Policies

Cancelled Sessions

If you cancel or miss a session with less than 24 hours notice, your session fee will not be refunded. For cancellations made with more than 24 hours notice, the fee paid can be used for a future appointment. Sessions can be rescheduled up to 48 hours before, but not within 48 hours of the session.

While it is hoped that this policy does not adversely affect you, the policy is in place for the benefit of the clients and practitioners. If a session is cancelled without adequate notice, we are unable to offer the time slot to somebody else.

Late Arrival or Missed Sessions

Please contact me directly if you are going to be unavoidably late for a session, be it a face to face or virtual session. Sessions will always finish at the designated time. If you are more than 15 minutes late and have not informed us you will be late then we will assume you are not coming and will consider that as a cancellation without the required 24 hours notice. If you have contacted us and are later than 15 minutes the session viability is at the discretion of the Therapist based on their schedule.

Session Refusal

The therapist will not complete sessions if you show signs of being intoxicated or unable to fully engage due to substance use. They will not continue sessions if you present threatening or inappropriate behaviour. We will not refund a session cancelled due to the above. In most cases, we do not work with clients who are seeing someone from a primary mental health team. We are also unable to work with those receiving treatment from another therapist. Please, if you are changing Therapist, ensure there is no overlap.

Virtual Sessions

We will, where possible, make allowances for technical problems. Your therapist will contact you before the session is due to start and if you are unavailable will try again a few minutes later. If we are unable to deliver due to technical issues our end we will do our best to reschedule the session for you.

If you have questions or queries about our cancellation policy, please contact us.

(updated January 2023)

Accreditation and Professional Status

All our therapists are qualified and accredited with professional bodies such as the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP), British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) Health & Care Professions Council (HCPC). All have a proven pathway of experience in working with different age groups, backgrounds, ethnicities, and professions.

Eligibility and Accessibility of the Service

Our services are aimed at being preventative and pro-active. An opportunity to chat through the pressures of life and work and, with assistance, to resolve issues that may become more profound and have greater impact further down the line. We are unable to help with acute or suicidal crises; if a client is suicidal they should be encouraged to contact the emergency services. They may also contact www.samaritans.org or telephone them on 116 123 (UK).

If we have to decline use of our service, we will try and suggest alternative support. We will be conscious of everybody’s wellbeing and its importance and that everyone should have the opportunity to seek the best support for their specific needs.

Confidentiality

All accrediting therapeutic bodies require that therapists offer the highest possible levels of confidentiality in order to respect the client’s privacy and create the trust necessary for the therapeutic process to be a positive experience.

In exceptional circumstances, the therapist may take the decision to break confidentiality, with or without the client’s consent if necessary where, in his/her professional judgment there is a risk of a client harming themselves or being harmed; there is a risk of another person being harmed or if there is a legal requirement to do so. In such circumstances, the therapist will always seek to obtain the client’s consent prior to a disclosure.

Code of Ethics

We will treat service users, colleagues, freelance contractors and company representatives as individuals, respecting their right to privacy and dignity. We will:

Make sure we have consent from clients before providing a service
Challenge discrimination
Maintain appropriate boundaries
Ensure lines of communication are always open
Be polite and considerate
Listen and take into account any feedback given and be open and transparent in all we do and set out to achieve
Provide information when requested in a timely and understandable way
Work collaboratively with partners, colleagues and freelance contractors
Practice only in the areas in which we have appropriate knowledge, skills and experience
Continue our professional development as necessary
Keep updated with new laws and regulations to ensure compliancy and prudency
Respect confidentiality and ensure we work to General Data Protection Regulations (May 2018) – see below
Deal with Complaints, Comments and Compliments as appropriate
Will always maintain professional boundaries and act in a honest and non-judgemental way
We follow the HCPC Standards of Proficiency or Professional Standards of any body a therapist is regulated by

Data Protection

All therapists are required to ensure that client information is stored securely and separate from personal data forms. We have Data Protection Procedures that give a comprehensive overview of how we meet Data Protection Laws.

Therapy Sessions

Supervision and Compliance

All therapists will be receiving regular clinical supervision and be compliant with all the practice and legal requirements of their professional and accrediting bodies.

Client Records and Sensitive Personal Data

Therapists are responsible for their own client notes and will ensure complete confidentiality of these. Therapists will comply with all the legal obligations of the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR May 2018).

Compliments, Comments and Complaints

A compliment, comment, or complaint should be addressed to your Therapist in writing or via the contact section on the home page of this website. We welcome clients to approach us informally to discuss any concerns they might have. We value your comments and compliments too in order that we can ensure continued professional practice that will make our clients want to remain with us, and feel confident that they can recommend us to others.

(Updated January 2023)

The Data Protection Act 2018 controls how your personal information is used by organisations, businesses or government and is the UK's implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Your Information

Amanda Rose Therapy will be the 'Controller' of any personal data provided to us. Upon starting therapy, basic personal information will be collected for contact and identification purposes. We do not collect and information not needed. During your therapy meetings, an assessment of your psychological health will be completed, and notes will be taken during sessions. These will include personal and sensitive details about your life. The assessment and notes are used solely for the delivery of a therapy service to you. Amanda Rose Therapy will not share any information about you with third parties without your consent with the exception of that detailed in the Confidentiality section of our Code of Conduct policy.

Hard Copies

Hard copies of documents are stored ……

Electronic Data

Any electronic notes written about the work will be stored in a password protected file on …..

Emails:

If you have emailed Amanda Rose Therapy and/or have consented to Amanda Rose Therapy emailing you, your email will be stored in an account that is password protected. If you use the contact message form on the Amanda Rose Therapy website, this information will be sent to a password protected email address that is only accessible to our administration team or the therapist appointed to you. Please note that whilst the email accounts used by Amanda Rose Therapy comply with the latest data protection regulations, we cannot guarantee the security and privacy of your communication due to our hosted services terms & conditions.

Telephone Calls and Text Messaging:

Our therapists will not store your number, but if a call is made or a text sent, your number could appear on the call history or inbox. This will not be linked to your name or other identifiable information and the phone used is protected by a pin number that only the therapist has access to. Please note that if you choose to use a standard telephone service, we cannot guarantee the security and privacy of your communication as these are not encrypted.

Video Calls:

The method of communication for therapy sessions requested to be remote and online, is by pre-arranged video call. The preferred videoconference application of Amanda Rose Therapy is an encrypted platform called Google Meet. Our therapists use a unique private meeting link for these sessions. You can either access the online meeting room via a link that your therapist will send in an email, or directly from the Google Meet app on your desktop or mobile. This is a secure service.

What are Your rights?

You have a right to see and personal data that Amanda Rose Therapy holds to verify the accuracy or to ask for it to be supplemented, deleted, updated or corrected. You have the right to request a copy of the information that that Amanda Rose Therapy holds about you. If you would like a copy of some or all of your personal information, please email or write to your therapist or via the contact form on the homepage of our website. Information will be provided to you within 30 days if this is appropriate.

You are entitle to request that any information is corrected or removed if you think is inaccurate. You have a right to request the transfer of your data to another individual or company. If you are concerned or have a complaint about how Amanda Rose Therapy is handling your data, please contact us directly if possible. You have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s office (ICO): https://ico.org.uk/

How Long is your Data Retained for?

Your information is kept for the time necessary to provide the therapy service requested. At the end of therapy, any hard copy documents will be converted to digital copies. The hard copies will then be securely destroyed (shredded). Amanda Rose Therapy will hold your details and session notes electronically for a period of 7 years following the end of treatment to comply with legal obligations set by our insurers. In the case of a children and young people, records will be kept for 7 years after they reach the age of majority (18). After this date, all data will be securely deleted.

Sharing of data

There may be times where your information needs to be shared with third parties. ……..will explicitly ask your consent before doing so, and the data will be sent to third parties securely. In the event of sudden illness, or even death, …..has a secure process in place which enables you to be informed of the circumstances and, if you wish, be supported to access further psychological input. In this situation, ………would gain access to you name and email address held on a secure shared folder. Your details would only be accessed by …….in this instance and for no other reason. Your name and email address will automatically be added to the list held on a secure network for this purpose. If you do not wish for your details to be held for this purpose, please inform ……at the start of your work.

If …..feels that you / your child is putting themselves or others at risk, then …..may have to break confidentiality and inform the relevant parties. This maybe statutory bodies e.g. Social Services or maybe parents if the child is under 18 years of age. If possible, ……will discuss this with you / your child before sharing the information.

Security of your data

Information will be kept securely and confidentially in line with the data retention policy as stated above.

Lawful basis for processing your information

The lawful basis for …….holding and using your information is in relation to the delivery of a contract to you as a health care professional. As an accredited member of ………….operates under a strict code of confidentiality and is legally obliged to lawfully process your data in line with this Privacy Policy.