Will counselling cure me?
I cannot guarantee that counselling will make you feel better. As a person-centred counsellor I will not offer advice or tell you what to do to heal. So I cannot guarantee a cure such as a biological ailment. The only thing I can promise is to be there at the time and days agreed and to walk with you in your journey of exploration which might shed new light into how you perceive yourself and what you are going though. I have witnessed how the commitment and honesty that clients bring usually brings a new understanding of what is happening, helping them to move forward, with more serenity, less anxiety and more clarity.
I’ve had negative past experiences in counselling, will it be any different now?
We change constantly and at different times we go through different events. We also process things internally differently at different moments in our lives. One past experience with counselling will never be the same with another one taking place in a different time and with a different person. Only you can gauge how comfortable you feel within the therapeutic relationship and decide if it is the right approach, counsellor and time.
How do I know if I am getting better?
We will have periodic reviews where we can see how the process is going. We’ell be able to have a sense of the path walked and compare it to where you would like to be at the end of therapy.
I don’t really like talking much about myself, will counselling still help?
Yes, because there are other ways of communicating and exploring feelings as well as verbally. Through the use of art media sometimes it is easier to express feelings and to “see” how you feels inside. Also just the fact of being held in silence with someone you feel comfortable with can bring about much healing.
As a parent, will I know how my child is progressing in the sessions?
Because it is a confidential space for the child, I cannot breach his/her confidence and talk about what has been said in the session unless it was a safeguarding issue. At review/final sessions, we can review the process in general and look at how his/her behaviour has changed since starting counselling. But it is important to trust the professional space and the right of the child to had their own space for expressing without judgment or having to comply with expectation. So it is important to respect this privacy unless it is the child’s initiative to share what was said or what they did in the session.
Can you offer counselling to my partner/spouse/sibling/friend/parent/child as well as me?
Unfortunately I am not yet prepared to work with couples or with family therapy (which is something I am contemplating in the future). At the moment I only offer individual counselling. And to avoid conflict of interest and ethical boundaries I do not take on as clients more than one person of a same family or relationship structure at a time.
What is your Privacy Policy?
Your privacy and confidentiality are important to me. That is why, complying with the new General data Protection Regulation (GDPR 2018) I will use, store, share and destroy your personal information in the following manner.
As a counsellor I am the controller of the data you offer me. This means that starting from the moment you request information about my counselling service, I will hold securely the following information about you:
- Name, phone number, email (initial enquiry)
- Next of kin, phone number (initial session)
- GP contact details if appropriate (initial session)
- Brief session notes, attendance record (throughout therapeutic process)
- Feedback form (final session)
- Testimonial (after end of process)
Next of kin details will only ever be used in case on an emergency. And the testimonial might be included on my website if you agree with a written consent to offer it to be used in this manner to encourage other potential clients.Your personal contact details will only be used for the following purposes:
- contacting you to arrange counselling sessions
- for reminder of session date and time
- for cancelling or rearranging sessions
I will store your personal details in a secure locked filling cabinet, you email contact and your telephone number on my password protected phone during the duration of our therapeutic process. Your session notes will be kept in a password protected coded file up to 7 years after the end of our therapeutic process to comply with insurance purposes.
I will not pass on your personal details for any marketing purposes to other organisations.
The only reasons why I might need to share your information with other agencies to comply with legal requirements are the following:
- If it is necessary to share information with GP or other support agencies to protect vital interests of client or someone close to client’s when they are in risk of serious/immediate harm.
- If necessary to share information due to legal obligation. For example if if any information was given regarding terrorism, criminality, money laundering, etc, I would have to comply with the law by processing the information to the relevant agencies.
- If necessary to carry out a statutory function such as if required in court case.
After the 7 years or earlier if deemed unnecessary to hold your details longer, your information will be destroyed, either by securely shredding or deleting.
What are my rights regarding Privacy Policy?
You have the following legal rights regarding your data protection:
- the right to access your personal information with prior written request (to be complied within one month from when requested)
- the right to ask me to change any factual mistakes on the information personal information I have from you.
- the right to withdraw your consent to elements that are non-essential for the continuation for the therapeutic service I provide. It is important to understand that you cannot withdraw consent from processing of information for which I am legally and ethically bound to comply with.
- the right to request the deletion/destruction of your personal information, only after our process has ended and only if the request does not deny the compliance of legislation (ie. destruction of payment records or of session notes which are legal requirements)
For more information about your Information Privacy Rights or to make an informed complaint you can contact the Information Commissioners Office through their website https://ico.org.uk/
