Working agreement between client & counsellor

INTRODUCTION

We believe that counselling is a partnership between you and your counsellor. This working agreement aims to set out what is involved in committing to this partnership.

You can raise any questions or concerns about this agreement with your counsellor at any time.

All of our counsellors are fully qualified, and registered members of the BACP (British association of Counselling and Psychotherapy), the NCPS (National Counselling & Psychotherapy Society), or the UKCP (UK Council for Psychotherapy).

OUR COMMITMENT

Our clinical standards adhere to the NCPS Code of Ethical Practice. A copy of this is available online at https://ncps.com/about-us/code-of-ethics

The Service undertakes to provide the following:

• Regular weekly sessions with your counsellor, at the same time on the same day each week. Each session lasts 50 minutes.
• Notice of holiday breaks. Your counsellor will be available for weekly sessions for a minimum of 44 weeks per year and will give good notice of all planned absences.
• Confidentiality throughout the Service (within the limits of the law). All Service staffs are bound by a confidentiality agreement. The Service has specific policies on the limits of confidentiality in the case of clients at risk of suicide and cases where child abuse is suspected. These are available on request.
• A mutually agreed ending to counselling. All counselling is open-ended and is ended by mutual agreement between the counsellor and the client. Once the counsellor and the client agree that their work is finished it is usual to fix a date for the last session to allow time for the ending process.
• Access to written information. You counsellor will keep brief, confidential (names are omitted) written records of counselling sessions. These are available from your counsellor on request.

YOUR COMMITMENT

When you begin counselling you make the following commitment:

• Regular, punctual attendance. Once counselling begins you are expected to attend weekly apart from public holidays, when your counsellor is away or during your own annual holidays. Your counsellor will not normally extend your session time if you are late.
• Payment for all sessions. Once a counsellor is allocated to you, your session time will not be available to anyone else. For this reason, you will be required to pay for all sessions other than those when your counsellor is unavailable, public holidays and up to (6) six in any one year (from the start of your counselling) for your breaks, agreed between you and your counsellor. You will be charged at the standard rate for any other sessions that you are unable to attend.
• Online Counselling. In order for online counselling to be successful for you, you will need to have a quiet and confidential space for yourself to talk freely and openly, and without interruption. Your counsellor will not conduct counselling sessions with you if you are outside in public, travelling in a vehicle, or your counsellor believes there is someone else in the room with you. Your counsellor can stop counselling sessions at any time if they feel that the session is not secure and confidential. Please let your counsellor know if you have any concerns regarding confidentiality of sessions. Sessions will take place online via our secure Telehealth system. For each of our sessions, your counsellor will send you an email with a secure link to join them at the agreed time. You should receive this 24 hours before your session is due to start.

ONLINE SESSION TROUBLESHOOTING

In the unlikely event that there are any connection issues with your online counselling session, the counsellor will make attempts to re-establish connection within your allocated counselling session time. If it is clear that connection cannot be re-established within the session time your counsellor will email you to inform you connection for online counselling was not possible and will endeavour to re-schedule your session at another convenient time.

RECORDING

Online counselling sessions will not be recorded by your counsellor. Clients are not permitted to record online counselling sessions while working with their counsellor.

PAYMENTS

All sessions are paid for by debit / credit card in advance via a link sent 24 – 48 hours before each session. The session fee is £59.

SESSIONS & CANCELLATIONS

All sessions are 50 minutes in length. If a session needs to be cancelled, the client must provide Mindworx with 48 hours notice. Failure to do so will result in the full session cost still being charged.

SUPERVISION

All of our counsellors are registered members of a UK counselling governing body (BACP, UKCP etc..). This means that they are required to have regular supervision sessions and will discuss their work with a supervisor on a regular basis. However, the counsellor will not disclose your name or any other information that would enable you to be identified by the supervisor.

CLIENT FEEDBACK

As part of the ongoing quality development of Mindworx, we will at times email our clients a confidential questionnaire regarding the experience our services.