Terms & Conditions & Confidentiality

1. Terms & Confidentiality

Time:

We shall agree a regular time to meet. I will try to tell you in advance of any holiday breaks, which will usually occur in school holidays. If I have to reschedule a session, I will give you as much notice as possible.

Fees:

You may pay weekly or monthly by cheque or in cash. Fees are payable one week in advance. If you miss a session without 48 hours’ notice you will be charged the full fee If you miss a session with notice, Philip Boddey will reschedule your session. No refund will be given for failure to reschedule. Fees cover supervision, insurance, training, membership of the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy and any other related and reasonable costs that Philip Boddey Counselling incurs.

Ending your counselling:

When no specific number of sessions has been agreed at the start of your counselling, please give one month’s notice before discontinuing counselling to ensure you are provided with the best support. Your final sessions will be very important in helping you to go forward with your life in a more positive way.

Content of Sessions:

It is entirely up to you to choose how you use your time during your sessions. Philip Boddey will, of course, offer guidance to help you discuss and work through the thoughts and feelings that you have.

 Ethics:

Philip Boddey is a member of the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) and adheres to its code of ethics. While all clients are discussed in supervision, unless there is specific cause, anonymity will be safe guarded during this time.

Please note that I operate in accordance with the BACP child protection process.

2. Confidentiality Client Agreement

To ensure you receive the highest standard of support, Philip Boddey is a member of the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) and adheres to its code of ethics.

Please take time to look at the code, set out below:

1. The practice of counselling and psychotherapy depends on gaining and honouring the trust of clients. 
Keeping trust requires:
- attentiveness to the quality of listening and respect offered to clients 
- culturally appropriate ways of communicating that are courteous and clear 
- respect for privacy and dignity 
- careful attention to client consent and confidentiality.

2. Clients should be adequately informed about the nature of the services being offered. Practitioners
 should obtain adequately informed consent from their clients and respect a client’s right to choose
 whether to continue or withdraw.

3. Practitioners should ensure that services are normally delivered on the basis of the client’s explicit
 consent. Reliance on implicit consent is more vulnerable to misunderstandings and is best avoided
 unless there are sound reasons for doing so. Overriding a client’s known wishes or consent is a 
serious matter that requires commensurate justification. Practitioners should be prepared to be readily
 accountable to clients, colleagues and professional body if they override a client’s known wishes.

4. Situations in which clients pose a risk of causing serious harm to themselves or others are particularly challenging for the practitioner. These are situations in which the practitioner should be alert to the
 possibility of conflicting responsibilities between those concerning their client, other people who may
be significantly affected, and society generally. Resolving conflicting responsibilities may require due 
consideration of the context in which the service is being provided. Consultation with a supervisor or
 experienced practitioner is strongly recommended, whenever this would not cause undue delay. In
 all cases, the aim should be to ensure for the client a good quality of care that is as respectful of the
 client’s capacity for self-determination and their trust as circumstances permit.

5. Working with young people requires specific ethical awareness and competence. The practitioner 
is required to consider and assess the balance between young people’s dependence on adults and 
carers and their progressive development towards acting independently. Working with children and 
young people requires careful consideration of issues concerning their capacity to give consent to 
receiving any service independently of someone with parental responsibilities and the management of
 confidences disclosed by clients.

6. Respecting client confidentiality is a fundamental requirement for keeping trust. The professional
 management of confidentiality concerns the protection of personally identifiable and sensitive 
information from unauthorised disclosure. Disclosure may be authorised by client consent or the 
law. Any disclosures should be undertaken in ways that best protect the client’s trust. Practitioners 
should be willing to be accountable to their clients and to their profession for their management of
 confidentiality in general and particularly for any disclosures made without their client’s consent.

7. Practitioners should normally be willing to respond to their client’s requests for information about 
the way that they are working and any assessment that may have been made. This professional 
requirement does not apply if it is considered that imparting this information would be detrimental to 
the client or inconsistent with the counselling or psychotherapeutic approach previously agreed with 
the client. Clients may have legal rights to this information and these need to be taken into account.

8. Practitioners must not abuse their client’s trust in order to gain sexual, emotional, financial or any
 other kind of personal advantage. Sexual relations with clients are prohibited. ‘Sexual relations’
 include intercourse, any other type of sexual activity or sexualised behaviour. Practitioners should 
think carefully about, and exercise considerable caution before, entering into personal or business
 relationships with former clients and should expect to be professionally accountable if the relationship 
becomes detrimental to the client or the standing of the profession.

9. Practitioners should not allow their professional relationships with clients to be prejudiced by any personal views they may hold about lifestyle, gender, age, disability, race, sexual orientation, beliefs or culture.

10. Practitioners should be clear about any commitment to be available to clients and colleagues and 
honour these commitments.

If you would like more information, you can also download the full BACP Ethical Framework for Good Practice in Counselling & Psychotherapy.