Terms & Conditions
Counselling sessions
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A counselling session is defined as a meeting which has been agreed verbally or in writing between counsellor and client. This is whether the meeting has been attended or not. The format of meeting, appointment time and length of session are agreed by both parties. A single therapy session usually takes place weekly or twice weekly and lasts for an hour at the same time and day, but this may be negotiated according to need and circumstances.
An initial session is a meeting where we plan how to go forward before, we agree to work together. In this session, which is non – chargeable and lasts for 30 mins, I will explore a little about you and what has brought you to therapy. This also gives you the opportunity to see if you feel comfortable and can work with me. You will also have the chance to ask about anything else you may not be sure about. Once we have agreed that therapy can proceed forward, we will look at scheduling future appointments. However, there is no obligation whatsoever for you to proceed if you feel you do not want to. If we do decide to work together, we can then formalise our own working agreement and agree an initial working period. At the end of the initial working period, we can then agree to book a further block of sessions or leave the work open-ended with continual reviews.
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Confidentiality
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What is shared in the session will be strictly treated as confidential. It will not be discussed outside the sessions except in the context of professional supervision and professional training. Any such references will always remain anonymous; therefore, your personal details will not be disclosed. As part of good practice, a therapist is required to have some supervision of their work. I do not give my supervisor anything that might identify you. Supervision helps me to give you the best service that I can.
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While confidentiality is essential, there may be times where exceptions need to be considered. In very few extreme circumstances, it might be necessary for me to pass on information. This would only be if there were a substantial possibility of serious harm to yourself or others or if I were legally impelled to impart information. If I had concerns in this area, I would talk to you as fully as possible before deciding to take any action. I aim to maintain the highest standards of good practice and safety.
If you do have any concerns whatsoever in this regard, please do raise them with me.
In the unlikely event that our work must terminate because, for example, I am involved in a serious accident, and I am unable to inform you personally, I will have entrusted a professional person or a trusted colleague the task of contacting you and discussing the situation with you. In this event my colleague will then have access to your contact details and the basic details of what our work is e.g., long-term therapy, consultancy and any information that is ethically necessary to impart.
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Cancellations
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If under exceptional circumstances I will be late for a session, I contact you as soon as possible and I will make up the time so long as this is possible for you or reimburse you accordingly. If you are late, please expect the session to finish at the appointed time. If I have to cancel a session under exceptional circumstances, you will not be expected to pay for it and, if possible, I will offer you another.
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If you cancel a session with less than 48 hours’ notice you will still be expected to pay for the session, although whenever possible I will try to offer an alternative time that suits us both, (please note that this is often not possible).
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I will give you good notice of forthcoming holidays and breaks, and I will ask that you do the same.
If for whatever reason your circumstances change, therefore making it difficult for you to continue with our meetings, I would encourage you to discuss the situation with me before stopping the sessions. This is to ensure that I follow good practice to ensure the welfare of you at all times.
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Data Protection & Privacy Policy
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Any personal data provided by you to the New Leaf Counselling Service through any means (verbal, written, in electronic form, or by your use of our website) will be held and processed in accordance with the data protection principles set out in the Data Protection Act 1998 and the General Data Protection Regulation for the purposes for which you have given consent, to provide the services you have requested from us, and to meet the legitimate interests of the business.
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Introduction
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New Leaf Counselling Service is committed to protecting your privacy. Please read the following in order to learn more about New Leaf privacy policy and our information collection and use practices.
This policy only applies to data collected by New Leaf Counselling via our own forms and website.
When you request services with New Leaf Counselling you will be asked to consent to our processing of your data under the terms of this policy.
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What information do we collect?
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· Counselling Requests– Registering with us to request access to our counselling service can be done online, on paper or in person. Our request process involves providing us with your name, address, telephone numbers and email address. We may also request information on your availability, therapeutic issues, and other details which we deem relevant to processing your request.
· Initial Assessment Appointments– At an initial appointment we ask about your current personal, social, medical and financial circumstances. We may also ask about your background and family history, as well as the issues which are affecting you now. We require this information so that we can decide about our offer of counselling to you, and to manage the service we provide to you.
· Website – We use Google Analytics to collect anonymous data relating to user behaviour and ‘web traffic’ statistics. The collection and use of this data by Google Inc. are subject to their own Privacy Policies.
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· Other Forms – The information you give us on our forms (including all enquiry and application forms) may include your name, postal address, email address, phone number and other messages to us.
What do we use your information for?
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We use information held about you in the following ways:
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· To provide clients with the professional counselling service requested from us.
· To offer suitable counselling appointments, and to allocate clients and counsellors for counselling.
· To notify you about changes to your appointments and other changes to our services.
· To seek feedback from you on your experience of counselling with us.
· To improve our service to ensure that it is provided in the most effective manner for you and for us.
· To administer our service, including the arrangement of appointments, and for financial control, data analysis, research, statistical and survey purposes.
· To keep in touch with those who consent to this, for the purposes of organisational, service and professional development.
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What information do we share?
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We will not share any information about you with other organisations or people, except in the following situations:
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· Consent – New Leaf Counselling may share your information with professional carers or others whom you have requested or agreed we should contact.
· Serious harm – New Leaf Counselling may share your information with the relevant authorities if we have reason to believe that this may prevent serious harm being caused to you or another person.
· Compliance with law – New Leaf Counselling may share your information where we are required to by law or by the regulations and other rules to which we are subject.
· As part of the backups of encrypted data processed and held by professional IT security companies.
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How do we keep your information safe?
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All information you provide to us is stored as securely as possible. All paper forms and correspondence are kept in locked filing cabinets in a secure location. All electronic records are stored securely on a cloud server using the latest firewalls and data security protocols, and all access is by password-protected authentication, or by our IT service provider using secure cloud technology.
Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is never completely secure. Although we will do our best to protect your information using industry-standard protocols and encryption, we cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to us via email, including forms completed on our website which are transmitted by email; any transmission is at your own risk. Once we have received your information, we will use strict procedures and security features to try to prevent unauthorised access.
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Your identifiable personal information is kept separately from any session notes and other descriptive material. Client notes and other documentation are destroyed 3 years after the end of counselling.
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Your rights
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You have the right to ask us to provide a copy of the information held by us in our records. You also have the right to require us to correct any inaccuracies in your information. If you would like to do this, please contact New Leaf Counselling.
You may withdraw your consent for us to hold and process your data at any time. However, if you do this while actively receiving therapy with New Leaf Counselling, your counselling will have to end. You can withdraw your consent by contacting New Leaf Counselling.
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Cookies
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We do not use cookies to collect any personal information on our website, or to share your browsing behaviour with any third party except:
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· Google Analytics – Like hundreds of thousands of websites you visit, we use Google Analytics to collect generic, anonymous data from all visitors to monitor how our website is used. This data is shared with Google in return for the service they provide.
· Cookie Notice – Ironically, the law requires that you receive a notification about our use of cookies, and so we have to use another set of cookies specifically and only to collect the information that you have seen this notice and agreed to it.
That’s it. If you are aware of, or find any other cookies on this website, please let us know immediately as they have not been installed by us!
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Changes to this policy
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We may edit this policy from time to time. If we make any substantial changes, we will notify you by posting a prominent announcement on our website