Therapy Agreement

This agreement sets out how a mutual agreement between Lancashire Women and you and sets out how the therapy service will support you.

Your therapist will explain what type of therapy is being offered to you and will confirm the number of sessions that you will be offered.

Please take the time to read and understand the points highlighted...

Any questions, please discuss with your therapist or call us on 0300 330 1354.

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Attendance

To get the most out of your therapy, it is important that you attend each session each week
We aim to keep our waiting times as short as possible, and in order to be fair to other clients waiting for treatment, we ask that you keep to your planned appointments. If at any point, you do miss two consecutive sessions, without prior arrangement, we have to assume that you no longer wish to access therapy and your appointments will be ended and your appointments offered to the next person on the waiting list.

Getting the Most out of Your Therapy

Please let us know anything that may affect your ability to engage with therapy – for example any family issues, concerns about your own safety or the safety of a child we will work with you to put in place appropriate support.
Sessions will not take place if you are under the influence of drugs or alcohol, and we may reassess the service offered and offer you more appropriate support.
Lancashire Women’s Centres will not accept dangerous or violent behaviour towards staff, volunteers or any person.
You can expect to receive safe, confidential and reliable therapeutic support from us. We will always treat you as an individual.
As our Service is accredited by the BACP (British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy) we follow the BACP ethical standards.
We aim to be clear and honest with you at all times, especially about what can and cannot be achieved within your therapeutic treatment in order to ensure that you receive the best treatment for your needs.

Telephone/ Video Call Therapy

The therapist will ensure they are delivering your therapy session from a private environment.
Please plan your session for a time when you know you can have privacy, making sure others in the house know not to disturb you and turn off other forms of contact. The therapist will reserve the right to rearrange the session if you are currently not able to do this.

In the event of any technological problems we will endeavour to re-establish contact with you, and your therapist will discuss an agreed course of action in case this happens.
When receiving a session by video call please close all other open browsers and programmes on your computer or device as these can affect the connection and either slow it down or cause the screen to freeze
We would never record our session without your permission to do so, (and would only seek permission in order to assess a therapist’s work whilst they are in training). Equally it is illegal and a breach of GDPR for you to record or screen shot our sessions without our permission.

How we keep your Information Safe and Confidential

Therapy is confidential; however, in a few situations we may have to break confidentiality. These situations could include:

Where the law requires us to inform the relevant authorities (such as terrorist activities, drug trafficking or abuse of a child or vulnerable adult).
Where you, the client, gives consent for the confidence to be broken
Where in extreme cases we are legally compelled by a court of law
If we believe you are at risk of harm to yourself or others

Data

All our notes will remain the property of Lancashire Women; they will be securely electronically stored by us for 8 years before being destroyed. If you wish to request a copy of the information or records held about you, contact dataprotection@lancashirewomen.org

Complaints Procedure

Lancashire Women is a member of the BACP (British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy). We adhere to their Ethical Framework for Good Practice and a copy of this code is available on request.

We take all complaints seriously; please contact TalkToUs@lancashirewomen.org Verbal complaints may be made by phone to 0300 330 1354 or in person to any of Lancashire Women’ staff, volunteers or trustees.

Additional Support

If you feel that you need immediate support outside of our office hours (which are 10-3pm) please contact your GP or The Crisis Team or Samaritans (details over leaf) Our policy is to let your GP know when you end your therapy, however if you would not be happy for us to do so, we will of course respect your wishes.