THERAPY AGREEMENT

I believe in the power of the therapeutic relationship and working through feelings, emotions, thoughts and behaviours that might be having a negative impact on you and perhaps on others. My aim is for us to work together in the counselling room (and sometimes via scheduled on-line*, telephone or email contact) at your own pace to get you back in control of your life. *While I have taken reasonable steps to ensure adequate levels of security for online therapy, absolute security in the digital world does not exist and I cannot guarantee the security of any of these platforms.

Rates and Payment: I charge £100-120 for face to face and online sessions. In our introductory session we will agree the fee. The fee will depend on time of day/week you would like your session: early morning and evening sessions are more expensive. Rates may differ for insurance claims.

Fees will be reviewed on an annual basis. Unless otherwise negotiated, if more than two consecutive sessions are not paid for, the therapy may be suspended until payment is made.

Currently all concession spaces are filled so I do not offer concessions.

Sessions: For therapy to be effective, a commitment to weekly sessions is recommended. The sessions are once a week on the same day and time, unless otherwise agreed. Each session is 50 minutes long. Appointments missed and short-notice cancellation: Traffic and life happen but sessions will always need to finish at the allotted time. An appointment missed or cancelled with less than 72 hours’ notice will be charged at the full rate. I charge for missed sessions for several reasons: the booked room will have to be paid whether you attend or not; if you make an appointment, I can't see another client- the hour is yours, whether you are there or not; therapy is a commitment and you are valuing yourself by taking it seriously.

Length of therapeutic process: This is dependent on your goals and can be agreed in the first few sessions. If you feel you have achieved all you can in therapy, you are entitled to end the process at any time. An optimum notice for therapy termination is four weeks on either side. A minimum of two weeks notice is required to ensure there is an appropriate time to reflect on the work completed. We can re-contract to suit your individual circumstances and work patterns. Lengthy periods of absence will have to be negotiated if you want to guarantee my availability or the same appointment time when you return. While therapy can be hugely beneficial to a client’s well-being, the therapist gives no guarantee that the therapy will result in an improvement of the client’s mental condition or general well-being.

In case of a crisis: Contact between sessions is fine, and sometimes necessary, but should be limited to arranging or re-arranging sessions, requesting extra sessions or brief scheduled email/phone exchanges, but most of the work will happen within the scheduled sessions. I do not offer a crisis service and may not be available outside office hours in case of an emergency. I will endeavour to reply to texts and emails within 24 hours. You have several alternatives in a crisis situation (e.g., if you feel you are a danger to yourself or are otherwise in need of immediate help):

Contact your General Practitioner (GP)
Go to your nearest Accident & Emergency Department.
Ring the Samaritans on 08457 90 90 90 (available 24 hours a day, every day).
Ring SANELINE on 0845 767 8000 (available 1 p.m. to 11 p.m. every day).
Check out the BACP Useful Resources

Drugs and Alcohol: I am asking that you do not attend sessions if you are under the influence of substances as this is neither safe or helpful. Should this happen, I will have to cancel the session and the full fee will be payable.

Privacy Policy and Data Retention Statement

I am a registered member of the UKCP (United Kingdom Council of Psychotherapy) and work within their ethical framework. I hold professional indemnity insurance through Balens. I understand how important your privacy is and I take care to maintain your confidentiality in accordance with current data protection laws (GDPR, 2018) and the ethical guidelines of the .

Information Commissioner's Office (ICO): I am only processing personal data for the core business purpose and I am registered with ICO - Reference number A8701302 and my practice adheres to the principles of General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) and I follow their best practice to manage information.

Under GDPR you have rights as an individual which you can exercise in relation to the information I hold about you, so please read below to understand how I handle your data.

Data processing and storage: information that you provided at assessment such as address, date of birth, next to kin, GP and medication is safely and securely held in a 256-bit AES encryption cloud storage. While we work together I will store your phone number on my smartphone under your first name and the phone is password protected. Only I can access this information. These records are kept in line with insurance requirements for 7 years following the last occasion on which treatment was given, after this deadline I will ensure they are securely destroyed. I will only contact you in response to you or concerning appointments, invoicing, or payments. I do not engage with clients through any personal social media. I do not share your information with anyone else, though in line with UK counselling regulations, I have regular supervision to support me in working with clients.

Consent: as a therapist who occasionally uses creative interventions, I want to ensure you know that any art done in sessions is yours. You can keep it, I can destroy it securely or I can upload it on your cloud folder. I will never use any of your data/artwork for writing, publishing, research or training without prior consent.

I have regular ongoing supervision to support and ensure my practice is safe. When I share in supervision client material this is always done confidentially, protecting your identity.

Note keeping: I do not keep process notes but I keep a document with all sessions attended, main themes discussed, payments and when I received supervision for these sessions (in line with UKCP regulation). I use client initials to identify who the clients are. This document is saved in the cloud, encrypted, and information will be kept for 7 years after ending therapy after which I will dispose of it securely. You have a right to see this information, should you wish to do so. You have a right to change any information that you consider incorrect. You can also ask me to delete all/any of the information that I hold. There are however, some details that I need to keep due to legal and professional obligations.

Confidentiality: I am bound to a code of ethics and confidentiality, and am obliged therefore not to disclose any information to a third party (other than within professional supervision) without your consent. However, if in exceptional circumstances I were to become concerned that you may be in danger of harming either yourself or others, I am also bound by a legal duty of care to seek to prevent this. I would normally seek your consent before undertaking any action, unless there are safeguarding issues that prevent this.

In the event of a complaint: Please contact me directly. If we cannot solve the complaint, you can contact - the governing body to which I belong is UKCP https://www.psychotherapy.org.uk/ukcp-members/complaints/make-a-complaint/ .

Privacy Policy

Introduction

Your privacy is very important to me and you can be confident that your personal information will be kept safe and secure and will only be used for the purpose it was given to me. I adhere to current data protection legislation, including the General Data Protection Regulation (EU/2016/679) (the GDPR), the Data Protection Act 2018 and the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003. This privacy notice is in accordance with the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) guidance https://www.bacp.co.uk/media/6208/bacp-privacy-notice-guide.pdf

This privacy notice tells you what I will do with your personal information from initial point of contact through to after your therapy has ended, including:

• Why I am able to process your information and what purpose I am processing it for

• Whether you have to provide it to me

• How long I store it for

• Whether there are other recipients of your personal information

• Whether I intend to transfer it to another country,

• Whether I do automated decision-making or profiling, and

• Your data protection rights.

I am happy to chat through any questions you might have about my data protection policy and you can contact me via email on therapywithcristina@gmail.com.

‘Data controller’ is the term used to describe the person/ organisation that collects and stores and has responsibility for people’s personal data. In this instance, the data controller is me.

I am registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office [Registration number A8701302]. My phone number is: 0798 2336481. My email address is: therapywithcristina@gmail.com.

My lawful basis for holding and using your personal information

The GDPR states that I must have a lawful basis for processing your personal data. There are different lawful bases depending on the stage at which I am processing your data. I have explained these below:

If you have had therapy with me and it has now ended, I will use legitimate interest as my lawful basis for holding and using your personal information.
If you are currently having therapy or if you are in contact with me to consider therapy, I will process your personal data where it is necessary for the performance of our contract.

The GDPR also makes sure that I look after any sensitive personal information that you may disclose to me appropriately. This type of information is called ‘special category personal information’. The lawful basis for me processing any special categories of personal information is that it is for provision of health treatment (in this case counselling) and necessary for a contract with a health professional (in this case, a contract between me and you).

How I use your information:

Initial contact

When you contact me with an enquiry about my counselling services I will collect information to help me satisfy your enquiry. This will include name, phone number, email address, address. Alternatively, your GP, other health professional or trusted individual may send me your details when making a referral or when making an enquiry on your behalf.

If you decide not to proceed I will ensure all your personal data is deleted within seven days from our last contact.

While you are accessing counselling

Everything you discuss with me is confidential.

Like all registered psychotherapists in the UK, I am required to have regular clinical supervision to support best practice, during which time some client material is discussed, on an anonymous and confidential basis.

Confidentiality will only be broken in exceptional circumstances:

By Order of Law: If I am ordered by a court of law to share any of the information I hold about you, I will share only the minimum detail required and only after discussion with you wherever possible.
Intent to harm: If I believe there is a significant risk of you causing serious harm to yourself or another person, or of taking your own life, I may share your contact information and brief mental health details with your doctor or relevant emergency service. I will attempt to discuss this with you first whenever possible.
Terrorism and Money Laundering: If I have become aware of your intent to commit an act of terrorism, or money laundering, the law may require that I inform an authority without seeking your permission or your knowledge.

I will keep a record of your personal details to help the counselling services run smoothly.

What I store and where

Smartphone: I store your mobile number under your first name. This allows me to contact you in emergencies, but your full identity is kept confidential. Your emails, telephone contact history and texts may also be stored here should we exchange messages in this way. My smartphone is password protected and I access it via face recognition or fingerprint.
Computer: I do not hold any client materials on my computer.
Website: None of your personal information is stored on my website, other than momentarily if you use the “Contact Me” facility.
Paper: I do not keep paper copies.
Encrypted cloud storage: I keep copies of the following: signed therapy agreement (or your email confirming you have read and understood it); your self completed Key Personal Details form; email and text correspondence and any artwork you have done during sessions and asked me to save for you. An Excel Spreadsheet with the sessions we had (attended or not), main themes discussed and date of supervision. Your name does not appear in this document, only your initials. I do not keep process notes electronically or on paper.

After counselling has ended

Once counselling has ended your records will be kept for seven years from the end of our contact with each other and are then securely destroyed. You can also ask me to delete any of the information that I hold. There are however, some details that I need to keep due to legal and professional obligations.

As per insurance requirements, I retain text messages and email correspondence for seven years.

Your rights

I try to be as open as I can be in terms of giving people access to their personal information. You have a right to ask me to delete your personal information, to limit how I use your personal information, or to stop processing your personal information. You also have a right to ask for a copy of any information that I hold about you and to object to the use of your personal data in some circumstances. You can read more about your rights at ico.org.uk/your-data-matters. If I do hold information about you I will:

• give you a description of it and where it came from;

• tell you why I am holding its, tell you how long I will store your data and how I made this decision;

• tell you who it could be disclosed to;

• let you have a copy of the information in an intelligible form.

You can also ask me at any time to correct any mistakes there may be in the personal information I hold about you. To make a request for any personal information I may hold about you, please put the request in writing addressing it to therapywithcristina@gmail.com.

If you have any complaint about how I handle your personal data please do not hesitate to get in touch with me by emailing to the contact details given above. I would welcome any suggestions for improving my data protection procedures. If you want to make a formal complaint about the way I have processed your personal information you can contact the ICO which is the statutory body that oversees data protection law in the UK. For more information go to ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint.

Data security

I take the security of the data I hold about you very seriously and as such I take every effort to make sure it is kept secure. My phone is password protected and I keep your details under your first name only. Your personal details are saved on a 256-bit AES encrypted cloud secure storage.

Visitors to my website

When someone visits my website, I use a third party service, GoDaddy to collect standard internet log information and details of visitor behaviour patterns. I do this to find out things such as the number of visitors to the various parts of the site. This information is only processed in a way that does not identify anyone. I do not make, and do not allow GoDaddy to make any attempt to find out the identities of those visiting my website. I use legitimate interests as my lawful basis for holding and using your personal information in this way when you visit my website. You can read GoDaddy privacy notice here https://uk.godaddy.com/agreements/privacy. Like most websites I use cookies to help the site work more efficiently.