Dear valued client or potential client,
Please take the time to read this e-mail policy both to prevent future misunderstandings before you consider working with me and to give you guidelines regarding communications in between consultations.
‘I’ or ‘me’ refer to Tom Sokolowski of Wisdom Nutrition or an administrator employed by Wisdom Nutrition.
Why e-mails that seem quick to you can take up much of my time
Nutritional therapy and functional medicine are complex and answers to questions are nuanced and often cannot be given in a general way but need to take account of your individual circumstances. For each email, I need to have your file to hand, to refresh myself with all of the case history information and keep a copy on file of all communication. Therefore, the minimum time spent on any single email no matter how short the reply is approximately 15 minutes, which breaks up the attention I need for more focused work.
Why time management is so essential in this work
The level of support I offer in between consultations
With the intention of offering each client the best service that I can, I therefore need to establish this email policy to which we agree at the outset so as not to set inappropriate expectations.
I am unable to support ongoing email exchanges outside of scheduled appointment time and would like to ask you to restrict your e-mail correspondence to only e-mails that are essential, preferably limiting to one e-mail in between consecutive consultations. In the few exceptions where I do offer ongoing e-mail support it will be charged on a pro rata basis, in line with most professions.
Please keep any non-urgent questions until your next appointment or book in for a support call. You may want to compile your questions and send them to me in one e-mail a day or so before your consultation, and this e-mail could also include a short update on your progress if you feel that would be helpful for you.
If for some reason you do need more support in between consultations I recommend booking a support call or a coaching call.
Currently I am leaving paid e-mail support as an option, but only if some good reason arises that makes this format more helpful. Since e-mails take up far more time to communicate the same information, this will also be a more expensive option.
Any support that is offered in between consultations will be focused on how to implement changes suggested during consultations, rather than adding in new dietary, lifestyle and supplement guidelines, since the consultation report is also my record of the recommendations I have made to you.
e-mail support (available only in exceptional cases)
If you will require email support between appointments then time spent replying to each email will be chargeable. You will need to pay for a 60 minute block of my time and I will keep a record of the time spent answering your e-mails using a time tracking ap. When the time reaches 60 minutes, then another invoice will be sent to you in line with the hourly rate.
Support calls and coaching calls and their limitations
Conversations generally take much less time on the phone or on Zoom or Skype, so it is more time effective and cost effective to make a note and ask me at your next consultation or to book a support call or a coaching call.
For more information about support and coaching calls please see https://wisdomnutrition.co.uk/nutritional-therapy-on-skype/ (online or phone clients), https://wisdomnutrition.co.uk/nutritional-therapy-in-london/ (for London clients) or https://wisdomnutrition.co.uk/nutritional-therapy-in-totnes/ (for Totnes clients).
The consultation report is also my record of the advice I have given you and even in paid e-mail support or phone calls I therefore do not give new guidelines, other than to assist you in following the guidelines already specified if you are meeting challenges in so doing. This also allows me a shorter preparation time for your support call, which in turn makes it easier to allocate a time slot for the phone call at relatively short notice.
Questions about your consultation report
I do my best to be clear in my reports, but if you have read the report carefully and I have made some mistake in communicating a recommendation, such as communicating contradictory advice, then please do e-mail me as soon as possible.
Updates on your progress
I also ask that you make a note of any updates in progress and any questions you may have so that you can let me know at your next consultation when I have your file open and am ready to make notes rather than e-mailing me with updates. Let me know if you have questions at the beginning of your consultation so that I can allocate time for them rather than dropping in important questions at the end of the consultation when there may not be enough time to respond to them adequately. If you like you can send me one e-mail with a list of questions and an update a day or two before the consultation.
Questions about lab tests
If there are any issues with your lab tests such as missing components of the test kit or unclear test kit instructions you can sometimes get a faster response by contacting the lab directly yourself. If lab tests are not delivered in the expected timeframe please contact me directly. If something is unclear about the test instructions I have included in your consultation report then do contact me directly.
Lab test interpretation
Lab test results will be interpreted in your consultation and not by e-mail. In order to maintain my focus I do my best to not look at your test results until I am preparing for your next consultation.
Questions about supplements
If a supplement I have recommended is unavailable do e-mail me, but if you have found a new supplement yourself please wait to ask me about it at your next consultation.
How to deal with unexpected reactions to the recommended dietary and lifestyle changes and supplements
In general if you are having unexpected reactions please follow these instructions:
- Check in your consultation report whether reactions are to be expected and thus are likely to be part of the process of healing, in which case there will usually be some indication of this on the report and sometimes some indication of how to deal with it (if anything can be done other than simply continuing until the symptoms get easier).
- Sometimes if you are on a complex protocol involving several supplements in which partial success would in fact be no success (for example to partially eradicate a virulent parasite that would then just rapidly multiply if an essential component was omitted), clearly this is an expense for you so if you are struggling with one aspect/supplement of the protocol I would in this case like you to e-mail me to ask if that is an essential component you are struggling with that would render the rest of the protocol unsuccessful.
- If there is no mention of reactions on the report and point 2 does not apply undo any dietary, lifestyle or supplement changes one by one in reverse order until the symptoms ease off. Then try reintroducing the changes one at a time so you can know for sure which step is causing your reaction. You may need to follow this process more than once as some changes can cause a delayed reaction. Make notes to let me know at your next consultation. Continue with the changes that do not cause a reaction.
Your responsibility during a consultation to communicate any potential difficulties
During the consultation it is your responsibility to communicate any potential difficulties you may have in following the dietary, lifestyle and supplement changes and lab testing guidelines so that we can have a conversation about how we can address your concerns, needs or preferences. These challenges could include travel plans, work commitments, and ethical and religious considerations. If you become aware of such challenges after your consultation these would be best addressed by booking a support call.
An exception to this is if I have recommended a supplement which you cannot take for any reason, such as beginning a new medication that could cause a potential interaction, or due to ingredients that do not meet your ethical or religious requirements.
Letting me know about your own research
It is understandable that you would be anxious to make progress as quickly as possible and when I have time I welcome your input if you do your own research as I am always keen to learn and to expand my field of knowledge. Let me know in the consultation if there is something you would like to communicate, or by all means send me a link a day or two before your consultation if you feel there are resources I should or could consider and perhaps discuss with you, though I may or may not follow the link and may not reply to your e-mail.
Clearly you will need to e-mail me if you need to book, postpone or cancel an appointment of any kind.
There may be other times when you do need to e-mail me due to circumstances beyond both your and my control, such as when lab tests don’t arrive or are incomplete or other unforeseen circumstances and I do not intend to deter you from such urgent communication.
I do my best to cover most common eventualities in your report so read that carefully first. I have attempted to outline most situations in which you should or should not e-mail me in these guidelines.
However it is difficult to define in advance what is urgent and what is less essential, and the decision as to what is urgent and what is less essential is mine, at my discretion and is non-negotiable.
As a general guideline I aim to both take care of my needs to be able to manage my time effectively and to be reasonable to you my client in unforeseen circumstances. Occasionally there will be circumstances in which I ask you to keep me updated by e-mail about your progress with specific aspects of the recommendations I have given you.
However, e-mails cannot be used as a substitute for follow up consultations, and in this way this policy represents what I believe is a fair one in order to best serve each client and their needs.
Thank you e-mails
By all means send me a quick short thank you e-mail if you feel to do so, one that requires no response on my part. I do appreciate being appreciated.
My appreciation
I thank you in advance for your understanding and consideration of these guidelines and I look forward to continuing to support you in your health journey.
