Working agreement between Client and Counsellor
Face-To-Face Appointments
Young People aged 12 to 16
This information is valid from the 23rd April 2024. It is periodically reviewed for accuracy. Changes will be highlighted at the top of the document.
Please note, changes to wording have been made to help make it easier to read and understand.
In Counselling you and your counsellor work together. In this working agreement we will try to explain what that means. You can ask any questions about this agreement with your counsellor at any time. Your counsellor follows the rules written in the BACP ‘Ethical Framework for the Counselling Professions’. A copy of this is available online at www.bacp.co.uk/ethical_framework.
The first part of this agreement is what you, the client, and the counsellor agree to and can expect from the counselling sessions. The later paragraphs in the agreement give information which your parent/carer will need to know about. You are, of course, allowed to read those parts of the agreement too.
What we want to do in Counselling
The aim of counselling is to provide you with a place to talk about any problems or difficulties you have that are bothering you and to explore your thoughts and feelings in a safe place.
What you want to get out of counselling is decided by you. This will be talked about regularly, with the understanding that your goals can and may change as you continue with counselling.
Counselling does not promise results and can be difficult. If you have any worries about your counselling you should always talk to your counsellor about these.
What is provided
Regular weekly sessions
Sessions take place at the same time on the same day each week and each session lasts 50 minutes.
If you want to talk about meeting less regularly, please talk to your counsellor about this. It is good to know that meeting every week at the beginning can be better as you and your counsellor are getting to know each other.
Confidentiality (within the limits of the law)
Confidentiality means your counsellor will not tell anyone about what you have talked about in a session. Sometimes the law says that the counsellor has to tell someone, and all the information about this can be found later in this agreement.
Please ask your counsellor or your parent/carer to explain it to you, if there is anything that you do not understand.
An agreed ending of counselling
If you are only having counselling for a little while, you will agree the date that your counselling will end when you start your sessions. All other counselling is open-ended and is only ended when you and the counsellor agree to. When you and the counsellor agree that the counselling work is finished, it is normal to fix a date for the last session so you can get used to it ending.
Counselling always ends and working together towards making that ending happen helps you and the counsellor make sure that it is done in a way that is best for you. You can always talk about how you felt your counsellor and the counselling sessions went.
What you agree to
When you begin counselling we ask you to agree to:
Regular, punctual attendance
When counselling begins you are expected to be at all of the sessions. There will not be any sessions on public holidays or when you or your counsellor are away on your holidays. If you are late, sessions cannot be extended, so you might not have as much time as you want.
Payment for all sessions
Your parent/carer will need to pay for all your counselling sessions in the time that is agreed. Full details are found below.
Cancellations
If your counsellor has to cancel a session for any reason, they will aim to tell you at least 24 hours’ before the session. In the same way, if you need to cancel an appointment, please tell the counsellor at least 24 hours’ before the session.
Your parent/carer might have to pay for missed sessions if they do not tell your counsellor that you cannot be at a session 24 hours’ before. If they have already paid for the session, the payment will be used for the next session instead.
If we need to tell you that your counsellor cannot be at a session, we will use the information your parent/carer gave us. If the information on how to contact you has changed, please ask your parent/carer to either email administrator@cau12.com or giving them to your counsellor.
Talking to your counsellor outside of the counselling session
Talking to the counsellor when you are not in a counselling session is limited to making, changing or cancelling a session. This helps you and the counsellor both know what is OK to do and what is not.
If you need to talk to your counsellor, please ask your parent/carer to call them to arrange a session. If they call and the counsellor cannot answer, they can leave a voicemail message. If your parent/carer does not want to leave a voicemail message, they can either email or send a text message to your counsellor and they will call back as quickly as possible.
There might be times when you and your counsellor agree, in a session, that they might send information that will help you understand a task or activity by email. This will be agreed with you and your parent/carer before anything is sent.
If between sessions, you find yourself in immediate trouble and need to talk to someone urgently please contact the Samaritans on 116 123 (free to call) or by e-mail on: jo@samaritans.org.
To talk to the counsellor when you feel you are ready to stop counselling.
To let the counsellor know if you are seeing a different counsellor as well, or if you are thinking about doing so.
What your Counsellor agrees to do
When you begin counselling your counsellor makes the following commitments:
To be there for you at the agreed time.
To start and end on time.
To offer a quiet and undisturbed space.
To keep you safe and behave professionally.
To treat all contact and information as confidential, unless there is reasonable doubt about the actual safety of you or others (see section on Confidentiality below).
To help you be able to feel well on your own.
To follow the rules on ethical and professional ways of working that are given in the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) ‘Ethical Framework for the Counselling Professions’ as mentioned above.
To regularly talk to you about the counselling work.
To attend regular supervision.
The following parts should be read by your parent/carer and can be read by you.
Confidentiality
As a general rule, what your child says in counselling sessions will not be shared with anyone else. However, there are certain circumstances when confidentiality may need to be broken. This includes the following situations:
The client or others are, in the opinion of the therapist, seem to be in danger or at serious risk of being harmed.
The therapist is required to do so by court subpoena.
The client infers involvement in or knowledge of a serious crime, a threatened act of terrorism, knowledge of or involvement in drug trafficking or money laundering.
The client infers knowledge of or involvement in behaviours that may, in the therapist’s opinion, lead to harm or neglect to children and vulnerable adults.
Your counsellor will aim to discuss any concerns with your child first.
There may also be times when you, as parent/carer, will have a meeting with your child’s counsellor. Nothing that your child does not wish to be shared with you from their sessions will be discussed, but the counsellor might ask for your child for permission to share certain information with you at these meetings. Only if they agree to this content being shared, then the counsellor may do so, in order to help them and the family overall communicate and work together more effectively.
At times your child’s case will be discussed with a supervisor and brief written records of initial consultation sessions and progress on on-going counselling will be kept. These are available on request and kept in line with the current Data Protection Regulation. Please see our Privacy Notice on www.cau12.com/privacy-notice for detailed information.
Please note, recording of the counselling sessions is prohibited without express consent from both your child and the counsellor. At times, the counsellor may ask for their permission to record a session for the purpose of self-evaluation of supervision. Your child has the right to decline this request and their decision will always be respected.
Under no circumstance must any recording of a counselling session be posted on Social Media sites or otherwise be made publicly available.
Payments
Once allocated, your child’s session time will not be available to anyone else. For this reason, you will be asked to pay for all sessions other than those when the counsellor is unavailable or for breaks that have been agreed between you and the counsellor. The agreed amount due is £65.00 per session, or at the rate agreed with your counsellor. This fee is payable by bank transfer within 48 hours following the session or via cash on the day of your child’s session. If you are paying by cash, please put the payment in a sealed envelope marked with the amount, the date of your appointment and your initials.
Please note that when paying by bank transfer, your name will be visible to the bank and the counsellors accountant.
To accept the terms of this Working Agreement, the parent/carer of the client will need to complete the online form you can access by clicking on the following button.