Our Counselling Agreement

Confidentiality

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We take your confidentiality very seriously, it is at the heart of what we do as counsellors and psychotherapists. People tell us about all kinds of things about their lives, some of which can often feel hard, difficult, even shameful. As counsellors, we will never judge you.

 

We are not here to tell you what to do. We are here instead to listen, support, care and offer guidance where we can.

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Anything that you say to us, be it on this form, to our admin team, or to your counsellor, is strictly confidential. We will never tell anyone else what you tell us. That includes your friends, partners, family, doctor, employer, social services or the Police.

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There are however some specific situations where we are required to tell someone else, and it's important that you are aware of this before you start counselling with us. These situations are as follows:

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If you are aged 18 or over

1. You tell us there is an immediate risk to someone's life, such as an active suicide attempt.

2. You tell us there is a risk of serious harm or abuse to someone currently under the age of 18.

3. You tell us something very specific that is covered under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002, Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003, Drug Trafficking Act 1994, Money Laundering Regulations 2007 or the Terrorism Act 2010.

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If you are aged 17 or below

1. If you tell us something where you or someone else is at risk of serious harm or abuse. This may include a risk of suicide, self-harm, severe substance misuse, domestic abuse, or risk of exploitation including county lines, sexual exploitation or terrorism.

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What happens if you tell us something really serious

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We will never break your confidentiality without your consent, unless there is no other reasonable way for us to keep people safe. If you tell us something serious, we will always encourage you to take action yourself and we can support you in how to do this. If that is not possible, we will tell you that we have to break confidentiality unless doing so would increase the risk of harm to someone.

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Safety plans and how we manage risk

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None of our counsellors will ever manage safeguarding issues on their own. When a safeguarding disclosure is made, we will work carefully as a team to support both our counsellor and their client. This may include the counsellor offering to do a safety plan, where we try to identify risk factors and methods of reducing this, such as asking the client to provide an emergency contact, or signposting them to out-of-hours services.

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Right to refuse service

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We do not tolerate abuse, threats or inappropriate behaviour towards our staff and volunteers. If we feel that we cannot keep you or our staff safe during our work with you, we reserve the right to terminate service without notice.

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We are not a crisis service

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Unfortunately, we are unable to provide 24/7 support. If you are in immediate crisis, we always encourage you to contact another appropriate service, including the NHS Mental Health team on 111, or the Samaritans on 116 123. In the event of an emergency, please always call 999.

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Session notes and your data rights

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We are ethically required to take notes following consultation calls and counselling sessions. These will not be shared unless we are required to disclose them by law or court order. You have the right to view your notes at any time, and/or to have them deleted once you have finished counselling with us.

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Using our counselling portal

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Please note that our counsellors often work part-time and they may be unable to respond to messages on our counselling portal quickly. We always encourage you to bring any issues or concerns to your next counselling session.

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Our policies

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We publish our full policies on our website and keep these regularly updated. You can read more about them at www.empathyproject.org.uk

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If you have any questions about confidentiality, you can ask these freely during your consultation call with one of our team leaders.

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Session Fees

 

Please note that we are a small, non-profit community mental health service. We do not recieve any funding from the NHS or Government, and we therefore have to ask our clients to contribute financially to the cost of running our service. We also accept contributions from friends, family members, employers, schools, grants and health insurance providers.

 

We are required both by law and our charter to reinvest any and all surplus into our Community Fund, which we reduce to discount the cost of sessions for people in serious financial difficulty and who are unable to seek support that is right for them elsewhere.

 

Individual Therapy (50 Minutes) - £65

Couples Therapy (60 Minutes) - £80

Family Therapy (60 Minutes) - £80

Community Fund (50 Minutes Individual Therapy Only) - £40
 

Our Community Fund

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The Empathy Project is a small non-profit organisation that does not receive any public funding. Any profits we make are collected into our Community Fund, and we use this to provide low-cost counselling for people who can’t otherwise afford it.​

 

If you are in serious financial difficulty and are otherwise unable to get mental health support that is right for you elsewhere, then you can apply to receive a discounted rate on our individual counselling sessions (£40 instead of £65).

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We operate an honesty-based system and do not check your information. All applications are considered on a case-by-case basis according to need, without prejudice or discrimination.​

 

We have very limited resources but are happy to help where we can. If your application is successful, our team will book your sessions manually at the reduced rate.​

 

We reserve the right to withdraw the discount or ask you to re-apply if your financial situation changes.

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Ethics & Regulation

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We at the Empathy Project are committed to providing open-ended, high-quality counselling to anyone who needs it. We require all of our counsellors to be trained, registered and regulated by either the British Association of Counselling & Psychotherapy, or the National Society of Counselling & Psychotherapy. This means that all of our counsellors have to follow a strict Ethical Framework and Code of Practice. This includes attending regular clinical supervision, CPD and other standards.

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Complaints Policy

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If you ever feel that we have not met these high standards, we would actively encourage you to please tell us, either informally or by making an official complaint. We promise to take any complaints seriously and to investigate them thoroughly, and communicate this back to you in a professional, timely and honest way.

 

In the event that we have made a serious breach of our professional standards or ethics, we will refer ourselves to the British Association of Counselling & Psychotherapy for adjudication. If you do not feel that we can resolve your complaint, you can also complain to the BACP directly here.

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To make a complaint, please email our Counselling Director at charlotte@empathyproject.org.uk

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Bookings & Cancellation Policy

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Please note that our service receives a very high demand for mental health support. Whilst we understand that things happen and you might no longer be able to attend your session, missed sessions can be very costly and disruptive for our team.

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To manage this, we operate a 24 hour cancellation policy. If you give us at least 24 hours notice of cancellation, you will not be charged for that session. However if you give us less notice than this, the session fee will still be chargeable. Please note that we unfortunately cannot give exceptions to this policy.

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To cancel or reschedule a session, this must be done using your counselling portal. We do not have a full-time admin team and so we are unable to respond quickly to messages or phone calls. Our admin team work Monday to Thursdays only during business hours.

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Please note that if sessions are repeatedly cancelled or unpaid for, we reserve the right to suspend our services.

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Privacy & Data Processing Policy

 

We take your privacy very seriously and will only use your personal information to provide the products and services you requested, subject to our above Confidentiality, Safeguarding & Child Protection Policy. The Empathy Project is registered with the Information Commissioner's Office and is fully GDPR compliant.

 

We use POWr to manage all form submissions, and Vcita to manage our client communications and bookings system. By submitting this form, you acknowledge that the information you provide will be transferred to POWr for processing in accordance with their Privacy Policy and Terms.

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By continuing to access therapy through our service, you agree to abide by our Counselling Agreement and Terms of Service.