The boring bit. Policies and procedures.

 

Confidentiality

 

Your counselling sessions will be confidential, which means that no information that you disclose to me will be shared outside of our counselling session. There are some exceptions to this:

  • If I believe you, or someone else, are at serious and/ or immediate risk of harm

  • Where I am legally compelled to do so

  • If you give me your explicit permission

If we have agreed that our session will be online or on the telephone, we agree to hold the sessions in as private a space as possible to maintain confidentiality.

In the event where I may need to break confidentiality I will do everything reasonably possible to inform you of this and for us to work through how to proceed together. However, in the event of an emergency or where speed of response is a factor this may not always be possible.

 

Online & Telephone Sessions

 

We agree that our sessions take place within England and Wales. This is due to legal restraints outside of England and Wales as well as ensuring your safety as a client.

As a client you agree to share the address of where you will be taking counselling sessions. If this changes you agree to update me as your counsellor. This information will only be used in an emergency situation.

For online counselling we agree to use Zoom to host our online sessions as a safe and confidential platform that is also free for you as a client to use. I, your counsellor, will send the invite to our session over email the morning of our agreed session time unless agreed otherwise.

If you have any issues with setting up Zoom, or any equipment you’ll need i.e. phone/laptop/PC, internet speed I’ll do my best to work with you to resolve this ahead of your session but I am not an expert in computer set up and it may be necessary for you to seek outside support to resolve this.

If during our sessions we lose internet connection for any reason, we agree that I will ring you to finish the session.

For telephone counselling I will call you at the agreed time on the phone number you provide me. I’ll call you once, if you don’t pick up I will call you again straight after in case you missed the first call. After that I will wait 10 minutes to call you one last time before dropping you an email to confirm the missed session.

 

Some Practicalities

 

We will meet regularly at the agreed time, usually once a week unless we agree otherwise, for 50 minutes (this applies to face to face, online and telephone counselling sessions). If for any reason you arrive late, your session will still end at the appointed time.

My fees are £50 per session and are payable via bank transfer on a weekly basis prior to each session. Details will be shared during our initial consultation.

If for whatever reason you are unable to attend a session, I ask for at least 24hrs notice. If you can give me more notice that would be preferable. If you are unable to give me 24hrs notice the full fee will still need to be paid. If I am unable to attend our scheduled session time I will endeavour to give as much notice as possible so we can rearrange the session. If unable to do so then there will be no charge.

Data Protection

 

In accordance with BACP guidelines, I as your counsellor, will make notes on each of our sessions. All notes will be kept securely with password protection and encryption software and are only accessed by me as your counsellor. Once we’ve finished working together I as your counsellor will hold this data for an additional 3 years and then destroy it. Any email or text communications will be deleted after 6 months of us finishing our work together. You have a right to access these notes - I ask for a written request (email) and I will work to get a copy of my notes to you within 28 days of the request.

 

Insurance & Supervision

 

As a British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) registered counsellor my work complies with the standards and codes of ethics of this organisation. In order to abide by these standards, I attend regular supervision to talk about my work. The purpose of this is to support and inform my work as a therapist. While I may discuss our work together in supervision, no information that would enable you to be identified would be disclosed.    

I also hold my own insurance to cover my practice and it is my responsibility as your counsellor to ensure this is maintained.

 

Complaints

 

Should you have an issue arising from our work, while it would be preferable for this to be brought to our work together, you as a client also have the option of raising your complaint to the BACP (British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy).

Referrals

 

In some circumstances it may be necessary for me to refer you on to another counsellor or healthcare professional. We will always discuss this before any action is taken.

 

Diversity and Inclusion

 

All clients will be treated equally regarding Diversity, Inclusivity and Equality in accordance with the Equality Act 2010, Codes of Practice and relevant best practice guidance. This includes:

  • Age

  • Disability

  • Gender reassignment

  • Marriage & Civil Partnership

  • Pregnancy & Maternity

  • Race including colour, nationality & ethnic origins

  • Religion and/or belief systems

  • Gender

  • Sexual Orientation

While I believe we all hold our own prejudices and biases it is my responsibility to attend personal therapy, supervision and continual professional development to continue to challenge and educate myself.