Counselling Agreement
Information about private phone and video counselling: how I work - I work as a counsellor within the code of ethics of my professional body, the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP). Of which I am a Professional Accredited Member - MBACP (Accred) 00966503.
At our first session, we will talk about your reasons for considering counselling and how we might work together, then together we can decide if we are a good fit and if counselling with me is the right path for you. If we go ahead, we will review our work every six sessions or so, although many people find they don't need as many as six sessions. If we decide we're not a good fit, I may be able to signpost you to another counsellor or organisation.
Our conversations are confidential except in certain situations: I may discuss some of our conversations and our work together (but not your identity) with my supervisor as required by the BACP code of ethics; if I am concerned for your safety or someone else's, I may contact your GP or another appropriate person/organisation; there may be a legal requirement to disclose certain information, e.g., a serious crime.
I keep brief notes of each session as an aide memoire. These are stored securely, and separately from your name and contact details, in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation 2018. You may have a copy of these notes if you wish. They are destroyed after our work together is completed and after any insurance company time frames have elapsed. More detail is in my Privacy Notice, which is at the end of this document.
Each session usually lasts for one hour, and times will be as arranged between us. For phone appointments, I will usually call you at the agreed time but if you'd rather call me, that's fine, just let me know in advance. If the call doesn't connect, or connects and then fails, I will call you back (if you've called me, I'll wait for you to call me back). If we can't reconnect again within 10 minutes, I'll contact you to rearrange. Also, if you don't have a safe private space to talk when I call, please let me know and we can rearrange.
If you have to postpone or cancel a session, please give at least 24 hours' notice, otherwise the fee for that session will normally be payable. This is because that time is set aside for you and cannot usually be offered to someone else at very short notice. I will usually send a confirmation the day before, but please do not wait for me to do that if you already know that you won't be able to make the session. If you need to contact me between sessions, please email me at jessica@jcrileypsychotherapy.co.uk. I will reply as soon as possible but please be aware that it may not be immediate. I don't offer support between sessions, but we can arrange another appointment as soon as possible, if you wish. If you decide you no longer want counselling, please let me know this, you don't have to say why unless you want to. If anything is getting in the way of you coming, we may be able to find a way around it.