Contract agreement for
couples therapy

Please take some time to carefully read through the contents of this contract for couples therapy. You and your partner have been sent idenitical contracts. By signing and submitting the contract agreement below, you are giving consent that you jointly agree to the terms and conditions that this contract holds. 

 

The following outlines the terms of the contract for therapy between the interested parties (counsellor and client(s).

 

Peter Golder (Counsellor) on behalf of Acorn Counselling Therapy and the (Client) that signs and completes details on this document.

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The parties acknowledge that the goal of counselling and psychotherapy, either individual or marital or couples therapy, is for the purpose of the exploration, or resolution of troublesome thoughts, feelings and behaviour for the purpose of problem solving, or achieving higher levels of functioning. The process of counselling and psychotherapy depends on trust and openness during the therapy sessions.

 

Confidentiality

Confidentiality is a means of providing you with safety, privacy and autonomy. The contract of your therapy sessions is confidential. As part of my (Peter Golder) professional development and ethical working, I attend regular clinical supervision and training where my work is discussed. When doing this I will not share your identity or any other details which could identify you.

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In the event that I believe it would be helpful to communicate with other professionals, I will speak to you first, to make you are aware of this and get your consent. The exception of this would be if you told me something that you or another had done or were intending to do, and this action was something I was legally or ethically obliged to disclose. This relates specifically to if someone, and especially a child, is in serious danger of being harmed. In the unlikely event that this happens, I would inform you that I was going to discuss this with other professionals and would do so, with or without your consent, remembering that we are all bound by UK law.

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I operate a policy of ‘no secrets’. This means I will not keep secret from one partner anything the other partner describes if it is relevant to the therapy. I believe that therapy only works when rooted in the truth. 

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As a couple attending therapy you may also wish to contract with each other to ensure disclosures between you also remain confidential.

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At times I use aspects of my therapeutic work in my continued professional development. When doing this I ensure that the anonymity of my clients is protected.

 

Therapy Sessions

Sessions last for 60 minutes and will usually be at the same time and day each week. We will agree on there frequency between us on an ongoing basis. In some circumstances, with mutual consent, it may be that we choose to plan one of your sessions on another day of the week and at another time, in order to provide a flexible service when needed. 

 

If you are late for a session for any reason, please let me know as soon as you can. If you are late for your session, the session cannot be extended.

 

If you arrive to a session and your behaviour has been affected in any way due to substances use e.g. alcohol / drugs, I may decide not to proceed with the session, this will be at my discretion and the session will remain chargeable.

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Cancelled and missed sessions

I will give you as much notice as possible if I need to cancel your session for any reason. The time scheduled for your appointment is yours and yours alone. If you miss a session without cancelling or cancel the session and do not give me at least 48 hours notice, then you are required to pay the full amount of the fee for the session. To cancel a session you can email, call or text me directly.

 

Payment for sessions

Fees are £70 per session and you and your partner take responsibility for deciding who and how the fees are paid. Payment for sessions will be made before the session or on the same day as the session by bank transfer. Please note that yours or your partners name may (depending on who pays) appear on Acorn Counselling Therapy bank statements. The statements will be seen by myself, Peter Golder, Counsellor and Giancarlo Squillaci, business manager of Acorn Counselling Therapy.

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The bank details to make the payments by bank transfer are;

Account in the name of -  Acorn Counselling Therapy

Sort code. 40-25-03    Account no. 01695428

 

Social Media

• I request that no part of our conversations are shared on social media by yourself or someone else of your choosing

• I request that you or anyone else that you know, do not search any personal profile on social media of a member of Acorn Counselling Therapy or send a message by social media to a personal social media account of a member of Acorn Counselling Therapy. You may however search and look at Acorn Counselling Therapy's facebook page or other Acorn Counselling Therapy social media.

• If any of these requests are not met, I reserve the right to withdraw the offer of therapy.

 

Certification of counsellor

I am a qualified counsellor and registered member with the National Counselling Society (NCS) and United Kingdom Association of Transactional Analysis (UKATA) and as such abide to their Code of Ethics and Professional Guidelines (a copy of which are available from their respective websites).  I hold professional indemnity insurance.

 

Other rights

In the unlikely event that I discover I am not competent to deal with what you bring, I will consult in the first instance with my supervisor who is external to the practice and will work with you to find alternative means of help. 

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I may ask for permission to use our work (anonymised to protect your identity) in training as part of case study or research. I may also ask to record our session to aid my personal professional development. Any stored files or information pertaining to the work/recordings will be anonymised. You have the right to decline these requests. 

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In the event I am unexpectedly incapacitated either short term or indefinitely, I have made secure and confidential arrangements for you to be contacted and advised. Alternative resources and support will be made known and available to you should you wish to utilise these. 

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Complaints

If you have a complaint about my work or the counselling service, the first stage is to discuss this with me as your counsellor. If you feel unable to discuss the complaint with myself, you can contact one of the organisations that I am a registered member of; NCS and UKATA.

 

Termination of Therapy

There may be times during therapy that you feel distressed and feel that therapy is not helping you. This is not an uncommon experience part way through therapy. If you feel you would like to stop therapy at any time, please talk this through with me first. This will give us both the opportunity to understand more fully what is distressing you, enabling us to find a way to resolve the distress that you may be feeling. With this in mind I ask that you give two clear sessions notice of ending therapy.