Fees and Practicalities

Fees

Initial inquiry session and ongoing sessions of 1 hour: £50

Payment can by by BACs in advance of the session, or by cheque / cash at the session.

Availability

My appointment days are Monday and Wednesday. Please contact me for availability.

We meet online via Zoom or in a peaceful garden room in Sea Mills. Unfortuately I do not have a waiting room there and it will be important that you attend at the time we arrange.

Confidentiality (See also GDPR below)

What is said in the counselling session is treated as confidential.  There are some exceptional circumstances under which I may need to break confidentiality including if required to by law or if I believed you or someone else was in serious danger of harm.  Wherever possible I would discuss this with you before reporting the matter to someone who could usefully intervene.

All counsellors and therapists are required to have supervision. This is a process in which we discuss our work with an experienced practitioner. It is anonymous and no information is given that could link my work to you as an individual.

Cancellation

If you need to cancel please try to let me know 24hrs in advance. If you need to cancel on the day I ask for £50 for the missed session.

Ending our work together

You can bring the counselling to an end at any time but as endings are important it is good to plan towards this with as much notice as possible. By doing this you have the opportunity to reflect on the things we have discussed and plan towards the future. In medium term work of over 3 to 6 months it is usually helplful to have 2 or 3 weeks to work towards ending.

GDPR

Information about you

 In order for me to be able to fulfil my responsibilities as a counsellor I will need to record personal information about you. This information includes your name, address, contact details and GP practice. Under an identifying code I also take notes of assessment information, that is: relevant medical information and aspects of your personal, social and family history that you choose to share with me. This information will be retained in separate and secure locations (keeping your name and contact details apart from the assessemnt notes).

Your contact details will be used to contact you. If at any time there are grounds to believe that you or someone else is at risk of serious harm, this concern may need to be shared with another person who can helpfully intervene such as your GP. Wherever possible I would discuss this with you first. Other personal data such as your name, address and/or date of birth will be used to verify your identity if there is a need to contact your GP or a request is made for access to personal data from yourself or your representative or a legitimate legal instrument such as a court order.

This personal information will be held for a period of three years after the cessation of our counselling relationship, except where there is a mutually agreed decision to retain if for longer or where I believe that it is in my best professional interests to do so.

Your contact details alone will be shared in exceptional circumstances with my supervisor or a other named agent in the event that I am incapacitated so that they can contact you to explain the situation.

Unless your request otherwise I will use your first name to indentify our appointments in my diary.  This is kept password protected.

Information about counselling sessions and our work together

I will record notes of each therapy session under an identifying code. These notes will be a brief factual record of the session. They may be shared under the identifying code with my supervisor, counselling professional body or similar for purposes of maintaining professional stardards and aiding my professional  development.

These notes will be held for a period of three years after the cessation of counselling except where I agree with you to retain them for longer or where I believe that it is in my best professional interests to do so.

I may make information from these notes available to legitimate third parties under the following conditions:

  • Receipt of a request from you or your representative, an where the release of the notes is not judged by me as likely to cause you significant harm or harm to another person.
  • Where there is a specific legal requirement for me to do so.
  • Where there is an ethical duty for me to do so, for example to avoid serious harm to yourself or nother person, incluing the safeguarding of children or vulnerable adults.

Records of contact between us

I will hold your name and telephone number on my mobile phone until our counselling relationship ends and then I will delete if from my contact list. However the phone will retain summary records of calls made to or from your number and any recorded messages for three years. My phone is password protected.

If we agree to ommunicate by text or by email, these records may be kept for the same duration as your counselling notes.

Your rights

You have the right to ask to see any information held by me about you. To do this please either ask me or submit a request in writing. You also have the right to ask for information that you believe to be incorrect to be rectified. I will endeavour to provide you with the information requested within four weeks.

If I become aware of a situation where your personal information may have accidently or malciously been obtained by a third party I will notify you within three days. If you are conerned about the way that your information is being held please discuss this with me.

If you are still unhappy you hae the right to conplain to the Information Commissioners Office.