Counselling Agreement

 
Counselling Agreement

This counselling agreement is a contract between you as my client and me as your counsellor. This agreement serves to protect you, enable me to provide you with an ethical and professional service, and define the boundaries of our working relationship. By appointing me as your counsellor and accepting my offer of services in exchange for the agreed fee, we agree to the following:

About me

My name is Sarah and I am qualified in integrative therapeutic counselling, meaning I am able to draw from different approaches, types of therapy in order to suit your specific needs. I am relational, person centred at my core, helping to build a therapeutic relationship.

ETHICS AND CODE OF CONDUCT

I am a fully qualified accredited counsellor and member of The National Counselling and Psychotherapy Society (NCPS), membership number NCS23-02777,and work within their code of ethical practice. Which can be found on their website: https://nationalcounsellingsociety.org/about-us/code-of-ethics

CONFIDENTIALITY

Everything you disclose to me during our sessions remains confidential. I have a supervisor with whom I regularly discuss my client work. However, I would not disclose any of your details that would enable you to be identified. My supervisor is a registered BACP practitioner and is bound by the same ethical code of practice as myself.

EXCEPTIONS TO CONFIDENTIALITY

The only time that I am legally required to breach confidentiality is if you disclose to me information regarding acts of terrorism, drug trafficking, money laundering, violence or if a vulnerable adult or a person under the age of 18 may at risk of harm. If I discover evidence that you are involved in drug-money laundering, then I am required by Section 52 of the Drug Trafficking Act 1994 to pass this information onto the authorities or face prosecution. If I inform you that a report has been made, that could also lead to my prosecution, so I am obliged by statute, first to report, and secondly, not to inform you that this has been done.

If I have reason to believe that you might be at risk of harm to yourself, then I might have an ethical responsibility to breach confidentiality. If I have evidence or reason to believe that you intend to harm yourself or others, then I might need to breach confidentiality by informing your GP if you have disclosed their details, or in serious cases, the police, emergency services, or another appropriate third party. Wherever possible, and if it is considered appropriate, I will inform you of this and obtain your consent.

The only time I am legally required to disclose the contents of our therapy sessions is when requested to do so by order of a Court of Law. If so, I will notify you and you are entitled to have access to your notes. I am under no legal obligation to provide information when directly requested by the police or lawyers except for information relating to a road traffic accident when requested by the police.

Should the police make a request to me for a copy of your counselling records, I will inform you. Should you agree to such a request, you will need to provide me with your written consent. You are under no legal obligation to agree to such a request unless it is by means of a Court Order.

Sessions

Sessions are for 50 minutes and will be weekly at a day and time agreed, any alterations can be discussed.  We will meet online through the secure google meet/Whereby platform. Total privacy will be provided from my end and the session will require you to have privacy for yourself in a quiet room.You will be given as much notice as possible of holidays or illness on my part. If you are late for a session it is not usually possible to allow this extra time. I will send you the link that is the same link to use for each session. Please do not share the link with others 

Holidays

I take 2 weeks off over Christmas/New years and time off over summer holidays (July-September). I will give at least 2 weeks notice of exact dates, or any other planned breaks.

APPOINTMENT TIMES

I will open the video meeting at the agreed appointment time. If you are not available at the agreed time, I will wait for 10 minutes. If you are having difficulty accessing the video meeting, then please email me at sarah.counselling123@gmail.com and we can arrange an alternative way to conduct the session. If you have not contacted me after this time, then I will assume that you will not be attending the session and the appointment will be cancelled. If you are late for an appointment, I cannot guarantee that we can go over the agreed finishing time as I may have following appointments.

ARRIVING LATE OR TECHNICAL PROBLEMS

If you arrive late for a session, I will not be able to extend the session beyond the allocated time. This is because other clients would be affected. However I also understand that it can be difficult for technical reasons to connect sometimes online. I will do my best to adjust to any delay because of this, within reason, due to technical problems at either end, but I need to be mindful of the next client who needs their session at the designated time. At peak times there could be a possibility of being disconnected from the internet which would be beyond our control. If you are unable to get online you might want to leave me an email at sarah.counselling123@gmail.com  If necessary we may need to either continue the session via telephone, or reschedule the session, should we continue to have technical difficulties. Similarly, should there be any difficulty gaining a signal , we may need to reschedule again due to circumstances beyond my control.

FEES

I charge a fee of £50 per 50 minute session. Fees are due 48 hours before session, paid via bank:

Account name: Sarah Steward

Account number: 05321403

Sort code: 60-83-71

Please only use your initials as reference to maintain anonymity.

Cancellation policy

Cancellations less than 24 hours notice require full payment .

I require 1 week's notice of any holiday arrangements. I will provide you with at least 2 weeks notice of my holidays . 

RECORD KEEPING

I make notes of each counselling session.  I record my session notes securely on a laptop that is only used by me, and this is password protected  at both the level of the individual document and the laptop itself. All your information and notes relating to counselling sessions are stored in accordance with the requirements of GDPR, the Data Protection Act 1998 and the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) with whom I am registered. By accepting this agreement, you consent to the keeping of records in accordance with data protection requirements. I retain records for at least 5 years, in line with my insurance.

SOCIAL MEDIA

It is not permissible to record or publicise the content of our sessions or share them with a third party using social media or personal and public forums without my consent. I do not accept social media friend requests from clients, nor will I look for clients on social media. However, I have a counselling page on Facebook which you are welcome to view and follow. I will only use the contact details you have provided to keep in touch with you via email or text message for appointment times or alterations to our meeting arrangements. I have an ethical responsibility to separate and maintain a distinction between my personal and professional presence on social media where this could result in harmful dual relationships with you as my client.

I have read this working agreement carefully and I understand and agree with its contents.