Peer Consultation Group for Therapists

Why should I join a peer consultation group?

An essential, not a luxury

There is a growing consensus that we ought to think of peer consultation groups not as a luxury but as an essential part of the professional life of mental health practitioners. Since 2002, the American Psychological Association has recommended peer consultation groups for all practicing psychologists, calling them an ethical necessity.

Some countries are ahead of the United States in recognizing the essential nature of peer consultation groups. The Australian Psychological Society, for example, has been mandating 10 hours of peer consultation as a condition of licensure since 2020.

We can expect, in the future, that more mental health organizations will follow suit in recognizing and advocating the importance of consultation groups for therapists.

Benefits of peer consultation

A peer consultation group for therapists can be thought of as essential for a number of reasons. They:

• provide support with difficult clinical issues
• help to expand clinical skills
• reduce burnout and isolation
• helps with the challenges of running a business
• keep-up to-date with developments in the field

We’ll take a look at these one by one.

Provides support with difficult clinical issues

Peer consultation groups are an excellent way to receive support for difficult clinical issues. For the majority of mental health practitioners, regular supervision ends once we receive our licenses. We tend to think of this as a success — and it is! By the time we are licensed, we probably don’t need regular, structured supervision anymore.

But even the most seasoned practitioners know that throughout our professional career we will be met with a stream of novel clinical scenarios. No one has seen it all. Having a private peer consultation group in which we can gain additional perspectives on clinical problem-solving can be an excellent way to make sure that our clinical interventions remain ethically sound and clinically sharp throughout our working years.

Helps to expand clinical skills

All licensed mental health professionals are required to engage in continuing education. This often comes in the form of structured curriculums, whether in-person or online. And this is indeed an important and valuable way to maintain and expand our clinical skills.

But we should not overlook the value of peer learning as well — learning from the individual experiences of our peers and then applying their insights to our own experiences.

Reduces burnout and isolation

Mental health practitioners are keenly aware of the negative impact that loneliness can have on the well-being of our clients. But sometimes the same practitioners can feel at a loss when experiencing loneliness as a result of our own work. There are a number of reasons why therapists can feel isolated or lonely.

Many therapists act as sole proprietors, essentially operating as a ‘business of one,’ meaning we take on some very emotionally intense work without the benefit of a built-in community of coworkers to provide a supportive touchstone throughout the weeks. Even for therapists who work in group practices, many group practices do not have the infrastructure to foster the kind of connection between therapists that can reduce the isolation of working ‘in a vacuum’.

Then there is the simple fact that whatever the type of practice we find ourselves in, the long hours of working one-on-one with clients can be emotionally draining. Research has shown that practitioner isolation can be a contributing factor to stress and burnout, while participation in peer consultation groups can address both of these concerns, fostering the practitioner’s feeling of community and connection, as well as motivation and resilience. A peer consultation group is an excellent way to ensure we are able to fulfill our social needs in our professional lives.

Helps with the challenges of running a business

Running a business can be mentally and emotionally exhausting. When I was setting up my practice, I remember feeling overwhelmed when the magnitude of the undertaking really sunk in. When you’re self-employed, you don’t have the luxury of a marketing department, an IT department, an accounting department, et. al. You are the marketing department, the IT department, and the accounting department. All of the decisions you have to make– even seemingly small ones — can quickly amount to decision fatigue.

This may be most pronounced when starting a private practice, but can re-emerge throughout the course of our practice. Our accountants retire, we decide to switch webhosts for our website, etc. And it’s up to us to solve these problems. Or at the least, it’s up to us to figure out how to delegate these problems to others.

A peer consultation group can be an excellent resource for picking the brains of fellow clinicians about these issues, to learn about solutions, and as a source of referrals for relevant professional services.

Keep up-to-date with developments in the field

Important developments in our industry can sneak up on us — or even pass us by entirely — if we become too isolated in our practice. Professional organizations, licensing boards, and insurance companies roll out new policies with regularity.

Long work days, the constant inflow of paperwork, challenging clinical issues — these are all things that can so absorb us that we miss these important developments. But when we plug into a peer consultation group for therapists, we will be much more likely to stay abreast of the major developments in our field. When it comes to keeping up with information, there’s strength in numbers.

A Note on Confidentiality

One of the most important things to keep in mind when seeking a peer consultation group, whether online or in person, is that HIPPA applies as much in these groups as it does anywhere else. Therapists should not disclose confidential or identifying information about clients to peers (or anyone else) except when necessary to protect health and life of clients under the provisions outlined by HIPPA

Credits

Photo by Brooke Cagle on Unsplash