Online work & GDPR

My sessions are fully online, following online safety guidelines and GDPR. I have access to all the major virtual meeting platforms and will work with any platform that is secure and accessible to you. The session notes are hand-written and will be shredded upon completion of the sessions. 

Due to my phone often being on silent while working, I am not always available to answer any calls.  I'm afraid I cannot return any phone calls I receive when there are no voicemail messages identifying the caller nor can I engage in any lengthy email exchanges or requests to meet or talk outside of our agreed times. 

Once you have contacted me and we have agreed to work together, I will email you a Confidentiality Agreement (copy illustrated below) and a Pro-forma invoice with my Bank details for the first session as all online work has meant payments have to be made via BACs.  I would prefer payments are made either before or on the day of our agreed appointment and with your name as a refererence for my records.

Sample Therapy Contract 

Agreement between therapist Chandana Namal Rathnayake and client,…[add your name]

The aim of counselling/therapy is to provide you with a confidential opportunity to explore personal and relational issues. My role as the therapist is to help you through this process without judgement or telling you what to do. I may on occasions give information or offer suggestions. During counselling/therapy, we set goals agreed between us. The client agrees to work towards the agreed goals. If at any time I feel I can no longer help you, I will offer to refer you to someone more suitable to help you.

Confidentiality and its limits

The content of our sessions is confidential to you (the client) and to me (the counsellor). I have regular clinical supervision with a qualified professional where I discuss my work in confidence. This is standard practice and helps me to work with you as well as I can.  As part of my practice, I may use case material to illustrate and inform my writings in journals, supervision and on-going studies. With your consent, I may record sessions. When any material is used, details will be changed to protect client identity. The client can choose not to be recorded or to stop the recording at any time. On rare occasions it may be necessary to break confidentiality, but only if I or my supervisor believe you are in danger of seriously harming yourself or someone else. In the case of a disclosure concerning acts of terrorism under the Terrorism Act confidentiality will be broken and such disclosures will be passed onto the relevant authority without delay. I am liable to civil or court procedure if information of this sort is not disclosed. Any necessary change to our confidentiality agreement will be made with prior consultation with you. This is in line with the BACP Code of Ethics. I may make brief notes after each session. These will be kept in accordance with the BACP Code of Ethics and General Data Protection Act. They are disclosed to no one other than, and only if necessary, to my clinical supervisor. These notes are securely stored, and you cannot be identified from them.

Session Times and Frequency

Sessions are conducted online (Teams or Google Meet) and generally last for 50-minutes. Sessions are conducted weekly and the frequency can be changed to twice a week, bi-weekly or monthly depending on your needs.  I recommend a minimum of 4 sessions to allow our work to evolve. After that it is easier for you to make an informed decision about whether or not you wish to continue your counselling. If you continue beyond the first four sessions, we will work in an open-ended way but with regular reviews until we end therapy with mutual agreement.

Fees and cancellation policy

Fee for a 50-minute session is 50 GBP and is expected to be paid on the same day as your session. This fee is unlikely to increase within the next 12 months and if it does, I will inform you at least one month in advance. Payment can be made online. I will not be able to continue sessions if payment is failed for two consecutive sessions. Except in the case of emergencies, you should inform me of any cancellations at least 48 hours before the session. Any cancellations later than this will be charged the full fee as I am not able to allocate the session to someone else. Any cancellation on my part will be notified to you within the same period unless cancelled due to an emergency. I will give you as much notice as possible of any intended breaks. I ask you to give as much notice as possible of any intended breaks.

Endings

In the normal course of event, you will probably know when you are ready to finish therapy, and we will agree together on the work we need to do to prepare for this. You may at times find therapy very difficult, become distressed and feel the need to end. I would invite you to talk to me about these difficulties rather than suddenly ending, as an opportunity to resolve important issues may be lost.

I will not suddenly or without warning terminate our contract, except in exceptional circumstances, which would become clear in the course of the work together, which we would fully discuss at that time.

Complaints Procedures, Ethics and code of conduct

I am an accredited registrant of National Counselling and Psychotherapy Society (NCPS1138)a registered member of the BACP( 528186/ 061815), and chartered member of the British Psychological Society (CPSYCHOL 757299)and work within their ethical frameworks. If you are dissatisfied with the service provided, please discuss your concerns with me as a first step. I will respond constructively and professionally to your feedback and stated needs and advise you to the best of my ability. If we are unable to come to a satisfactory conclusion to your complaint I will advise you to contact the BACP Customer Services via : http://www.bacp.co.uk/crs/complaints.php