Feedback and complaints
Tell us when we get it wrong.
An organisation that asks people to trust it with their worst days has to be reachable when it is the one that causes harm. This page is how. It is written to repair what happened and change what caused it, not to find someone to punish.
What you can bring
Anything. You do not have to decide what to call it.
Something went wrong
A session, a message, a decision, a payment, a wait, a cancellation. Something that was said, or not said.
Something felt unsafe
Conduct, a boundary, an assumption made about you, the way you or your community were spoken about.
Something could be better
How we explain things, how booking works, what we charge, how a group is run, who is in the room.
Something worked
Tell us that too. We keep it, and it shapes what we do more of.
This page is for anyone affected by our work: clients, people in a group or a workshop, partner organisations, and community members who are not our clients at all.
How to send it
Two ways, both reaching the same place.
The form
Structured, and you can send it with your name or without it. It asks what happened and what you would like to happen.
Open the formAn email
If you would rather write in your own words, with no boxes. info@healingonthemove.com
Write to usIn your own language. Write in whichever language you are most comfortable in. We work in Arabic, English, French, Spanish, Farsi, Dari, Russian and Portuguese, and we will arrange translation for another rather than ask you to manage in one that is not yours.
Someone can write for you. A friend, a family member, a support worker or an organisation, with your agreement. If writing is not possible at all, ask for a call and we will write down what you say and send it back for you to check.
Without your name
You can send it anonymously. Here is what that means.
We will act on it as far as we can, and we will always record it and look at whether it fits a pattern. Being honest about the rest:
We cannot reply to you, tell you what we did, or ask you anything we need in order to understand.
We cannot offer you a conversation, a refund, or anything else addressed to you.
Where it concerns one person or one session, we may not be able to look into it fairly, because anyone a complaint is about is told what is said about them and has a chance to answer.
Giving your name changes nothing about your care.
Making a complaint never affects the care you receive, what you pay, or how you are treated here. That is why complaints are kept separately from session records, and why the people delivering your care are not told anything they do not need to know.
Who receives it
Including when the complaint is about us.
About a practitioner, a session or our work
It goes to the Director, Hane Alrustm.
About the Director or our leadership
It goes to the Deputy, Shadi Alaiek, together with a member of our board who takes no part in the day to day work of the organisation. They see the same material, and their view is recorded with the outcome whether or not we agree with it.
A founder-led organisation where every complaint reaches the founder offers no route for a complaint about the founder. That is what the second route is for. Say which one you want; if you are not sure, send it to either and we will place it.
Where a child or an adult at risk may be being harmed, our Safeguarding Policy governs, on its timescales rather than this page's. Nothing about that is delayed for any process here.
What happens, and when
Four steps, with dates we can actually meet.
Within 5 working days
We acknowledge it
A person, not an automatic reply, tells you it arrived and who is holding it.
Within 10 working days
We say what we will do
What we understood, what we will look at, who we need to speak to. You can correct any of it.
Then
We look into it
We speak to the people involved. Anyone a complaint is about is told what is said and has a chance to answer.
Within 30 working days
We come back to you
What we found, what we are doing, and what you can do if that is not enough. In writing, and in conversation if you want one.
Where something will take longer, we tell you before the date passes, say why, and give a new one. A date we cannot meet is worse than a longer date we can.
Repair, not punishment
Different questions from the ones a disciplinary process asks.
This work is held by our Restorative Justice Lead, Deborah Zavos, who designs how we do it and facilitates the conversations. It asks a different set of questions from a disciplinary process. Not which rule was broken and what the penalty is, but what happened, who was affected, what they need, and what has to change so it does not happen again. In practice that can mean an account of what happened from the other side, a specific acknowledgement rather than a formula, a repair such as a refund or a different practitioner, a change to how we work, and, only if you want one, a facilitated conversation with a third person present.
You are never required to take part in a conversation. Your complaint is dealt with whether or not you ever meet or speak to the person it is about. Declining changes nothing about how seriously it is taken.
You are never asked to look after the person who harmed you. Restorative practice is not an invitation to manage someone else's feelings about what they did.
It does not replace protection. Where someone is at risk, protective action comes first and is not delayed for any conversation.
It is not a softer word for doing nothing. Where conduct is serious or repeated, an assignment is suspended or ended. A restorative process does not prevent that.
It does not bind you. Taking part does not stop you going to a professional body, a regulator or a lawyer, at any point.
The person who facilitates is not the person who decides. Whoever holds a restorative conversation does not also sit as the check on how that same complaint was handled.
Where power is unequal, we say so. Between a practitioner and a client, or between us and someone who depends on us, the process is built around that difference rather than pretending it is not there.
What you can ask for
Say what would put it right, as far as anything can.
An explanation. An apology. A different practitioner. A session refunded or replaced. A record corrected. A practice changed. To be told what changed. To have nothing further to do with us, and for your information deleted so far as the law allows us to delete it.
We will say yes or no to each, and give a reason for a no.
If our answer is not good enough
Tell us, and say what would be.
We will look again, and where we have not already done so, the complaint goes to the second route above. You can also go outside us at any point, and you do not need our permission or our agreement to do it.
The practitioner's professional body, where it concerns a registered practitioner's professional conduct. Ask us and we will tell you which body they are registered with.
The Belgian Data Protection Authority, where it concerns how your personal information was handled.
Legal advice, or the courts. Nothing on this page limits your legal rights.
If you are in immediate danger, or thinking of ending your life, this page is not the right help. Call the emergency number where you are; in Belgium that is 112, and Zelfmoordlijn is on 1813.