Terms and conditions

Commitment
Hypnotherapy, CBT, and NLP are all treatments that rely on the commitment and motivation from both the therapist and the client to get the best results. Part of the treatment occurs in the consulting room and part of the treatment is cognitive reflection or homework. As the client, when you agree to undertake a course of treatment you also agree to engage with the process, complete any homework that you are given, and listen to the CD/download at appropriate times. It is with commitment and partnership-working that you will see the best results.

Therapy sessions and fees
Each standard session lasts approximately one hour and the fee per session will be previously agreed. Fees are payable at the end of each session by cash, cheque, or bank transfer. Cheques are made payable to iTech-Ed Hypnotherapy. You may pay in advance if you wish, should there be a fixed number of therapy sessions. This may be subject to change from time to time, but any change in fees will be agreed between us.

Appointments
You commit to attending the appointments that we make. There are two good reasons for this.

1. Your attendance at the appointment is part of your commitment to the on-going treatment.
2. If you do not cancel with reasonable notice, you have stopped someone else having that appointment.

Cancellation policy
My cancellation policy requires at least 24 hours notice of cancellation by telephone, text, or email. If an appointment is cancelled with less notice, the full session fee will apply.

Arriving late for an appointment
If you are running late, please let me know as soon as possible. I will do my best to make a full session available, but this often depends on appointments subsequent to your booking and so cannot be guaranteed. If your session needs to be curtailed due to your late arrival then the session fee remains payable in full.

Confidentiality
In order to ensure continued best practice, I work as a solution-focused clinical supervisor. During supervision, it may be necessary to review your treatment, but any reference that could allow you to be identified is removed. Everything you say will be treated in the strictest confidence with the following exceptions:

• Self-harm: I may need to contact your GP if it appears that you are suicidal or intend to carry out serious self-harm.
• Abuse or injury to a minor: I am legally required to report any abuse towards a minor to the appropriate authorities should you divulge any such information to me.

Standards of behaviour
I undertake to treat you with respect and not to abuse the trust you put in me. I will use best practice at all times in our mutual interest. In return, you undertake not to harm yourself, or any other person, including me, or any property belonging either to me or any other person. You agree not to come to sessions under the influence of alcohol or recreational drugs, except those medications prescribed by your doctor. If you do come to sessions under the influence of alcohol or recreational drugs or demonstrate violent/abusive behaviour, I reserve the right to cancel the session and refuse any further therapy sessions.

  

What is the General Data Protection Regulations, 2018 (GDPR) and how does it affect me?

The GDPR replaces the 1998 Data Protection Act to ensure your personal and sensitive, confidential data is kept private and held securely, being processed in the way that you have agreed to. It is there to protect your rights as a consumer of a service or product that might involve your identifiable data, e.g. your name and address or whether you have a specific condition. It also covers any session records, text messages or emails we exchange.

How long will you hold my information for?

I am a member of the AfSFH, an organisation that stipulates I must hold your data for 8 years after your final session. Unless you are a child, in which case I must hold your data until your 25th birthday, unless you are 17 when treatment ends and then I must keep it until your 26th birthday. Therefore, all records will be deleted in the January after the above retention scales. This is in line with NHS guidelines for holding data.

What if I don’t want my records to be held for that long?

Under the GDPR you can make a request in writing to me, for all your records to be deleted. In this case all your paper records would be shredded with a cross shredding machine and any electronic data such as emails or text messages would be permanently deleted from the devices they are stored on. I would have to save the request for deletion you made but would not save any other data.

Why do you need to record this information?

I collect information about; why you are using the service, a small amount of medical information and a small amount of information about your important others, alongside brief session notes. This information enables me to provide a high quality service to you, ensuring I am equipped with the knowledge of our previous discussions prior to each session.

What lengths are made to ensure my information is held securely?

Hardcopy documents – Are all stored in a locked cabinet in a locked room.
Text messages – My phone is secured with a pin code.
Emails – My email account requires a user name and password.
Email attachments – Any attachments sent by email to you containing your personal information would be password protected and the password would be sent to you via text message.
Electronic documents – Any electronic documents eg A letter to your GP, or an invoice, are password protected and stored on a password protected computer if they contain personal or sensitive information.

Is what we discuss kept confidential?

Everything we talk about during our sessions are strictly confidential between you and me. To ensure I am doing my job effectively and that I have the right support, I may discuss elements of our sessions with my supervisor. My supervisor also adheres to GDPR.

What if I see you outside of the session?

You are welcome to share with other people about the therapy you are receiving, but I am obliged by GDPR law to ensure your confidentiality is protected. I would request that in order to ensure the success of your treatment, that you refrain from discussing your treatment with me outside of your sessions.

What about other Health and Social Care Professionals?

Because I adhere to the GDPR, any contact relating to you, with other health care professionals would only be made with your signed consent. For example, if I were to write to your GP to notify them of your treatment with me, and then notify them of the treatment ending, I would only do this if you were to sign the specific consent for this at the end of this document.

Exceptions:

In order to safeguard you and the people around you, if you were to disclose that you were going to carry out harm to yourself or someone else, then under my “Duty of Care” I am obliged by law to inform the relevant authorities.
If I was issued with a police warrant or court order for your information, by law I would also have to provide them with your information.

Complaints

Click here to see our complaints policy.