Counselling and Psychotherapy with Individuals
At the heart of counselling and psychotherapy is a spontaneous process arising from the material being shared and from the dynamics of the client-therapist relationship. While it is important not to encumber this process with a lot of rules and regulations, there are some structures underpinning the way I work which I would like to make you aware of as we start.
Your session is a 50-minute portion of time allocated specifically to you. I will make myself available at the agreed time(s) each week, and I will charge you for each session. I would be willing to negotiate more than one session per week if at any time either of us were to consider this necessary or desirable, and if space were available.
Because psychotherapy does not follow the more familiar medical model of ‘one-off’ or occasional appointments, but is rather built on a mutual commitment over time, your session space each week becomes yours, and therefore needs to be paid for even if you are unable to attend. However, I do allow for two unpaid missed sessions per year for long-term clients. There is no fee payable if I am prevented from honouring an appointment for any reason, or during the 30-35 days per year in which I take holiday.
If we agree to work together beyond the first meeting, I will usually offer an open-ended contract, unless either of us has a specific reason for limiting the work to a particular number of sessions. It becomes an integral part of the therapy for us to assess together when the work is moving towards its conclusion and to negotiate a date to finish that will give enough time for the ending to be fully experienced.
I review my fees annually, any changes occurring on 1 November. I will give notice of any increase during the preceding summer.
Our work is bound by a commitment on my part to confidentiality. Apart from me, the only other person who will gain an insight into what is happening is my clinical supervisor—and only after I have ascertained that s/he has no prior personal or professional knowledge of you. However, there could be times when I would ask for your permission to extend the confidentiality boundary: for example, if I felt it necessary that some information be made available to your GP. Only in extreme circumstances would I break confidentiality without your permission: in a situation, for example, where I judged your safety or someone else’s to be under immediate threat. Please feel free to ask me about this in more detail if you wish.
During the course of our work together, your welfare will always be my prime concern. My practice is subject to the ethical code of the Bath Centre for Psychotherapy and Counselling, of which I am a graduate member. Its guidelines closely mirror those established by UKCP and BACP, the two main accrediting bodies for psychotherapists and counsellors in Britain. I am a registered practitioner in UKCP’s Humanistic and Integrative section.