Legal Notice, Privacy Policy and Contract
Name of company
Natasha Watson - Therapeutic Counselling
Registered workplace
Greenwich, London, UK
BACP
I am a registered member of the British Association for Counsellors and Psychotherapists, and my membership number is 01009379
Insurance
I have professional indemnity insurance with Hollistic Insurance Services.
Contract
In short, I work within the boundaries of a professional contract. Please note that as stated in my contract, if there is disclosure of serious crime within sessions, I have a legal duty to report this without discussion with my clients first. Please see my full contract below.
ICO
I am registered with the Infomation Commissioners Office, which means I abide by their regulations for data protection. I am the data controller and keep client data for no longer than 2 years after the end of therapy, after which paper work is shredded and computer files deleted. Information collected includes name, phone number and address, emergency contact, GP contact and relevant medical and psychosocial history, for the purposes of the work and safeguarding. All my notes are anonymous, and personal computer is password protected.
Supervision, personal counselling
As a BACP member, it is my duty to ensure I have supervision with a qualified supervisor, at 1.5 hours per month. I also have group supervision once a month as well. This means I am getting support for my clients in an ethical, professional and boundaried way. I also have personal counselling fortnightly to support my own work with clients.
Contract
The below points are included on both the face-to-face and online contracts
I am a registered member of the British Association for Counsellors and Psychotherapists (MBACP), and I abide by and follow the BACP Code of Ethics and Practice (2018), which is in place to maintain the professionalism and safety of both myself and my clients.
What we discuss in the counselling room is kept confidential between you and me. The exceptions to this include serious harm to yourself or another, which means I would respect your confidentiality and aim discuss this with you first. Also, if you are involved in serious crime, including trafficking, treason, fraud or terrorism, I am legally obliged to share this information without prior notification. Supervision is an ethical part of the work which means I speak to a more qualified counsellor who is trained to assist me in my work. I anonymise my clients in these sessions, and they are aimed to provide a second professional perspective on my work.
Sessions are 50 minutes long, at the same time and place weekly. Face-to-face sessions generally need to be carried out in this format and the same for online. I can accommodate a switch from face-to-face with 48 hours notice. If you are held up and arrive late, I need to finish at the original end time to respect our time and that of the next client.
Working online - please ensure you are in a private, quiet and safe location for your counselling session, and that you can be in this room alone (with the excpetion of an interpreter, translator or aide to the session) without being overheard. I kindly ask that emails and phones are kept on silent and to let me know at the start of the session if you predict any disturbances will take place, but I generally ask these are kept to a minimum. If technology interrupts the session and either one of us has trouble reconnecting, please contact me via email and I will do the same.
I generally work in a very boundaried way, and kindly ask that out-of-session contact is kept to notification of absence via email. Other emails will be read and responded to in brief, and I will bring the contents into the following session. I cannot connect to any clients via social media and will be led by you as to whether to say hello in a chance meeting in public.
In accordance with GDPR, all client data will be stored securely. Data is stored for a legal and safeguarding requirement, including name, number, email address, date of birth, GP surgery and emergency contact and relevant medical and psychosocial history. I also keep brief client notes in a work notepad and document on my password protected iMac.
I run sessions whilst I am in the UK, and my clients are in the UK. If you are abroad, I generally pause sessions for my clients, so that you can have a break, and because it makes safeguarding issues more complex. I take breaks during half term and holidays for my own mental wellbeing, and for one week over the summer holidays.
Session costs are £40 and £35 for concessions, including unemployed, low income and pensioners. I am not currently taking on student counsellors as clients.
Cancellations - I ask for 24 hours notice for any cancelled sessions, otherwise I kindly ask that the session is honoured and covered financially, as the time is too short notice to cancel a room and/or give to another client. I can waive this in the event of a serious medical emergency involving yourself or close family.
Client: I have discussed the contents of this contract with my counsellor and understand and follow all the points.
Signature of client:
Printed:
Date:
Counsellor : I have discussed the contents of this contract with my client.
Signature of counsellor:
Printed:
Date: