The Session Environment

Sessions will run more smoothly if your environment establishes a safe space. The environment establishes a frame around the session.

The first thing to settle about the session environment is what kind of place you are going to be in. The most common choices are:

- In a room in your home
- In a separate office you rent for yourself
- In a shared office where receptionist and other office services are available
- As a complete processing center with staff members
- In the office of a doctor or other professional who refers clients to you
- In the homes of your clients

Most process facilitators do sessions out of their home. That is the most convenient and the cheapest. But it is sometimes not easy to control noise and so forth, if you are not living alone. But you don't have to travel anywhere, your family members can let the next people in and entertain them while you finish up with a client. Some people worry that it might not seem professional to do sessions in your home, but really most clients don't mind. Or they even enjoy it better. Preferably you would use a separate room of your house as the session room. It can double as an office in general also.

If you rent an office by yourself you might make your setup look more professional. You can set up the space exclusively for processing. You might rent your office in a business district where it is easy to get to or very visible. If you do transformational processing for a living and you have people scheduled closely together during the day, a separate office might well be worth looking into. But the trouble is first of all the overhead. It will cost you money, without necessarily getting better results from it. And you might need a receptionist to greet people when you are in session.

In many areas you can rent a little office within a larger office setting where there is a receptionist, copy machines, and so forth, shared by a number of people. That can be quite inexpensive and still look very professional. You don't need as much manpower and equipment as if you open an office all by yourself.

If you have other process facilitators to work with, the solution might be to set up an actual center together. That can bring in the synergy of working together and getting things organized. You might then create enough action so that it is worthwhile to have somebody hired to do just office and reception work. And you might have somebody to just do marketing and get in more clients and so forth. If you set it up well, a center can be a successful operation. But you must be aware that there are more "mouths to feed". The income probably still comes out of the processing services you deliver, so more of it will have to be delivered to afford personnel who don't actually do sessions.

You might be lucky and get a good liaison with a chiropractor or other health practitioner who can refer people to you. The doctor might be a client of yours or might just need to have somebody to refer people to who needs mental/emotional work. At any rate, you might be able to collect some appointments together and then do the sessions in that clinical setting. That might be more pleasant for the clients to be in the same setting where they see their doctor and there will be fewer questions about what it really is that you do.

Finally you could also do sessions in your clients' homes. That saves you the trouble of setting up a room. But that means that you have to travel there, and you would waste considerable time doing that. And working with somebody in their own home has both pros and cons. It is probably a more enturbulating environment, reminding the client of all sorts of issues. That might allow you to really get to their close-to-home issues, but it might also hinder that you take up anything else.

I currently do sessions out of my house and once per week out of a medical clinic. I have before had my own office with a store front, and earlier I was working in a center. When I had my own office, the main benefit was for my own self-confidence. I felt better about what I was doing. There was a storefront with a sign, people would come into a reception area with chairs in the waiting area. My office was used only for processing, I had nice certificates on the wall, everything looked professional. It didn't really do anything for the results I got, and I didn't particularly get more clients based on it. And it cost me $700 per month in overhead. So, eventually I decided that I didn't need it anymore.

The session room should needless to say be a separate room with doors that can be closed. You would want to be alone with the client, free from outside intrusions, and able to talk confidentially.

If the door can be locked so that nobody barges in, that is fine. But be aware that some clients don't like locked doors.

If people outside the door need to know, put a sign on the door saying something like "In Session - Do not disturb". You can make a sign you can turn over to the blank side when you are not in session.

The session room should at least contain two chairs. The client's chair should be comfortable. Not quite so comfortable that she falls asleep. The chair should promote that she is actively involved in the session, but that she has no attention on sitting uncomfortably.

You could also do the session with the client lying down, but it doesn't really serve any processing purpose.

You would of course also want to sit comfortably yourself. Pick a chair that you can sit still in for a long time without discomfort. It might be the same type of chair as the client's.

You might sit across from each other by a table. That is useful for you to keep notes on and to make drawings for the client and so forth. But, if you are not taking constant notes you could probably do fine with a clipboard or just a pad of paper in your hands when necessary.

There would be a box of Kleenexes close to the client's chair. Trust me, there will be use for them. And a trash can to deposit gum and napkins and so forth in.

The room would be decorated in a way that is not distracting to the client, but not boring either. The kind of decor that you yourself would feel comfortable in is probably fine. Just don't put a mirror in front of the client, and don't have a parrot that is fluttering around. It is fine if there is various knick-knack around, that is useful for the client to look at as a grounding process.

If you have any certificates in anything remotely related to the practice of processing, put them on the wall if you can. They show that you are serious about what you do, and they have a suggestive effect. Clients will rarely do more than glance briefly at them, but they will assume that you are a qualified practitioner and not question it.

Anything you can do to create a clean atmosphere helps. You can have air cleaners that take particles out of the air. And there are devices that will neutralize electromagnetic pollution and radiation. That not only makes the client physically feel better, but it also serves to differentiate the session space from the rest of the noisy world. A quiet, safe space where she can open up and change.

You can use the environment as one of your tools. To create major changes it is often useful for the person to be in a somewhat altered state. That is, relaxed and in a space where change seems very possible. If you find it amusing, you could very well promote that by creating a more magical atmosphere. Change the lighting, light candles, wear a hat with weird symbols, or whatever. It is all a matter of personal preference. What matters is the results. If the environment communicates to the client that this is a place to get results, all the better.

The session room should have a comfortable temperature. In the summer you might want to have a fan around, and in the winter a heater, if you need to quickly adjust the temperature.

The client might enjoy getting a glass of water, or a cup of tea.

It would be a good idea to have a bookshelf around with books you wouldn't mind the client knowing about. People will sometimes ask for how they can learn more. Particularly if you get into discussing some of the philosophical basics of processing. Have some books around to refer her to. Or even sell her some books.

If you have some brochures or fliers, have them around. A client might just want a little something to read, or something to give to a friend. Keep a little holder with your business cards around, so that the client can take some. You can write appointments on the back of them, that is a way of spreading them around.

If there are any telephones in the session room, unplug them or turn the sound off.

Overall, just be aware that the environment is part of what makes processing work. A distracting environment might sabotage the session, and a well-designed environment can enhance it. Know that you are in control of the environment, and that you can adjust it to best suit the purposes of the session.



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