only to revert to their 'old ways' as time goes by. With Clinical Affectology we don't try to create any temporary euphoria. Sometimes people feel little difference immediately after their sessions, but the subconscious change process they started in therapy has brought about significant, sometimes even miraculous improvement over time. This is important and useful information because it validates the unique and very important privacy aspect of the Clinical Affectology approach. It clearly shows that eventual success doesn't depend on how you feel at the end of your sessions but on what sort of positive results you experience later on, as 'life' tests your deep-seated emotional changes. Why is the questionnaire so brief and simple? This sort of questionnaire gives ex-clients the opportunity to really think back to the personal reasons they went to Clinical Affectology in the first place. "How did I feel back then?", "What was life like?", "What is different and how do I feel now?" Doing this sometimes helps people to notice for the first time any subtle changes that may have taken place gradually but have actually had a big impact on how they feel now. You are the only one that can really judge how successful you've been and sometimes this is hard to describe except as a general sense of improvement. The questionnaire includes a few questions with 'check-boxes' to help people with this and also has an area for general comments. In this area people are free to provide as much detail as they wish about the symptoms they've overcome, what else they've experienced as a result of the therapy and any comments they might wish to make about their practitioner. Who does the ESR system and results help? All of us! It helps you to assess (perhaps) forgotten subtle changes that may have taken place over an extended period. It helps IGA monitor the quality of work of its registered members and conduct developmental practitioner training. And it helps with the continual refinement and improvement of Clinical Affectology that will ultimately benefit future clients. What do you do with the results? IGA uses this confidential and anonymous information to assess the overall effectiveness of Affectology and to monitor the professional standards of registered practitioners. Individual practitioners receive data on a regular basis that only shows:
What if I don't want my therapist to know what I report? Your practitioner does get to see some of what is said in responses, but this is always provided as an anonymous list of general comments; your name does NOT appear on any of the data sent to the practitioner. However if you don't want your practitioner to see your comments at all, just note this prominently on your completed questionnaire - or alternatively, make no comment other than a simple answer to the questions asked. Your feedback is always kept strictly confidential and is very important in helping to monitor the professional standards of Practitioners. What if I DO want my practitioner to know about my personal results? That's fine, but it cannot be under the formal ESR feedback system, as strict control is kept of its neutrality and anonymous nature. You are invited to contact your practitioner directly if you wish to let him or her know. Why all the secrecy, why the anonymity? It's a proven fact that people have a tendency to massage the truth of reporting a little bit (or a lot) depending on several factors. This includes whether they 'liked the therapist' or not, or their own immediate expectations and immediate experiences. This system removes those tendencies because you know that your practitioner will not know that it was you who provided specific feedback. _
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- What's Your Engine 1
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© copyright Ian White 2015