The Therapeutic Consulting Association
Salt Lake City, UT

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Announcing The Therapeutic Consulting Association

Dear Colleagues,

This is an open letter to our fellow professionals to formally announce the creation of The Therapeutic Consulting Association.

As we have all seen over the course of many years the evolution of our industry (including behavioral health, specialized education, and clinical interventions) has experienced, and benefited from, a strong trend towards specialization in the schools, programs, and professionals we partner with as we support our clients. This specialization has brought about true advances in clinically sophisticated programming, academic support, and the quality of care throughout the industry, and was in part driven by Therapeutic Consultant's demands for best-practice services rooted in both innovation and outcomes-based research. As Therapeutic Consultants have, in part, been drivers of, and participants in, this development we feel as though now is the time for Therapeutic Consultants and other referring professionals to begin to take our own steps in that direction, collectively. The Therapeutic Consulting Association (TCA) has been envisioned as a vehicle to specifically support Therapeutic Consultants in our specialized field of practice. Our goal is to create a living, breathing organization made for and by Therapeutic Consultants to support collaboration, targeted professional development, outcomes-based research, and ethical guidelines specific to the field of Therapeutic Consulting.

All this being said, we need you to help make this bold step into the future of our industry a reality, and are actively seeking your participation. As a fledgling organization, we recognize that it is only through our collective participation and collaboration that this venture can effectively take flight. As Therapeutic Consultants, we value a life-long-learning approach to our chosen profession, and understand the vital importance feedback and transparency play in our work. We also believe that same commitment to feedback and transparency will be vital to the creation of this new group, and are coming to you, directly, to open that dialogue.

We have formulated a working Vision, Mission, and Values Statement, and are in the process of forming a 501c3 to house and support the ongoing development of the TCA. Our goal in sending this letter out to you (please feel free to share this correspondence with your colleagues) is to inspire a dialogue and further action in this direction. To that end, we would like to invite you to the unveiling/formation of the TCA during our session on the morning of Thursday, February 5, (please check the program guide for final time/place) at the National NATSAP Conference in Nashville, TN. Our aim is to utilize this Roundtable Discussion to collaborate with you in solidifying the vision, mission, and values of the TCA and to further its growth.

We also want to move towards having a TCA Training Event in Salt Lake City, UT, in April of 2015, as a stand-alone resource for Therapeutic Consultants, to be tied in with optional program visits upon the completion of our inaugural meeting.

We want to be clear that we believe it is vital to have other voices as part of the process, as we do not profess to have the answers, but have rather committed to holding the space for the questions to be asked and the solutions to be created and shared, but this will only happen with your help. While there is currently a working vision and mission, we want and expect your feedback. The goal of this professional organization is not to compete with IECA, but rather to collaborate with all of our industry partners while also providing targeted support for Therapeutic Consultants in an intentional and specialized manner, with a focus on education, research, and ethical best practices in our unique field.

Please read through the FAQs, and feel free to reach out to any and all of us with your interest and/or questions. We hope this serves as simply the first phrase in an enriching dialogue through which we will all grow and learn and share, for many years to come.

Kindest Regards

Shayna Abraham, MA
Jenney Wilder, MS.Ed., IECA
Jake Weld, M. Ed.

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FAQs

1. What is the TCA?
The TCA is the Therapeutic Consultant Association, and it is envisioned as a 501c3 non-profit Professional Organization for Therapeutic Consultants and related referring professionals.

2. What is your working Vision, Mission, and Values Statement?
As we said, these are simply starting points, working documents for which we're actively seeking your feedback. Here's what we've got so far:

Vision Statement
Quality Care (Placements?) Through Collaboration and Education
&/or
Defining the Quality of Therapeutic Consulting through collaboration, education and ethical standards

Mission Statement
The Therapeutic Consulting Association (TCA) is a professional organization for Therapeutic Consultants and other referring professionals dedicated to advancing the efficacy of Therapeutic Consulting through collaboration, training (or education?), outcomes-based research, ethical conduct, and best practice(s?).

Values

Kids and Families First (Client Focused)	Research-Driven
Collaboration	Best-Practice Driven
Confidentiality	Honest Reflection
Compassion	Transparency
Professionalism	Lifelong Learning
Ethical Standards, Practices, and Accountability

3. How will joining the TCA help my business?
That question is best answered by how effectively we can all collaborate to create a meaningful and vibrant professional organization to help support and inform our specialized work. Early ideas include trainings on current clinical research and trials, business best practices (i.e. billing or marketing), supporting families transitioning out of transitions, and other topics we hope you'll bring to the table.

4. Who can be a member of the TCA?
Actually, no one - yet. We're still in the earliest stages of forming our identity, and hope to have the 501c3 up and running soon, so we can focus on filling out our Board and then creating membership criteria. That said, as we've envisioned it, the TCA will be specifically targeted to serving and supporting Therapeutic Consultants and related referring professionals. We're still working on fleshing out the details of who, exactly, that is, how membership will be decided, whether or not there will be a tiered approach to membership based upon professional experience, and a host of other factors. Got an opinion? Join early and have your voice at the table!

4.1a. So if you have to be a Therapeutic Consultant to join the TCA, how does Jake Weld fit into the picture?
You're right, Jake is definitely not a consultant. We asked Jake to join us early on to provide some "program perspective" and help guide a strategic planning process. In keeping with our values of transparency and collaboration, we're hoping Jake will stay on as a Board Member, and we're actively seeking out other founding Board Members from among Therapeutic Consultants, Related Referring Professionals, Programs, and a wide array of skilled and talented professionals from other industries. Want to join? Let us know!

4.1b. Speaking of founding members, what do you think gives you the right to found, or even lead, this organization?
Actually, nothing. We are simply responding to a growing trend toward specialization within our industry, and we've taken the formal step of creating an intentional space for Therapeutic Consultants and referring professionals to begin to have a targeted dialogue. We not only know we don't have all the answers, but we're not even convinced we're asking all the right questions, which is why we're opening the organization up to Therapeutic Consultants who want to embrace collaboration and lifelong learning in order to form and inform a professional organization focused on our profession's specific needs. This isn't Ours, it's Yours. We've simply taken the first steps to create the space for this idea, and dialogue, to take root and grow.

5. How do you see TCA's relationship to either IECA or NATSAP?
We greatly value and respect both organizations, and are grateful for their ongoing contributions to our industry. We certainly don't envision TCA as a competing organization to IECA, but rather an auxiliary, ancillary, or parallel professional organization wholly designed to serve our specialized niche, in which many specialized consultants will gain value from membership with both, or multiple, organizations. Similarly, we value NATSAP's contributions to our industry, but also recognize that NATSAP is focused on providing a venue and voice for Therapeutic Schools and Programs, where-as TCA is designed to serve the unique needs of Therapeutic Consultants.

6. I'm already going to too many conferences, paying dues to too many organizations, and traveling for so many tours. How am I supposed to fit another organization into my schedule and budget, and still have time for my clients?
We recognize the varied, and expensive, strains on your wallet and schedule. Our goal is to create, with your input and support, an inexpensive professional organization focused on providing real value to its members through education, research, collaboration, and the formation of ethical best practices. We envision a relatively small organization that will help you perform your specialized career even better, more effectively, with better outcomes, and with greater profitability. Our goal is to create a value-added experience for our members without adding a lengthy, or expensive, event to your busy schedule. To that end, we are currently considering a short and inexpensive CEU training event which can be coupled with organized or independent program tours to maximize your travel, your continuing education dollars, and your valuable time. We're in the initial stages of planning TCA's first event in Salt Lake City, in April of 2015, (final dates coming soon!) and other venues like Asheville, NC, New England, Northern Idaho, and Boulder, CO, are also on the list for down the road.

7. Speaking of Programs, how do Programs fit into TCA?
TCA recognizes and values the vital role Programs play in our industry, as without them serving clients Therapeutic Consulting would be infinitely more difficult! That said, we are striving towards creating a specialized professional organization focused on providing collaboration, education, research, and support targeted specifically toward Therapeutic Consultants and Referring Professionals, and we are intentionally keeping TCA focused on that goal. For now, we're confining our program collaborations to looking for strategic partnerships with Programs in the geographic region of our Training Events, as a way to help Therapeutic Consultants maximize their travel time and dollars.

We are also looking for an additional Program representative on our Board of Directors, and hope that we may call on some program professionals to serve as instructors, facilitators, or organizers for upcoming CEU/training events. Any master marketing web guru out there want to teach us how to kick our googly-SEO into overdrive, or a clinician want to give us the skinny on discerning a CBT-wannabe from a DBT-rockstar with five targeted questions, or a CPA ready to tackle the nuances of a lifetime vs. per-year vs. per-placement billing structures, creating the ethical sliding scale, or helping us figure out whether to use the 1040 Schedule C EZ vs. the 1040 Schedule C with Form 8829 deductions for our home office? Call us and let us know!

8. You've piqued my interest, but just setting off in a new direction or focusing on specialization doesn't make this the right thing to do. Do you have industry support and, more importantly, support from some of the founders and standard-bearers of our profession?
Yes, we believe we do. We've already had targeted conversations with many established and well-respected consultants, program representatives, and strategic industry partners, and while there are only three names on this letter, many more have expressed support for this idea and are already along for the ride. Some of the founding members of our industry have already lent their eyes, ears, minds, and even names to the creation of the TCA. Feel free to contact us for the full list, or to get your name on it. Right now, all that's missing is you, and we look forward to collaborating with you to ensure that TCA stays affordable, relevant, and targeted to serving our specialized profession.

9. Count me in. What do I do now?
First of all - let us know you're interested by responding/contacting Jenney, Shayna, or Jake. Second - come join us for our session at NATSAP in Nashville, TN, on February 5th, to continue this discussion in person, and block off sometime in April to join us in Salt Lake City, UT, for our inaugural training event and program tours. Finalized April dates will be announced soon.

10. My travel schedule is already booked out for the year, but I'm interested in being a part of the TCA conversation. Is there a way I can still join the discussion?
Absolutely. Please don't hesitate to contact any or all of us for more information. We're actively working to create a mailing list for TCA, we're excited about providing the space for these discussions to occur, and we know that it's through your participation that the collaborative creation process will reach its maximum potential. We welcome your voice at the table.

11. I'm: Happy with my practice just as it is; Too busy; A lone wolf; Unable to see how TCA could help me, my business, my clients, the industry; Unsure of what my boss/partners/colleagues/programs would think if I joined TCA; Etc.
Fair enough. We're not here to push, and we understand that the TCA won't be a fit for everyone, as everyone's practice and situation is unique. But to be fair - you've made it this far, and you're still reading! Even though you might not want to join as a founding member we still welcome you to join us in Nashville, and we also welcome your confidential feedback via email or phone, as your thoughts will inevitably help challenge and guide us in directions that could yet prove meaningful to you, to others, or to the industry as a whole. Our only request is that in the spirit of open and respectful professional dialogue that we're provided the opportunity to engage in the discussion. If you'd like to stay on the mailing list, just let us know - and keep your eyes peeled for changes or additions as TCA grows and evolves. Let's keep the dialogue open!