Counselling Agreement
Sessions:
I offer 50 minute counselling/therapy sessions, which will normally occur on a weekly basis. Please arrive promptly at the time of your appointment – there might be a client before you so please do not knock on the door early, to ensure their privacy is protected.
I can offer both short term therapy (8-12 sessions) and longer term/open ended therapy. You can decide on what basis you would like to start our work together – and you are allowed to change your mind! It is always helpful to have an idea of your expectations and wishes around the length and depth of our work, and I will continue to check in with you about this.
Lateness
If you are running late to a session I ask you to please let me know through email, with an estimate of your arrival time. If you are more than 20 minutes late the session will be cancelled – as it does not provide me with enough time to contain our work. In this case I would still charge for the session. If you are late to counselling the end time will not change from the original scheduling and you will receive a shorter session.
Holidays and cancellation
I require at least 26 hour notice for cancellation. This will allow me to cancel a room booking and/or schedule in another client for assessment. If there is less than 26 hour cancellation notice, the full fee for counselling applies. Some exceptions can be made here on a one-off basis.
If you are going on holiday, please notify me at least 2 weeks in advance to allow me to amend scheduling. This will not be counted as ‘cancellations’ but as ‘holiday breaks’. I will endeavour to notify you at least 2 weeks in advance when I am taking holidays.
If you cancel your counselling session on time for other reasons than holidays, I will make note of the number of cancellations within a 3 month period. If there are more than 3 (late)cancellations we might need to review whether this is the right time for counselling for you. I will likely suggest to work towards ending our therapeutic work, or pausing our work if cancellations occur more than 3 times in 3 months.
Confidentiality
Counselling and psychotherapy sessions are confidential, which means all information shared by my clients will remain between the client and myself. This includes any emails sent from the moment of enquiry, information about you being a client in therapy and any information on attendance.
I might at times bring some of our work to my Clinical Supervisor. I will minimise sharing personal identifiers with them where possible. My supervision sessions are also fully confidential.
I am a registered member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) and adhere to their ethical code and framework: BACP Ethical Framework for the Counselling Professions
Breaking confidentiality
There are exceptional circumstances within which a counsellor is required to break confidentiality. I might need to break confidentiality by for example informing your doctor, social work, or in cases involving an immediate risk to life, the emergency services. I will always endeavour to discuss this with you first where possible.
Exceptions to Confidentiality:
1. If you or another person is at immediate risk of imminent serious harm
2. If a child or protected adult is at risk of harm or abuse
3. If instructed by the courts to provide information
4. If you share information about a proposed act of terrorism or other illegal act
Record Keeping and GDPR
After each session I will keep a note of our records on an online platform. This platform is password protected and cannot be accessed by anyone else. These records will be kept for 5 years, after which they will be deleted. I practice in line with Data Protection Act 1998 and GDPR 2018.
If you would like to view your notes, you can request this with myself on an informal basis. If you would like to have a copy of your notes, I will log this as a Subject Access Request and we can discuss the form within which you would like to receive this.
Complaints
If you have a complaint about myself or our work together, I would like to encourage you to raise this with me in the first instance – I very much welcome feedback from my clients and believe we can resolve most issues within session. If this feels not possible, or you feel that this does not resolve the complaint, you can file a complaint with the BACP by following this link: https://www.bacp.co.uk/about-us/protecting-the-public/professional-conduct/how-to-complain-about-a-bacp-member/