Working agreement between Client and Counsellor
Face-To-Face Appointments
Children up to the age of 12
This information is valid from the 17th 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. Here we will try to explain what that means. You can ask your counsellor any questions about it at any time. Your counsellor follows rules about how to work, which are written in the BACP ‘Ethical Framework for the Counselling Professions’. Your parent/carer can find a copy of this online at www.bacp.co.uk/ethical_framework.uk
This paper is called ‘the working agreement’ and in the first part we explain what you and the counsellor agree to do and how to behave in counselling sessions. The rest is for your parent/carer, telling them what they need to know about your counselling. You can read those parts too if you want to.
What we want to do in Counselling
In counselling we want to give you a safe place to talk about any problems you have that are bothering you and to talk together about what thoughts and feelings are in your head and body.
You only need to talk about things you want to talk about. Your counsellor will sometimes ask you questions about things that you may not want to talk about, but you get to decide what to talk about. It is OK for you to say “I don’t want to talk about that.”
Counselling does not make any promises. If you have any worries about your counselling you can always talk to your counsellor about these.
What we give you
Weekly times together
Your counselling takes place at the same time on the same day every week. Each session lasts no more than 50 minutes; you and your counsellor will agree what length of time is right for you.
If you do not want to meet every week, please talk to your counsellor.
Not telling others what you have said (as much as law lets us)
Your counsellor will not tell anyone about what you have talked about. Sometimes the law says that the counsellor has to tell someone, and all the information about this can be read about later in this document. Your counsellor will explain this in a way that is easy for you to understand.
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
If you are only having counselling for a little while, you will agree with your parent/carer and the counsellor when your counselling will end.
If your counselling has no end date, it will only finish when you and the counsellor agree.
When you and the counsellor agree that the counselling is finished, it is normal to meet one more time to say goodbye.
Counselling always ends and you can always talk about how you feel about that.
What you agree to
When you start counselling we ask you to:
Be on time for all sessions
If you are late to your counselling, you may not be able to have all your time together.
There will not be any counselling when it is a holiday.
Pay for all sessions
Your parent/carer will need to pay for all your counselling. All the information is later in this paper.
Talking to your counsellor when you are not in a counselling time
It is good not to talk to your counsellor about your thoughts and feelings when you are not in your counselling time. 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 have a time together.
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 agrees to:
To be there for you on time.
To start and end on time.
To offer a quiet and safe space.
To keep you safe and behave well.
To not tell anyone about what you talked about. (see section on Confidentiality below).
To help you be able to feel well on your own.
To follow the counselling rules.
To talk to you about how you feel about the counselling.
To attend regular supervision.
The following pages need to be read by your parent/carer and can be read by you.
Confidentiality
As a general rule, what you say 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:
You 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.
Cancellations
If for any reason the counsellor has to cancel a session, they will aim to provide you with at least 24 hours’ notice. Likewise, if you need to cancel an appointment, please provide at least 24 hours’ notice. You may be charged at the agreed rate for missed sessions, where you cancel a session and less than 24 hours’ notice has been received. If the counsellor cancels the appointment, payment will not be taken. Should payment have already been made in advance, the funds will be carried over to the next appointment.
Communication regarding cancellations will be made using the details provided on the Client Contact Details form. Should you need to provide updated contact information, please do so either by emailing administrator@cau12.com or giving them to your counsellor.
Communication outside of the counselling session
Communicating by the client with the counsellor outside agreed counselling sessions is limited to making, changing or cancelling a session. This helps to manage expectations of the support available within the boundaries of the therapeutic relationship.
If you contact the counsellor to discuss arranging a session and do not wish to leave a voicemail message, please either email or send a text message to the counsellor and they will get back to you as quickly as possible.
There may be occasions when your child and the counsellor agree, in session, to the emailing of information to aid the understanding of a therapeutic task or activity, or to aid the process of their self-help. This will be explicitly agreed with you beforehand as well.
If between sessions, your child finds themselves in immediate distress and need to speak to someone urgently they can call Childline on 0800 1111.
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.