Session length and number of sessions

Sessions usually last 50 minutes unless agreed in advance by the counsellor and client. You can leave at any time. The total number of sessions is to be agreed between the counsellor and client. Sessions can be offered on an open-ended basis, but this will be regularly reviewed to ensure that you are getting the best out of therapy. You can decide how often you want to review the counselling (the recommendation is 6 but this is up to you) and you can request a review at any time.

Payment and cancellation terms

Payment for the sessions is at the agreed rate (noted above). I will send you a payment link on the day of your session. Payments should be made in advance of the session or within 24 hours after the session. If there’s a problem with payment, you should contact me as soon as possible. If you don’t pay for your session within 24 hours and don’t contact me, I may need to take further action, including ending the counselling.

If you need to cancel a session, that’s fine. However please give me at least 10 hours’ notice unless it’s an emergency or something out of your control that means you can’t attend. If you cancel with less than 10 hours’ notice without good reason, you will be have to pay in full for the session. If it’s an emergency or something out of your control, you need to let me know as soon as possible.

I will always give you at least 24 hours’ notice of a cancellation except in an emergency or circumstances out of my control.

If you are late to a session, I will contact you after 10 minutes to check if you’re ok. Sessions will still finish at the agreed time, and I can’t offer extensions for lateness.

If you don’t turn up to your session twice, without letting me know in advance and without good reason, (except in emergencies) I will end our counselling sessions.

What I’ll do if I can’t get hold of you

If you miss a session and I can’t get hold of you, I’ll try your backup contact method. If I still don’t hear within a few days, I will try again on both your contact methods.

If I still don’t hear from you and you don’t attend your next session, I will assume that you want to stop the counselling. At any point, you’re welcome to contact me and restart the counselling.

If I feel there is risk of harm (for example you’ve said you want to end your life) or I’m in any way concerned about you, I won’t wait a few days for you to get in contact, I will speak to your GP and/or use the emergency contact details that you’ve given me. I may even need to contact the emergency services if I feel the risk is high.

Confidentiality

Everything you share with me is confidential, including the fact that you’re having counselling. However, in the following scenarios, I may be required to break confidentiality:

• If I suspect that you or someone else is at risk of serious harm, I would need to report this to other organisations. This is called safeguarding. I would always try to involve you in the process as much as possible.
• If I suspect that you or someone else is involved in the following criminal offences:
  • Drug trafficking
  • Terrorism
  • Money laundering

Other times when I need to share information about you:

• Supervision – I will sometimes share information about you with my supervisor, to make sure that I’m working safely and giving you the best possible support. This is anonymous and I will never share your name, contact details or any other identifiable details with my supervisor.

• Clinical will – if something happens to me that means I’m not able to communicate with you – for example If I die or am seriously ill – another counsellor who is acting as my clinical executor would access your basic data (your name and contact details) so that they can let you know.

I take notes after each session, and these are stored electronically in a secure, encrypted cloud-based drive. For more information about note storage, see the privacy policy.

The counselling relationship

The relationship between a counsellor and client is one of the most important parts of the counselling process. As a counsellor, I could harm the counselling process by having a different sort of relationship with you alongside the counselling – for example friendship, romantic relationship or colleague. That’s why it’s important to protect the relationship with boundaries.

To protect the counselling relationship, it’s important that we don’t meet up – either online or in person – between sessions. It’s also important that we don’t contact each other between sessions, except if we need to change or cancel a session.

It’s possible that we might accidentally meet. In this case I would normally just say hi and smile. If you’re with someone, I won’t acknowledge you unless you acknowledge me first. This is in case you haven’t told that person that you’re having counselling. The same goes for if I’m with someone.

If you’re in distress between sessions, you need to contact 999 if a life is in danger, or call Samaritans on 116 123. I can’t help you outside of sessions because it’s likely that I would be with another client or otherwise unavailable.

Ending the counselling

You can end your counselling with me at any time and for any reason. It helps if you let me know at least one week before so that we can review the counselling and make sure that you have other forms of support if you need it, but this isn’t essential.

If I am going to end the counselling with you, I would give you as much notice as possible and give you information about other counsellors who can help.

Limits of my ability

Although I’m a qualified counsellor, there are a lot of things that I’m not qualified to help you with. That’s because I haven’t had specialist training in how to help you with them. For example, if you have severe mental health issues. It’s not because I don’t want to help you with these things but that working outside the limits of ability could cause harm or stop you from getting the right support.

In these cases, I would ask your permission to refer you to someone who has the training to be able to help you if you’re happy to. This doesn’t always mean you have to stop having counselling with me as I can still help you with other issues.

Complaints

If you aren’t happy with the service I’ve provided or you have concerns about something I’ve done, you can make complaints to my professional body, BACP, either online, by email or by telephone.

Website: https://www.bacp.co.uk/about-therapy/get-help-with-counselling-concerns-service/

Phone: 01455 883300 (option 2)

Email: gethelp@bacp.co.uk

Even if you’re not sure if I’ve done something wrong or not, you can still contact them to ask for advice.

My training and insurance

I have a level 4 diploma in therapeutic counselling, which qualifies me to practice as a counsellor. I have also done an additional 80 hours of training in counselling online and on the telephone, as well as a lot of continuing professional development courses.

I’m have professional indemnity insurance and am a member of BACP (British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy.

Your behaviour

As part of this contract, you agree not to turn up to sessions under the influence of drugs or alcohol. If you do so, I would have to end the session immediately.

I won’t tolerate any abusive or aggressive behaviour or harassment, and I would end our counselling work if you behave in these ways. I may also involve the police if necessary.

I don’t take responsibility for any actions you take after our sessions.

I can’t promise specific results.

Working online

Sometimes when working online there are technical issues out of our control. If our session gets cut off and can’t reconnect after a few minutes, I will call you on the number you’ve given me.

I don’t record counselling sessions and ask that you don’t either. If, for whatever reason, you want to record a session, you need to make a request in writing at least a week in advance of the session. I retain the right to refuse your request.

Although I work online, I am only insured and qualified to provide counselling in the UK.

Online counselling disclaimer

I will always take steps to ensure that our online sessions, our contact between sessions and the storage of your data are as secure and private as possible, and I will always use the most secure methods possible. However, there are always risks when using third-party software, for example the software provider may have a data breach, and I am unable to prevent these. I can never guarantee that it will be 100% secure because this is outside my control.

Other

Although counselling has many benefits, it does involve processing how you feel and you may want to talk about past events that have impacted you. It may also be the first time that you acknowledge the harm that someone has caused you. For this reason, you may feel worse before you feel better. Counselling may also impact your relationships, for example you may feel empowered to say no to people. I take no responsibility for any of these effects.

I also can’t promise any specific outcomes to the counselling.

It’s your responsibility to keep me updated about any changes to your circumstances that could affect the counselling process, including changing your address and GP details.