Psychotherapy and Counselling Terms and Principles

Nives Lepin MBACP

In my work with you I will provide psychotherapy and counselling to facilitate your personal growth and change. I will provide a safe, non-judgemental and confidential environment for you to work in.

I will also maintain ethical boundaries in the therapeutic relationship with you and will use both my life experience, skills, my knowledge and training to help you on your path of change.

As my client, you agree to engage, invest in, and commit to, your own personal development and change.

General Principles

People are responsible for their own actions. You take the responsibility for your change and I am here to help you achieve your goal in therapy. It is you who will be changing yourself with my help and not me changing you.

People are responsible for their actions, feelings, thoughts and behaviour. In general, you cannot make others think, feel, behave or act in certain way and this also goes for others making you think, feel, behave or act. Everyone should take responsibility for their choices—even if they choose not to choose.

We treat each other with respect and as autonomous individuals. We will not judge or condemn each other or physically or verbally assault each other or others. We will be honest to each other. Honesty is essential for good therapy work.

Boundaries are important and are of essence not only for us to be able to work together in practical regards, but also for the therapeutic relationship to be potent. This goes for boundaries of therapy time and space also. There will be no therapy actively performed outside therapy space—that is at our sessions together or online. There will be no therapy done over phone, email etc.

Sessions

Our sessions together will be held on weekly basis for 50min unless agreed otherwise. Sometimes we might agree to more than one session per week, however, that is something we will discuss and agree upon as we work together.

You also agree to arrive at the agreed session on time. You will give 1 week notice if you should cancel a session by email, calling or texting me. If cancellation is not made in the period of 1 weeks’ notice, you will make payment in full regardless of attendance.

I also run sessions online, which we may agree to, should sessions in person at any time not be feasible. You also agree to potential sessions over Zoom in the case I am travelling. You are also fully aware that sessions that are not held in person pose higher risks in terms of maintaining confidentiality because of technology that is used and which I as therapist cannot influence. You, therefore, are aware and accept this risk by taking on therapy online.

You will give at least 4 weeks’ notice of your intention to end therapy, to allow for closure of the therapeutic process.

You agree to attend sessions regularly and will endeavour not to miss more than two consecutive sessions . Should your potential non-attendance become considerable, we will explore it in therapy for potential ulterior meaning and discuss how to approach it.

Fees

Regular fees are payed in advanced for the applicable month unless agreed otherwise. Currently I charge £200 for the initial session and sessions thereafter unless agreed otherwise. I  generally do not offer sessions over weekends or Bank Holidays. However, in the case we do agree to have a session on such days, I will charge a 30% premium to your regular fee.

Safety

You will keep yourself, others, the environment and me safe. This means no matter how you feel, you will control your behaviour and not act violently or threaten with violence to anyone or anything.

If you experience suicidal thoughts and feeling, you will report that in our next scheduled session for  us to discuss. In the case you are unable to keep yourself safe you will utilise emergency services immediately.

You will attend your sessions free from the influence of alcohol or non-prescription drugs. You will also get additional medical support if you need it. Your health and wellbeing is your responsibility.

Confidentiality

I will maintain confidentiality of the content of our sessions, unless I believe that a child is in danger and if I believe that you are at serious risk of harm to yourself or to others. I will attempt to let you know in the case I break confidentiality for such reasons before I do so.

I also attend professional supervision  to continue my own good practice and continuous professional development (CPD) and will discuss elements of my work with my supervisor on regular basis. I may also use such information for other (e.g. research, academic etc.) purposes. The information I will share this way will remain completely confidential and anonymous.

Miscellaneous

These practice principles are constantly being reviewed and updated.