My fees, unchanged since 1995, are:
· £100/hr if paying as an individual
· £120/hr if paid by an employer/institution
I ask for payment on the day of the session, if it cannot be made in advance.
Payment is usually easiest by bank transfer (details provided when payment is due).
I can provide formal invoicing if required. Please ask in advance, if possible.
Discounts are sometimes available but must be arranged in advance:
· 10% for students without other income and who are paying for themselves;
· A further 10% fee reduction is available for any client/supervisee in ongoing serious financial difficulties.
Paying It Forward
If you are financially secure and want to support clients and therapists from a variety of racial & class backgrounds, you can pay up to 20% over the usual rate. All such moneys will be kept in a special subvention fund to subsidise those who are less able to pay.
Additional fees:
I do not charge for emails, quick phone calls or other minor or administrative tasks that fall between sessions. However, I may need to apply a charge (at the same rate) for time spent reading or preparing detailed reports, documents or letters (especially to 3rd parties).
Group sessions are usually charged at £50 per person per hour; a 1.5hr group session will cost each member £75.
Records and Confidentiality
My records: I keep contemporaneous notes during sessions, mainly for my own reference and to track our work together. I occasionally record sessions for later reference and analysis. All information is usually kept for 7 years after our last session in line with GDPR good practice, and is then securely destroyed. You have a right to access information about you if you want.
Confidentiality: I maintain your privacy except in 4 specific circumstances:
· My own supervision: I discuss my work in my own supervision under equivalent conditions of privacy and confidentiality. These discussions are anonymous and I actively disguise identities to protect you and anyone else you discuss. This is a requirement of ethical practice in most UK counselling and therapy settings.
· Legal requirements: It is possible, though very unlikely, that I might be required to share information by law (eg if you become involved in litigation or because of the anti-terrorism laws in the UK).
· Research, audit and evaluation: I sometimes undertake research and related activities to support the quality of my own work or as part of wider research and publishing activities. If I use our work for these purposes, I will only use it in anonymised or aggregated form unless I have separately obtained your specific, explicit permission.
· Prevention of serious harm: I may need to disclose information if it is clear that it is the only way to prevent serious harm to you or others. I would never usually do this without discussing it with you first.
A note on “copyright”: Our work may be recorded manually, through the technologies we use to connect us, or reconstructed through recall. I ask that I be nominally considered the “owner” of the content of our work for any public purposes. I would not normally withhold permission if you wanted to use or make public material from our time together, but I ask that you discuss with me to obtain direct permission first.
Concerns or complaints
If something is not working: I ask that my clients and supervisees raise the matter with me in the first instance if able to do so.
Counselling, psychotherapy, and supervision of either, can all raise difficult feelings and relational patterns. It is often worth persisting through these to work through the issues, resolve them and rebuild the quality of our relationship. Most concerns can be resolved through honest conversation, and good therapy can mean not flinching from the prospect if that conversation seems like it might be difficult.
If that does not work or is not appropriate: I am a member of BACP and anyone can make a formal complaint to BACP whose procedure is available on their website: How to complain about a BACP member.
I take all concerns seriously and want to resolve them constructively.