Frequently Asked Questions

In very general terms, you can expect to be treated with respect, dignity, and curiosity; to receive questions with the option to decline answering; transparency and honesty, and that the conversation will progress in alignment with Storytelling Rights.

In more specific terms, you might be asked at the beginning of a conversation if there's anything you might want to tackle in the space, or if you'd like to see where the conversation leads you. Your practitioner is more of a journey companion with different things in their knapsack than an 'expert' who can tell you what's wrong just by looking at you.

Moreover, you can expect collaboration to be a through-line in a conversation. If something doesn't sit right, you can expect that if you it bring up to your practitioner, they will address your concern respectfully, provide some context (if relevant), and collaborate on an altered course or repair.

Groundfire is a queer narrative group practice, and our practitioners are 2SLGBTQIA+ community members as well as practitioners. This social location fundamentally informs our work! All narrative practitioners who offer therapeutic conversations under Groundfire practice from a Narrative Therapy and Community Work ethic and theoretical framework.

If you are wondering about what topics or problems we specialize in, it would probably be most accurate (and pithy) to say that "we work with people, not problems." That said, we do each have our distinct affinities and styles of practice under the same ethical and theoretical umbrella—check out our bios to get a better idea of lived experience and areas of interest.

If you are curious about what exactly Narrative Therapy and Community Work is, you can head over to our What is Narrative Therapy page or visit the folks at The Dulwich Centre (who've been at this a lot longer than we have!).

If you meet with one of our practitioners and you're not feeling like it could be the start of a solid therapeutic relationship, that's not uncommon! You've got options.

If you'd like to book intro calls with more than one (all, perhaps) of our available practitioners to see if you resonate with someone else, we welcome that.

If you'd like to look further afield (maybe you're looking for a specific lived experience or skillset that none of us have), we're happy to support you in connecting with another practitioner.

If you're recognizing that narrative therapy (or the way we do narrative therapy) isn't feeling lucky, we can probably point you in a more fruitful direction for what you're looking for.

The point is, you are not stuck with any of us. We firmly believe in supporting folks in finding the resonance and experience they're looking for and needing, whatever that looks like.

As much as some of us stay close to home, running into each other can be fairly common, especially in smaller or close-knit communities.

Our practice is to take cues from you in social situations. If you are comfortable with saying hello in public, we are honoured to reciprocate. If you would rather not be acknowledged, we also respect that.

If your practitioner sees you in public, you might expect a glance of recognition (or not, if we're oblivious) but they will not initiate a conversation out of respect for your privacy, confidentiality, and consent.

The short answer: Yes, except in some very specific circumstances.

Before your first full-length conversation with your practitioner begins, we'll ask you to review our informed consent & confidentiality agreement and, if you do consent, sign it.

"Informed consent" means you fully understand what you are agreeing to by having a therapeutic conversation with a GCCW practitioner. These forms are pretty standard and required for most counselling relationships.

In that agreement, we are legally bound to keep our conversations with you confidential. The legal exceptions to this rule are as follows:

• If information you share leads your practitioner to suspect that a child or vulnerable person is being, or is at risk of being abused, neglected or harmed.

• If you (the client) report imminent threat of harm to yourself or someone else.

• In the event of a court-order or investigation where we are legally required to provide this information.

Other potential interactions with confidentiality include practitioners accessing supervision to ensure their clients are receiving well-rounded care (no identifiable information will be shared in this instance).