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Your counselling agreement

Counselling Agreement

Please read the agreement below. If you are happy to proceed, enter your details and type your full name as your electronic signature. The practice will receive your submission. Read the Privacy Policy to understand how the information is used.

  1. 01Read the agreement
  2. 02Add your signature
  3. 03Practice countersignature

Counselling

Sessions last 50 minutes and usually take place weekly. Counselling provides a confidential space to explore your thoughts, feelings, experiences and concerns, develop understanding and awareness, support personal growth and, where appropriate, work towards your goals.

Your counsellor’s role is to accompany and support you with empathy, openness and without judgement. The work is collaborative. You remain the person who decides what feels right for you.

Confidentiality

What you share in sessions will not ordinarily be discussed outside the therapeutic relationship. There are some necessary limits:

  • Supervision: Your counsellor attends regular professional supervision. She takes care to protect your identity and shares no unnecessary identifying information.
  • Risk and safeguarding: Information may need to be shared if there is an imminent risk of harm to you or another person, a safeguarding concern involving a child or adult at risk, or a legal duty to disclose. This includes legal duties relating to money laundering or acts of terrorism. Where possible, the practice will discuss this with you first. In an immediate or serious situation, it may need to act without prior consent.
  • Legal requirements: Information may need to be disclosed where the law requires it, for example in response to a court order. Only information required by law will be disclosed.

Records

Contact details and information needed to arrange and provide counselling will be held securely. The practice keeps brief records relevant to the therapeutic work and stores them securely in line with applicable data protection and confidentiality requirements.

You may request access to information held about you, subject to applicable legal requirements and exemptions. Counselling records are normally kept for three years after counselling ends, unless there is an appropriate legal or ethical reason to keep them longer, or you request otherwise where this is possible.

Ethics and complaints

The practice follows the National Counselling and Psychotherapy Society (NCPS) Code of Ethics. If you have a concern, please contact the practice so it can be discussed. You may also make a formal complaint through the NCPS complaints process.

Sessions and ending counselling

There is no fixed limit to the number of sessions. The length of the work depends on your circumstances, needs and goals. You may end counselling whenever you choose. Your counsellor encourages you to discuss ending so that, where appropriate, you can reflect on the work and bring it to a considered close. You will periodically review together whether counselling continues to meet your needs.

Cancelling or missing a session

Please give at least 24 hours’ notice if you need to cancel or rearrange. If you cancel with less than 24 hours’ notice or miss a session, the fee will not normally be refunded. An exception may be considered if an emergency arises, particularly where this is not a repeated occurrence. If you cancel with at least 24 hours’ notice, contact the practice to agree whether the session will be rearranged or refunded. If the practice needs to cancel, it will normally give at least 24 hours’ notice, except in an emergency. A replacement session or refund will be agreed with you.

If you do not attend and have not contacted the practice, it will make reasonable attempts to reach you. If the practice has not heard from you within 24 hours of the missed session, it may assume you do not wish to continue and will not arrange further sessions unless you contact the practice.

Technical difficulties affecting an online session will be considered separately and will not, by themselves, be treated as a missed session.

Fees and payment

An individual 50-minute session costs £60 and is payable in advance. A block of six 50-minute sessions costs £330. Payment can be made by bank transfer. The practice will provide payment details directly when arranging sessions. To arrange a block booking, use the Soma Anima contact form. If you think you may not be able to use all your block sessions, please contact me at least two weeks in advance. Without that notice, you may not be able to receive a refund or move your sessions.

Agreement

By signing below, you agree to work within the boundaries and principles in this agreement. It is intended to provide a clear, safe and transparent framework for your therapeutic work together.

Practice: Soma Anima Therapeutic Counselling.
Counsellor: Arianne Sheikh.

Your signature

Sign the agreement

When you sign, your agreement goes to the practice for countersigning. Once the practice has signed, a completed copy is emailed to you at the address you enter below and to the practice. Both signatures include the date and time. Please do not include health or counselling details in these fields.

This signing form is for the agreement only. For enquiries or to arrange a block booking, use the Soma Anima contact form.

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Use the same full name in both fields. The date and time will be recorded when you submit your signature.