Educational Telecoaching Agreement and Memo of Understanding

This document constitutes a contract between us (the "Agreement").  Please read it carefully and raise any questions or concerns that you have before you sign it.

Services:

The services that we provide are individual educational telecoaching sessions, each 90 minutes in length, for the purpose of helping you to understand, control, and eventually, stop your overshopping. 

The services we provide are limited to education and coaching regarding overshopping. Education and coaching are not medical, mental health or any other type of health service.  They are not psychotherapy or mental health counseling.  No diagnosis or treatment of, or advice regarding, any medical or mental health condition or illness is offered.  Overshopping may be a sign of an emotional or mental disorder, sometimes of a serious nature. Education and coaching cannot substitute for, and are not alternatives to, medical or other healthcare diagnosis and treatment when a medical or mental health condition or illness is present.  Individuals are advised to seek diagnosis, treatment and advice regarding medical or mental health conditions or illnesses from physicians, psychotherapists, and other licensed healthcare professionals.

As your educational coaches, our job is to help you use information, skills, and strategies that you will acquire in doing the Stopping Overshopping Program and help you to stay motivated and focused on making and maintaining the changes you create.  We will support, encourage, teach, and help you to "stay on track" as you move toward your vision and goals.

Requirements:

Our curriculum is the book To Buy or Not to Buy: Why We Overshop and How to Stop and the companion Shopping Journals, which have been sent to you or will be sent to you, within three business days of receiving your pre-paid registration for the group. You will be reading all of the text and doing all of the written work that is part of the program. This is likely to take you between thirty and forty-five minutes a day and it’s of the utmost importance, both for your own progress and for the group to function well, that you make this a major priority.  We may also suggest some additional reading material. In the group, we work through the entire book, but this additional reading will be optional.

Your attendance at the group is extremely important. Your commitment is not just to yourself and your progress, but also to the rest of the group and their progress.  Make sure you can make the commitment to attend at least 9 of the 12 sessions, and hopefully, more.

Format:

Each session is a 90 minute in-person meeting.

For those who wish to share their e-mail addresses, we will create a Yahoo group and encourage you to e-mail the group between sessions to ask questions, get support, and share assignments.

Structure:

Please plan to attend each session and be on time. (If you are unable to be at one of the sessions, please notify us in advance. We’ll give you our e-mail addresses and ask that you send us a joint e-mail.)

This interactive, focused, and supportive group is a weave of new knowledge and new experiences. Each meeting you'll be getting new material to work with and learn from. You'll also be setting a personal goal. You may be pleasantly surprised to find out how much you're actually enjoying these supportive assignments and setting your goals!

During each meeting, we begin with a check-in from each group member so that the whole group has a sense of where each member is in his or her process. We'll discuss the reading and the exercises so that you'll reinforce what you've learned and be able to apply it to the critical moment. We’ll encourage you to share both your difficulties and your successes, to give your journey of self-discovery a forward thrust and allow others in the group to benefit. Then, we'll introduce the new material for the next session so you're prepared to get the most out of it and to take your next steps. At the end of the session, you'll set a personal goal to work on until the next session as a way of staying focused on the ultimate goal of stopping overshopping.

Session Dates and Time:

Our group sessions are 90 minutes long and are scheduled for 6:00 p.m. EDT on Thursday evenings beginning November 5, 2015. Dates:

November 5, 12, 19
December  3, 10, 17
January  7, 14, 21, 28
February 3, 10

Confidentiality:

We will protect the privacy of your communications with me to the fullest extent consistent with the law.  There may be some occasions when we may be required to release information about your coaching with us without your permission, but such situations usually involve emergencies and occur very rarely.

Feedback:

If, at any time, we do or say something that you find upsetting or doesn't feel right, please bring it up as soon as possible.  We am committed to having an open, fair, and respectful relationship.

We anticipate a fruitful educational coaching relationship, and look forward to working with you.