Terms and Conditions

Caroline Ellison Counselling Terms and Conditions

All sessions at Caroline Ellison Counselling are totally confidential. The identity and personal details of individuals are carefully protected.

Initial Session

Your initial session is your first booking where you meet Caroline Ellison and discuss your counselling requirements. This initial meeting aims at clarifying your needs and identify the best way forward, including frequency of sessions, length of therapy and possible referrals to other professionals. The initial session is offered at a discounted rate, however, if the first scheduled initial session is not attended any further initial sessions may be charged at the full rate of a one hour counselling session.

Fees, Payment and Cancellation

Fees per session are agreed in the initial session. Payment is accepted by BACS. Session fees are due 48 hours prior to your session. If fees are not paid at least 48 hours prior to your session the session may be cancelled. Block bookings of sessions are valid for 12 months from the date of invoice.

Counselling sessions are 60 minutes and will take place at intervals agreed between Caroline Ellison Counselling and the Client.

If you cancel a session at short notice – less than 24 hours – or fail to attend an appointment, full fees will be incurred.

If you attend your session under the influence of alcohol or drugs Caroline Ellison may not be able to see you and has the right to refuse admission. This will also constitute a late cancellation and therefore the full session amount will still be payable.

If 3 consecutive sessions are not attended or re-scheduled with less than 24 hours notice, Caroline Ellison has the right to cancel all further sessions with the Client.

All Paid for sessions are non-refundable and non-transferable.

Length of therapy

The length of therapy required will be down to individual requirements. There is no limit on the number of sessions offered to clients, this is an autonomous process however, Caroline Ellison will advise the client if needed. Typically, short-term therapy is specific focus therapy where you need a place to gather your thoughts and the opinion of a professional to make an important decision or become more aware of the hidden factors in a given situation. Long-term therapy is a thorough analysis of your life and who you are in it. The length of long-term therapy depends on the Clients’ requirements.

Ending – Once a client is accepted for counselling, the counsellor has an ethical responsibility to accompany the process to the end. Therapy comes to a completion naturally as an agreement between both parties. The client is free to end therapy at any stage by giving at least two-week notice before finishing to allow for the process of closure.

Online Counselling

Confidentiality

  1. You should do all that you can to find a private and undisturbed place for our sessions. If you feel confident that you cannot be overheard, you will be able to engage in the session more fully. You may need to be creative about finding confidential space, perhaps even sitting outside in the car, if you have one. (You will also need to ensure that any vulnerable members of your household have adequate care and supervision for this time. If this is not possible, we may need to review the suitability of the service I am able to offer.)
  2. We will both agree not to make any kind of recording of sessions conducted by phone or video-link.
  3. You are responsible for the security of your devices, employing password protection, having regularly updated virus-checkers and firewalls installed etc. (Please discuss any concerns with me).
  4. Caroline Ellison Counselling will ensure that devices are secure at all times as above. Absolute security in the digital world does not exist, but we wish to assure you that all reasonable steps have been taken to make this service as secure as possible.

Technical Responsibility

Caroline Ellison Counselling uses Zoom for Online Counselling. The call quality on Zoom is usually very good. If your internet is good enough to stream YouTube or Netflix, it is good enough for video conferencing. It is recommended that you close all other browser windows and programmes running in the background to make the call quality as good as possible.

Please note you are responsible for the technology at your end and in the event of technology failure you may still be charged for your session.

Ad hoc Counselling

Ad hoc Counselling sessions are valid for 12 months from the date of commencing ad hoc counselling. Moving to ad hoc counselling will be verbally agreed between Caroline Ellison Counselling and the Client on request.

What is Adhoc Counselling?

When a client has completed a period of counselling and wants to stop regular sessions but feels they may want top up or ad hoc sessions at a later date, the client is moved to an ad hoc status. These sessions may be paid 48 hours prior to the session or the client may have pre paid for a block booking of sessions in advance and wants to bank the remaining unused sessions for ad hoc. It is these pre paid sessions which are valid for 12 months from date of commencing ad hoc sessions.