Safe Office

One of the topics at the mid-winter convention of the National Guild of Hypnotists this year will be "safe offices." What is meant by that is that practitioners are increasingly finding they have to take steps to protect themselves from attack or other problems by emotionally disturbed clients or their family members.

When I first heard about this topic I felt it surely did not apply to me. I've practiced from a home office for twenty years and never once has a client, or a member of the client's family, failed to be respectful of my home or my privacy. That was then.

Regretfully, one of my adult clients came to my office recently accompanied by an adult family member who indicated a desire to stay in my waiting area and read. No problem.

However, once that person was alone he went for a tour of my home. Claiming to be looking for a restroom, he enter darkened areas of the building and even explored my basement. He found his way into my dojo and played with my martial arts equipment, and apparently sorted through my wife's underwear that was sitting in a basket by the washing machine.

Yeah. We're creeped out by this too.

So now there will have to be changes. We will keep areas of the building locked. We will buy a safe, and my wife will keep her jewelry in it. Prescription medications will be kept in locked cabinets. We'll install motion-activated web cameras that will allow me to see on my computer screen who comes in the front door, or if someone has entered a private area.

We can do these things. But what has been subtracted is the feeling of safety Lindsay and I have always had in our home, and the feeling of relaxed trust we have always enjoyed between my clientele and ourselves.

I'm going to miss that.