Confidentiality Agreement
1. Confidentiality
Psychological therapy sessions aim to provide a confidential space for the Client to speak openly about personal difficulties and concerns. In order to provide a high level of care in these sessions, brief progress notes in either written or electronic format may be kept. However sessions will not be audio or video recorded and the Client must also agree to not record sessions. A report summarising progress in treatment may be prepared for the Client or the referrer under certain circumstances, but this will always be discussed with the Client.
A duty of confidentiality extends to supervision sessions (required to maintain best possible evidence based practice) . Any discussions conducted or notes taken by Ms Williams during her clinical supervision are confidential and anonymised.
Limits to confidentiality:
Confidentiality will be breached are where there are concerns about risk of harm to the Client or others,
if the Client were involved in a serious crime,
or if the Client's records were requested by the Court.
There is also a legal requirement to report any disclosed evidence of terrorism, drug trafficking and money laundering.
2. Fees for Therapy
Once engaged in regular weekly therapy or consultancy services, fees may be block booked and paid in advance or invoiced monthly in arrears. Invoices are emailed directly to the Client and payable within 7 days of receipt. Payment is accepted via bank transfer. Fees are reviewed annually and advance notice of any increase will be provided. Late payment will incur charges, as will repeat reminders to settle overdue invoices. Please always notify Ms Williams if you are anticipating a delay in your payment as Ms Williams is unable to provide ongoing services where fees are overdue. If fees remain unpaid, all services will be withdrawn and a formal process of debt collection may be initiated.
3. Private Medical Insurance
At present, clients paying via private medical insurance are not being accepted.
4. Additional Fees
Where reports are required by the Client's GP, psychiatrist or other healthcare provider, this will incur additional fees. This will be discussed with the Client prior to the report being prepared and fees will be determined by the amount of time taken to prepare the report. All letter requests made by the Client, be it to employers (e.g. requests for sickness absence letters) or university departments (e.g. to apply for extenuating circumstances), or other addressees attract a minimum fee of £130, and are charged at the standard hourly rate. Fees for reports and letters fall to the Client. Where a Client would like the Psychologist to read a document, for example a personal journal or other confidential or sensitive material, it is recommended that this be brought to the session and discussed in the session time. Where documents need to be read outside the Client's session time, the Client will be billed for the time taken to read the material at Ms Williams's standard hourly rate.
5. Data Protection
At Next Chapter Psychology Ltd, we take your privacy seriously. Any information stored and provided will be stored and processed in accordance with the GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018 (as amended).
6. Applicable Law
All services provided by Ms Williams as a UK based clinician are conducted under the Laws of England. This applies to all services provided in the UK and internationally. Ms Williams’s professional indemnity insurance permits psychological therapy in the UK and internationally.
7. Litigation Limitation
Due to the nature of the therapeutic process and the fact that it often involves making a full disclosure with regard to many matters which may be of a confidential nature, should there be legal proceedings (such as, but not limited to divorce and custody disputes, injuries, lawsuits, formal employment grievances etc), it is agreed that neither you (Client) nor your lawyer, nor anyone else acting on your behalf will call upon Ms Williams to testify in Court or at any other proceeding, nor will a disclosure of the psychotherapy records be requested. There are occasions where disclosure may be required, for example, in the circumstances of criminal proceedings, or other exceptional occasions where your medical record may be requested by the Court, if for example your mental status has been placed at issue in litigation initiated by you.
8. Therapeutic Boundaries
A central tenet of effective therapy is that the therapy be conducted in a safe and containing environment and this includes the relational and physical boundaries between Client and Psychologist. Ms Williams will maintain boundaries within the therapeutic relationship. This boundary is also maintained in relation to social media, in that Ms Williams will not connect with or follow Clients on any social media platform and will not accept any requests to connect.
9. Client Responsibilities
Boundaries also relate to the session time itself. Please arrive promptly online for your session to ensure that you benefit from the full 50minutes It will not be possible to run over if you arrive late. It is also requested that Clients are free from drugs and alcohol during their appointment. Please also refrain from using e-cigarettes or vapes as it's important to experience the feelings that these behaviours act to avoid. Please also ensure that your mobile and any other electronic devices are turned off. Under no circumstances can a session be audio or video recorded. Having clear boundaries such as this helps to regulate affect and create a more adaptive, confidential and reflective therapeutic space.
10. Copyright
Any material created for the Client by Ms Williams is the intellectual property and copyright of Ms Williams. The Client is not permitted to copy, share, reproduce or display publicly or electronically via any social media platform or otherwise any recording, report, schema profile, or any other correspondence between the Psychologist and the Client or issued by the Psychologist to the Client.
11. Communication between sessions
You are encouraged to discuss any concerns or problems during therapy sessions rather than contacting your treating Psychologist between sessions. If you need to contact Ms Williams between sessions, emails are typically checked Monday-Friday between 8am-6pm with a response provided within 2 working days. Therefore, if you email on Thursday, it's possible you may not receive a response until Monday the following week. Emails are not monitored in the evenings or over the weekend.
12. Limits of Services in an Emergency
Ms Williams does not operate an emergency service and cannot attend to individuals in crisis as she is unable to guarantee her availability outside clinic hours or outside your regular session time. If you are actively suicidal or psychotic and in need of urgent mental health support it is advised that you seek urgent mental health input. NHS urgent mental health helplines are available 24/7 for advice and support. If UK based, you can search for your local urgent mental health services here https://www.nhs.uk/service-search/mental-health/find-an-urgent-mental-health-helpline. You can also arrange an urgent assessment via your GP, or if risk of harm to self or others is high, call 999 or attend your local Accident and Emergency Department. NHS Liaison psychiatry services can be accessed via A&E, as can crisis resolution and home treatment teams. Confidential out of hours mental health support is also accessible via the Samaritans support line operating 24 hours a day (Tel: 116 123) or by email:jo@samaritans.org. For international clients, as you have elected to undertake therapy with a UK based therapist, you are responsible for familiarising yourself with the relevant mental health crisis contacts for your locality. This may include a National helpline. Other resources include: Crisis Text Line https://www.crisistextline.org; and Suicide Prevention Line https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org
13. Frequency of therapy
Therapy is most effective when provided at a minimum frequency of once weekly. Extended sessions are also available under individually assessed circumstances. Ad hoc sessions, fortnightly consultations, or once monthly follow-up are typically advisable only to review progress and well-being after a course of more intensive weekly therapy. There may however be limited flexibility to accommodate ad hoc sessions or fortnightly/monthly sessions in-person as clinic times are structured around weekly attendance only. Please note that your fee will increase if you decide to attend on a non-weekly basis, depending on the agreement that is reached. Where there are regular requests for ad hoc sessions, the Client will be encouraged to consider whether there may be a need to re-enter regular weekly therapy.
14. Cancellations
14.1 For Initial Consultations and subsequent sessions, 48 hours’ notice is required. Where sessions are cancelled outside this period for any reason, be it illness, childcare, or an emergency, the full session fee will still be charged. If an alternative slot the same week can be accommodated, this will be; however, this is rarely guaranteed. It is recommended that you commit fully to your therapy and attend weekly as this will ensure the best possible results.
14.2 1 If you need to cancel a session for a planned period of absence such as a holiday, please provide as much notice as possible, with a minimum notification period of 2-weeks (please see point 15 below re breaks in therapy).
14.3 Where sessions are regularly cancelled, you will be asked to reflect on the circumstances of your frequent absence, and a decision may be taken to put your therapy on hold until you are more able to make a fuller commitment.
15. Breaks in therapy
Once you have committed to weekly therapy, an appointment will be held for you at the same time each week until the point at which your therapy is re-contracted or ends. If you are taking a break in your therapy for a holiday or any other reason that has been planned in advance, 2 weeks notice is required. Should you choose to take an extended break in your therapy for a longer holiday, work, travel, or other commitment, it may not be possible to hold your regular appointment time for you. If you do decide to vacate your regular appointment time due to an extended absence, Ms Williams cannot guarantee that the same appointment will be available on your return or that there will be any immediate availability as her clinics run at full capacity. Ms Williams will always do her best to accommodate any breaks in your therapy in the most therapeutic manner and to ensure that any unintended extended breaks in your therapy are avoided so please do always discuss any change in your commitments ahead of time.
16. Practice Closures
Ms Williams will provide as much advance notice of any dates where she is absent. Very unusually she may need to cancel a clinic due to an unavoidable event. This is extremely rare and should this happen every effort will be made to provide as much notice as possible and if the session can be rescheduled to another time, this will be accommodated. She will also close her practice during periods where she is taking leave, and will provide advance notice of any practice closure dates.
17. Complaints
17.1 If you are unhappy with the services you are receiving, you are encouraged to raise this directly with Ms Williams and she will work with you to understand what has prompted the concern and to resolve any issues or misunderstandings which may have arisen.
17.2 If you have a serious concern about Ms Williams’s professional conduct which you have been unable to raise with her directly, formal complaint processes can be accessed via her licensing/certification boards (Health & Care Professions Council and the International Society for Schema Therapy).
18. Termination of Services/Onward Referral
The therapy end date is typically determined by a Client's needs and progress. However, under the circumstances where clinical needs change and fall outside the scope of the Psychologist's practice, or where there are issues relating to, but not limited to, frequent late payment of fees, conflict of interest, or frequent cancellations of appointments, Ms Williams reserves the right to discontinue providing a service and will discuss, where appropriate, alternative supports and services with you.
19. Ending Engagement in Services
Endings are significant and can be challenging for some individuals. It is recommended that any ending in therapy be planned in advance. If at any point you decide that you wish to terminate your treatment, please discuss this with Ms Williams. If you have been in therapy for less than 6 months, a minimum of 1 week notice is required. If you have been in therapy for over 6 months, a minimum of 2-week notice is required before ending weekly therapy. No notice is required if a Client decides against entering a period of therapy or consultancy services after engaging in an Initial Consultation. There is no obligation to proceed in any service after an Initial Consultation.
20. Practice Ethos
Ms Williams’s practice provides a reflective and containing space to speak freely and without judgement; to build an improved understanding of the difficulties that have brought you into therapy, including aspects of self that may have been concealed previously; to work collaboratively and creatively with you to identify patterns in your relationships with others and the origins of such patterns; to reduce distress; and to build upon your strengths to enhance adaptive coping and growth.
Psychological therapy is a process that can at times trigger intense feelings. Whilst we make every effort to ensure that your experience of therapy is a positive one, there may be occasions when the session could trigger feelings of distress that are important to make sense of with your psychologist either at the time of (or in subsequent) session.
Ms Williams believes that therapeutic change emerges within the therapist/patient bond so will often bring the focus back to what might be happening between you and her as a marker of challenges and patterns in other aspects of your life.
Ms Williams works within a range of therapeutic models including Schema Therapy, EMDR, DBT and Systemic therapy and will always tailor her approach to your needs.
Psychological therapy is not however a passive process. It requires the Clients active involvement, honesty and openness in order to effect change, therefore Client engagement in and commitment to the process is a significant predictor of outcome.