COVID-19 UPdate April 22, 2020

There are many things that are not cancelled in this day of social distancing…kindness, sunshine, music, and smiles.

One other thing that is not cancelled: Conexus Counselling.

We remain open.

We are cautious but not giving into fear.

We are extremely vigilant but not panicking.

Continuing to see clients and continuing regular routine is the right thing to do right now—but we move forward wisely in line with what officials have suggested. We are an essential service as outlined by the province of Manitoba, so we remain open to serve Manitobans who need counselling services.

We work in mental health and we remain available to our clients. We believe we can be wise and effectively work with clients without increasing risk to them or the general public.

Our Smith St. location is currently not offering “in person” sessions. However, all clients that see therapists at our Smith St. location can and are encouraged to continue therapy via video. Our Pembina office remains open to seeing clients with policies and physical space aligned to comply with provincial regulations.

In person therapy is offered with the following understanding:

1. We ask you to not attend our office for a session if: you feel ill, have a cough elevated temperature.
2. If you have been travelling out of province, or for any other reason, fall into the category where you are advised to self-isolate, please don’t come to our offices for an in-person appointment. Use the video option instead
3. Our therapists will wash/sanitize their hands and the iPads that we use with clients in-between each session. We will clean the debit key pad in-between each use.
4. We ask clients to wash their hands for 20 seconds before session, and to wash them again after their session. Signs have been posted as a reminder.
5. Clients will not touch the doorknobs in our offices. Our waiting room doors are open and the therapists will open and close the therapy rooms.
6. There will be no physical contact between therapist and clients. We are practicing social distancing. To facilitate this, half the chairs from the waiting room have been removed allowing for distance between persons before appointments.
7. Magazines and books have been removed from our waiting room to remove items that can be touched by multiple people.
8. NEW: We will continuously create circumstances where each person is 2 meters distant from others at all times. We ask you to join us in respecting mandated social distancing. For example, we will not hand you the appointment card, we will place it on a desk and back away for you to approach it to pick it up.

If you are not able to attend therapy, or choose to not attend therapy, or your therapist is not seeing clients face to face in our office, we will see you remotely via secure video or phone sessions.

We have telephone and videotherapy options:

1. We have successfully launched videotherapy options using a site specifically designed for online psychotherapy: thera-LINK. If you choose videotherapy, Melanie will send you an email outlining the very simple registration process that will occur via the link sent by thera-LINK. You will then receive an email giving you the link for your session. Alternatively, you can log in for your session on the login page. Videotherapy has worked very successfully for us since we launched it in March. Payment for the session will be received via the credit card on file. Although this may feel unusual initially, very quickly it becomes comfortable. The technology has been working extremely well.
2. Alternatively, you may choose phone therapy, at a number that you provide to us.
3. Telephone and videotherapy is different than face to face sessions, and your therapist will explain a few things in order to maximize its effectiveness at the beginning of the session. Frankly, it is “second best” compared to in-person sessions, but it is infinitely better than no session at all! 🙂 We may have to communicate more overtly about what you are feeling, or you may ask what a therapist intended to say as subtle cues are easily missed on video.

Given the multiple options available to clients, our cancellation policies are now again in place.

We take both your physical health and your mental health very seriously, and it is in light of both that we continue to offer services to our clients. This situation will be re-evaluated and changed as needed.

We invite your cooperation as together we work to protect each other and the vulnerable folk in our community.

Thank you.

Carolyn Klassen
Founder, Conexus Counselling