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Definitions for your Therapist Onboarding Profile

Please see below the following definitions to support you in building your Layla profile.
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Complexity

Mild/Moderate:

Common presenting Issues:

  • Straightforward cases of depression, anxiety, stress, and life and interpersonal issues (e.g., transitions, relationships, loss, etc.).
  • More complex issues that are currently under control (e.g., psychoses that are stabilized and treated with medication, history of eating disorders or addiction, etc.)
  • Single-incident trauma (single trauma exposure, may result in PTSD)
  • Disordered eating behaviours (e.g., skipping meals, occasional bingeing and purging)
  • Addictions (*if inpatient treatment is not needed)
  • Active substance use that’s not interfering with life functioning (e.g., binge-drinking or cocaine use on the weekends, smoking marijuana daily)
  • Chronic pain

Impact on functioning:

  • Mild or none to moderate
  • Difficulties in relationships
  • Difficulties or withdrawal from normal activities (may include difficulty leaving the house)
  • Time lost to symptoms (e.g., hours spent worrying, hours spent on checking behaviours, hours spent in bed, missed days of work, etc.)

Risk:

  • Passive Suicidal Ideation (thoughts that one would rather be dead, wish the pain would stop, etc.)
  • Passive/Active Suicidal Ideation (thoughts of specific ways to kill self, sometimes wanting to die, no specific plan or immediate intent)
  • Passive aggressive ideation (e.g., thoughts of harming others or getting into physical fights without intent, wishing harm on someone without intent to cause it themselves)
  • Superficial self harm (cutting not requiring medical attention, scratching, hitting self, etc.)
  • Risk behaviours may include increased substance use, more risky sexual behaviours, increased spending, etc. but none of them should have serious negative consequences

Complex:

Please check off complex if you feel comfortable seeing clients with some of the following presentations (you do not need to feel comfortable treating all)

Common presenting Issues:

  • Personality disorders
  • Treatment-resistant Depression (have tried multiple providers, multiple medications, over several years, nothing has worked, often suicidality)
  • Active diagnosed eating disorders
  • Active addictions (substance or behavioural) with serious negative consequences (e.g., loss of employment, relationships, financial difficulties, etc.)
  • Concurrent disorders (mental illness and problematic substance use)
  • Active Psychoses
  • Dissociative disorders
  • Complex trauma (multiple exposures, generally originating in childhood, lasting effects, may also include diagnoses like PTSD and BPD)

Impact on functioning:

  • Serious impact
  • Serious relationship concerns (experiencing abuse, abusing partner, partner threatening separation as a result of symptoms, etc.)
  • Full or serious withdrawal from normal activities (unable to work, unable to leave house, not able to take care of self/problems with hygiene, social isolation, etc.)
  • Serious consequences due to symptoms (loss of employment/kicked out of school, losing housing, losing relationships, hospitalizations, arrests, etc.)

Risk:

  • Active Suicidal Ideation (plan and intent)
  • Active homicidal ideation or serious intent to harm others
  • Previous suicide attempts
  • Self harm requiring medical treatment (cutting requiring stitches, food restriction requiring hospitalisation, etc.)
  • Engaging in dangerous behaviours (driving while intoxicated, using unsafe levels or combinations of substances, unprotected sex with multiple partners, criminal behaviours, getting into physical fights, etc.)
  • Untreated mania or psychosis (may endorse auditory or visual hallucinations, high energy despite insomnia, impulsive behaviours like serious overspending or risk-taking, paranoia, incoherence, etc.)

Areas that require specialized knowledge to treat (not extensive list):

  • Addictions
  • Autism Spectrum Disorder/other developmental disorders
  • Eating Disorders
  • Sexual Dysfunction
  • Trauma

Therapy Approach:

Directive Approach:

  • Takes a more active lead in facilitating the session guided by treatment protocols, skill-building, etc.
  • Talks a good amount during the session
  • More structured (may include agenda, skill-building, taking up homework, etc)
  • More actively solution- and action-based
  • CBT and DBT would generally fall into this category

Passive Approach:

  • Lets the client lead
  • Does not talk as much in session
  • Less structure to the therapy session
  • More exploratory and introspective in nature
  • Psychodynamic approaches would generally fall in this category

Primary Area of Clinical Interest

This describes the therapist’s main area of interest, experience, and competency i.e., the types of presenting issues the therapist most wants to work with and does their best work with. In order to be in this category, the therapist needs to have significant experience and success supporting clients with these issues and training in modalities and their use in working with these issues.

Secondary Area of Clinical Interest

This describes the issues that the therapist is competent treating but that don’t fall in their main interests/competencies. They may often be comorbid with the therapist’s primary areas of interest. This issue should not be the main one the client is looking for support with but if the client also mentions this issue, the therapist should be okay with it being present as well and comfortable addressing it as it comes up in treatment. If this issue is primary but marked as secondary on a therapist’s profile, a Care Coordinator must confirm fit with the therapist before offering this therapist to the client.

Primary Treatment Model(s)

This describes the treatment model(s) that a therapist is most comfortable using. To be primary, a therapist should have either a certification in this model or have done significant and/or multiple trainings in it. A therapist should feel comfortable treating various presenting issues through the framework of this treatment model and should be adept at delivering the model’s therapeutic interventions. For protocolized models (e.g., DBT-structured, CBT-structured, CPT, EMDR), a therapist must be able to deliver the protocolized version of the model to add it to their profile (e.g., do not add CPT if you have done a CPT training but do not feel comfortable using the protocol with a client).

Secondary Treatment Model(s)

This describes the treatment model(s) that a therapist has done some trainings in and uses as supplements to their primary therapeutic frameworks. They may teach some skills from or employ some interventions from these treatment models but do not structure their treatment around their principles/protocols.

Structured

The therapist is fully trained in the modality and is able to apply the skills with a high degree of fidelity. The therapist structures their session using this model of therapy and uses that lens to work through the client’s presenting concerns. If this is a protocolized approach, the therapist feels comfortable using this modality in a protocolized way.

Informed

The therapist has training in the modality, and can pick and choose the skills as needed for the situation that a client is bringing to the session. The therapist may be in the process of being more formally trained and can explain a variety of skills from this model of therapy and how to use/implement them to clients clearly.


Taking Clients vs. Not Taking Clients

Taking Clients: You are available to schedule a first session within 1-3 weeks. Additionally, you commit to promptly receiving and responding to new client requests within 24 hours of receiving the email.
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‍Not Taking Clients: Your appointment slots are consistently full and you are unable to accommodate new clients within the next 3 weeks. During this period, you are unreachable or unable to respond to New Client Request emails within the usual 24-hour timeframe.

Note: Kindly avoid changing your status from taking clients to not taking clients on a daily basis. Consistency in your status helps maintain clear communication for client connections!