Provider Orientation to Chi’Va

Chi’Va is a structured, self-directed session platform designed to operate alongside—not in place of—the professional relationship between a provider and client.

This orientation is for providers evaluating whether Chi’Va may fit within their practice, referral relationships, continuity plans, or client-support model.

It is not EMDR training, certification, supervision, consultation, or instruction in how to provide EMDR therapy. Providers who deliver or represent their services as EMDR therapy remain responsible for the training, competence, consultation, licensure, and professional standards applicable to their work.

Begin with the correct role distinction

Chi’Va, the provider, and the client hold different responsibilities.

The provider

The provider:

• Determines the services they offer.
• Practices within their own license, training, and competence.
• Evaluates whether discussing Chi’Va is appropriate.
• Establishes communication and follow-up expectations.
• Provides assessment, diagnosis, case conceptualization, treatment planning, or treatment when those functions are part of their role.
• Decides when direct provider involvement is necessary.
• Documents their own professional actions.

The client

The client:

• Decides whether to use Chi’Va.
• Selects what to address during a self-directed session.
• Controls pacing and disclosure.
• Monitors their own responses.
• Pauses or closes the session when needed.
• Determines what private session information to share.
• Requests provider support according to the established communication plan.

Chi’Va

Chi’Va:

• Provides a structured session sequence.
• Presents preparation and assessment prompts.
• Offers bilateral-focus options.
• Collects member-entered subjective ratings.
• Guides body-awareness and closure steps.
• Preserves a consistent sequence across sessions.

Chi’Va does not independently diagnose, develop a clinical case conceptualization, establish a treatment plan, determine readiness, monitor risk on the provider’s behalf, or deliver emergency support.

Review the eight-phase session structure

Chi’Va organizes the member experience around an eight-phase structure familiar to EMDR providers.

1. History Taking

The platform may ask the member to identify current context or material they would like to address.

This does not replace provider-led history taking, case conceptualization, treatment planning, or protocol selection.

2. Preparation

The member reviews:

• Current readiness to begin.
• The selected bilateral-focus method.
• Pause and stop controls.
• Container availability.
• Closure expectations.
• Available support.

Provider preparation may be more extensive and should remain responsive to the client’s presentation and needs.

3. Assessment

The member identifies:

• Target material.
• A negative cognition.
• A preferred positive cognition.
• VOC.
• SUDS.
• Relevant body sensations.

These entries structure the platform session. They are not a diagnosis or comprehensive provider assessment.

4. Bilateral Focus

The member uses guided left-right visual or tactile pacing while attending to the selected material.

Chi’Va uses the term bilateral focus to describe the platform function. The presence of bilateral pacing does not, by itself, make the activity provider-delivered EMDR therapy.

5. Installation

The member returns attention to the selected positive cognition and evaluates its current validity.

6. Body Scan

The member notices current physical sensations without the platform interpreting those sensations or assigning clinical meaning.

7. Closure

The member intentionally ends focused work, contains unresolved material when needed, reorients to the present, and completes the closing sequence.

Closure remains necessary even when the session does not reach the member’s preferred endpoint.

8. Reevaluation

The member later reviews changes in disturbance, cognition, body response, and whether additional work or provider involvement is needed.

Evaluate fit rather than assuming universal use

Chi’Va is not intended to be introduced to every client in the same way.

The provider may consider whether the client can:

• Understand that Chi’Va is self-directed.
• Follow a structured sequence without continuous prompting from the provider.
• Use pause and stop controls.
• Complete Container and closure practices.
• Recognize when independent use is no longer manageable.
• Follow the provider’s communication boundaries.
• Request additional support when needed.
• Distinguish a nonurgent check-in from an emergency need.
• Accept that the provider will not automatically receive or review every session detail.

The provider may also determine that a client needs direct support, closer monitoring, additional preparation, a different protocol, or no independent platform use at the present time.

Chi’Va does not make that determination for the provider.

Confirm preparation before independent use

Before introducing Chi’Va for use between appointments, providers may want to confirm that the client understands:

• The purpose and limitations of the platform.
• How to use the selected bilateral-focus tool.
• How SUDS and VOC are used within a session.
• How and when to pause.
• How to use the Container.
• Why closure should be completed.
• What to do when distress increases beyond what they can manage independently.
• How to request provider support.
• Which resources to use when support is urgent.

Preparation should reflect the client’s actual capacity rather than a general assumption that access to the platform establishes readiness.

Select an appropriate monitoring model

Chi’Va does not require one universal provider follow-up schedule.

The provider may select a monitoring structure based on the client’s needs, the services being delivered, and the boundaries of the professional relationship.

Client-requested check-ins

For stable, high-functioning clients who demonstrate responsible self-direction, the provider may allow the client to request a nonurgent check-in when a question or new need arises.

The provider should define whether email:

• Receives a brief response.
• Is used only to request an appointment.
• May include general observations.
• Should exclude detailed or sensitive session content.
• Is reviewed only during business hours.

Periodic review

The provider may review Chi’Va use during already scheduled appointments or periodic maintenance visits without monitoring every session.

Weekly monitoring

Weekly monitoring may be appropriate when the client’s needs, transition plan, current presentation, or provider-directed care call for more frequent review.

The monitoring cadence may change over time. Greater independence does not prevent the provider from increasing contact when circumstances change.

Preserve privacy by default

A client should not have to surrender private session content in order to use Chi’Va alongside provider services.

Providers may discuss broad observations such as:

• Whether the client is completing closure.
• Whether distress repeatedly remains elevated.
• Whether the same material continues to return.
• Whether the client is having difficulty selecting or maintaining a target.
• Whether a body response requires additional attention.
• Whether the client wants more direct provider involvement.

The provider does not need a complete transcript of every self-directed session to maintain a meaningful professional relationship.

Providers should not submit client names, diagnoses, treatment records, session narratives, or other identifying health information through general Chi’Va provider inquiry forms or ordinary implementation emails.

Establish communication expectations

Before a client begins independent use, clarify:

• Whether the provider expects routine updates.
• Whether the client should wait until the next appointment.
• Whether email check-ins are available.
• The expected response time for nonurgent messages.
• What requires a scheduled appointment.
• What requires a return to weekly or more frequent monitoring.
• When Chi’Va use should pause.
• What the client should do when support is urgent.
• Whether the provider reviews any platform-generated progress information.

Avoid implying continuous availability or real-time supervision unless that service is actually being provided.

Document the provider’s actions

Chi’Va does not replace documentation required by the provider’s profession, organization, payer, or jurisdiction.

When relevant, the provider may document:

• Why Chi’Va was discussed.
• The education provided.
• The client’s stated understanding.
• Preparation or readiness concerns.
• Communication boundaries.
• Follow-up expectations.
• Recommendations to pause or discontinue independent use.
• A change in appointment or monitoring frequency.

The provider should document their own professional actions and judgment rather than reconstructing private sessions they did not observe.

Consider how Chi’Va fits the practice model

Chi’Va may support several provider objectives:

• Giving appropriate clients faster access to a structured process between appointments.
• Preserving appointment time for work requiring direct professional involvement.
• Maintaining continuity when a client can no longer afford frequent visits.
• Supporting a step-down from weekly care when clinically and professionally appropriate.
• Allowing stable clients to assume greater responsibility.
• Keeping clients connected to the practice through periodic or requested follow-up.
• Preserving capacity for clients with higher levels of need.

These benefits depend on clear boundaries and an implementation model that reflects the provider’s actual availability and services.

For a fuller discussion of time, access, continuity, and practice capacity, see Benefits Chi’Va Offers Providers.

Provider implementation checklist

Before introducing Chi’Va, confirm:

• I understand what the platform does and does not provide.
• I am not presenting Chi’Va as a substitute for EMDR training or provider-delivered treatment.
• I have evaluated whether this client can use a self-directed structure responsibly.
• The client understands pause, Container, and closure.
• The client knows when independent use should stop.
• We have established the follow-up cadence.
• My email and response-time boundaries are clear.
• The client knows how to request additional support.
• The client knows what to do when support is urgent.
• I understand what information I will and will not receive.
• My documentation reflects my own professional actions.
• I can increase, reduce, or discontinue independent use as needs change.

The starting point for providers

Providers do not need another simplified explanation of breathwork, SUDS, or bilateral stimulation.

They need to know:

• How Chi’Va translates familiar concepts into a member-directed platform.
• Which professional functions remain outside the platform.
• Which clients may be able to use it responsibly.
• How follow-up and communication will work.
• How client privacy will be preserved.
• When direct provider involvement should take priority.

That is the purpose of this orientation.

For additional role clarification, see Provider Scope and Boundaries.