Counselling contract

Confidentiality

Paperwork: paperwork relates to hard copies of notes made by the counsellor either at the assessment stage or after a counselling session. All notes are coded with your initials and you are referred to as “the client” in order to protect your identity. All notes are brief and concise and are securely stored by the counsellor. All notes are kept for 5 years from the date counselling ended. Notes are destroyed by being shredded by your counsellor.

Personal Details- your name, address, telephone number, next of kin and GP details are stored securely, in a separate place to your counselling session notes, and are destroyed as soon as your counselling sessions end. If your counsellor becomes incapacitated and was unable to make contact with you, the supervisor would access your personal details in order to discuss the situation with you and offer you alternative therapy arrangements if this was necessary.

Supervision-it is necessary for counsellors to have supervision once a month with an independent supervisor. During supervision the counsellor will not use the clients name in order to maintain confidentiality.

When may confidentiality be broken? As part of working within the BACP code of ethics, counsellors have a duty of care to the client and the wider public. This means that there are certain times when the counsellor would have to break confidentiality. These would be as follows:

Suicidal Intent- if, during a counselling session/assessment, the 

counsellor believed that either client had intent to take their own life.

Harm to others-  if, during a counselling session/assessment, the 

counsellor believed that the client had intent to 

harm another person, or discussed any act of previous harm to another person.

Terrorism–   if, during a counselling session/assessment, the 

client discussed any act of terrorism.

Money laundering if, during a counselling session/assessment, the 

client discussed any act of money laundering.

When possible the counsellor would tell the client that they are about to break confidentiality and it would be broken in one of the following ways:

o Contact with the clients GP, contact the crisis team

o Contact with the authorities (police)

Confidentiality & Online Working - You should be aware that I cannot guarantee confidentiality from your location. The responsibility for this rests with yourself. For us to work together I need to know that you can create a quiet space for yourself to talk freely and without interruption. Please contact me to discuss this if you have any concerns.

Timekeeping– counselling sessions are 50 minutes long; please arrive punctually. If you arrive late the session will still finish at the scheduled time. 

Cancellations – please give at least 24 hours notice for cancellations. If you give less than 24 hours notice you will be charged a session. If you ever fail to attend an appointment without contacting the counsellor to cancel, then you will be charged for a full counselling session.  If you give at least 24 hours notice, the cost of the session can be forwarded to the following month.

Payment:

Please pay for sessions either prior to the session or within 2 hours of the counselling session ending.

Please pay directly in to the bank account below using your initials as reference:

Sort-Code 11-07-39

Account No: 00798893

Account Name: Mrs S Phillis

Bank: Halifax

Appointment Structure-Appointments are held online or face-to-face as arranged with the counsellor. The sessions will be arranged as agreed with counsellor & client 

Online Counselling -Sessions will be online via Zoom. Zoom is a safe secure internet platform on which we can see each other and talk in face to face. I recommend when using on-line Zoom that you use headphones for added privacy. You will also need to test that your camera on your laptop or PC is working so that we can connect. I suggest that you create a FREE Zoom account so that you can easily access our sessions at the given time. You can download this here www.zoom.us For each of our sessions, I will send you an email with a secure link to join me at the agreed time. You will always have this within 24 hours before our session is due to start.

Counselling is voluntary and you are free to leave at any time. 

Prices: Full price £45.00 per 50 minute session

Concessions* £40.00 per 50 minute session

*students, OAPs, clients claiming benefits