terms and conditions
Booking ongoing appointments
Ongoing appointments are usually 55-60 minutes. At the end of each session, you can decide if you want to meet again. It usually works better to keep to a regular time/day for appointments. This can be weekly or fortnightly depending on your preference.
Cancellations
Life doesn’t always go to plan, so sometimes you may need to cancel or rearrange your appointment. If you are unable to make your appointment, at least 48 hours notice is kindly asked for. I reserve the right to charge the full fee for appointments that are cancelled with less than 48 hours notice.
I completely appreciate that there will be times you are unable to attend due to holidays/appointments etc. I will also have times where I am unavailable for the same reasons and will always give you plenty of notice. I do need to protect my income though and so if you are likely to be away for more than a week or two it may be necessary for me to offer your appointment space to someone else. You would be welcome to pay a retaining fee if you wished to keep your regular therapy space or you could be added to the waiting list and wait for another space to become available. This can be discussed and mutually negotiated on an individual basis.
Did not attend policy.
If you do not attend an appointment we have arranged, and have not given at least 48 hours’ notice, I reserve the right to charge the full fee.
Fees and payment details.
My fee is £75 per session for 55/60 minutes face to face therapy. We may agree to extend the time to 85/90 minutes and my fee is £110. If this agreed before the session please pay the fee as usual. If we mutually agree to extend the time whilst in a session please transfer the remainder of the fee after the session.
Payment is requested prior to the session by bank transfer. Please pay in advance of session unless you choose to pay with cash at the time of the appointment. Thank you.
Bank details will be provided prior to first appointment.
Accessibility and inclusivity.
I aim to make sessions accessible and inclusive to all people. Please let me know if there are adaptations I can make to how I work in order to meet your individual needs.
Contacting me
Following initial assessment, we will only decide to proceed with sessions if it appears that you are ready for therapy. Therefore contacting me should only need to be regarding arranging appointments. Contact will be by email please. If you feel you need a therapist that is more accessible and available I will make some suggestions to you about options as I am unfortunately unable to provide this service.
Emergency / out of hours contacts.
I do not provide a crisis response service and cannot engage in telephone/email support between our planned therapy appointments.
If you are in crisis and need to speak to someone about your mental health urgently please consider the following:
· Calling 999 for life threatening emergencies.
· If you live in Cornwall, you can contact the local NHS Mental Health Connect Line on 0800 038 5300
· The Samaritans on 116 123 (free to call from any phone).
· For non-emergency medical advice please call 111 or book an appointment with your GP.
Supervision.
As is standard practice for all therapists, I discuss my clinical work with an accredited EMDR consultant. Your personal details are not shared, and you will not be identifiable to the supervisor. Supervision ensures that therapists are delivering effective and ethical practice to their clients.
Confidentiality.
The information you provide to me will be treated as confidential and I will not share information with others, unless for the following reasons:
· As stated above I share anonymised information with a supervisor as part of good practice for all therapists and to comply with my professional registration
· If the law requires me to share information to appropriate bodies or authorities
· If there is a serious risk to yourself or another person, I will share information with appropriate professionals.
I occasionally record sessions to share excerpts with my supervisor, this is also part of good practice and a requirement of my professional registration. You can decline the recording of sessions and I will always seek your permission first and discuss this with you before recording. Recordings are all password protected and deleted after its intended use.
Data Retention.
Personal date and clinical records are held in hard copy for the duration of your therapy
sessions and for a short while thereafter.
You will retain the right to withdraw your consent at any point, however you need to be aware that therapy would be discontinued at that point.
You have a right to see all documents held about you and to request copies at no cost. Copies of documents will be provided if required. Documents will be stored for 7 years; records will be permanently deleted after 7 years. This meets the requirements of Article 6 of the General Data Protection Regulation (2016). Please note that your right to be forgotten cannot override the legal requirements to keep medical notes for the mandatory periods.
Records of invoices and payments are kept for six years in compliance with HMRC, and personal information is kept for seven years and then destroyed or deleted. If you have any questions about your information, please do ask me during our sessions or by using my contact details above. If you are not satisfied with my response, you can make contact with the Information Commissioner’s Office https://ico.org.uk.
Your information.
I keep information about you so that I can contact you, this information is held in the client registration form which I complete at our first session. I also ask for details of your GP in case any concerns regarding serious risk to you arise during our sessions.
The completion of this registration form is taken as your understanding and agreement to engaging in therapy with me and the necessary terms as detailed above.
Feedback and concerns
I will offer you regular opportunities to provide me with feedback and to guide our work in a way that you believe will be helpful to you. If you have a concern about therapy, please raise this with me either in our session or by telephone/phone, if you are able to. If you do not feel able to discuss any concerns you have directly with me and you have a concern about my conduct you can contact
