1.1 The relationship with your counsellor is the most important aspect of therapy. You need to feel comfortable in order to build trust which helps you to share your thoughts and feelings. We try to best match the counsellor that is right for you in order for you to get the most out of your sessions. If for whatever reason either you, or your therapist decide that it’s not right for you we can refer you to another member of our team or signpost you on to an alternative service where appropriate.

1.2 At the first session, your counsellor will talk you through the counselling process and contract for counselling. This will help you understand more about what happens in sessions, confidentiality and boundaries. You will also be asked to complete a short assessment form to help describe how you currently feel and a data gathering tool to help measure change.
After this initial session your following sessions will explore more about your situation and what it is you want to achieve from counselling.
Counselling will help you understand more about yourself, your situation and ways in which you can move forward.

When working with children as a parent you will attend the first assessment session and be asked to complete a data gathering tool to assess and measure where your children is currently emotionally, socially, and psychologically.
The counsellor will conduct 1-1 session with your child each week at the same time and day

1.3 At midway points throughout the counselling you will review together how things are going in order to ensure you get what you need.
When working with children we will review at 6-8 week intervals with parents with regards to the process of the work.

1.4 As part of the process of counselling you or your child’s needs with continually be reviewed in order to ensure you are getting the best possible therapeutic care and support. At times, you may need a more intensive, or specialist treatment that our service may not be able to offer. In such cases, we will discuss this with you and refer you onto an appropriate service.

2. Confidentiality
2.1 All confidential information at Kalmer counselling is held in accordance with the The General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) 2018. Please see our privacy policy for more details.

2.2 Everything that you discuss with your therapist is confidential. Confidentiality will only be broken if there is concern about your safety or the safety of someone else or we are instructed to do so by a Court of Law. In any of these cases we will always speak to you about this first.

2.3 Your therapist will receive clinical supervision each month to discuss casework and other professional issues in a structured way. The purpose is to assist the therapist to learn from their experience and progress in expertise, as well as to ensure good service and ethical practice to their clients.

All of our counsellors at Kalmer follow the BACP recommend guidelines with regards to one and half hours per month of supervision with a qualified experienced supervisor. All of these sessions are bound by confidentiality.

2.4 Notes will be kept by your therapist after each session and will be anonymised and stored in a locked filing cabinet. Our service abides by the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) 2018 which means we must keep these securely for seven years after your therapy comes to an end. After this time, they will be confidentially destroyed.

3. Counselling sessions
3.1 All sessions at Kalmer Counselling last for 50 min (therapeutic hour) and you will meet with your therapist on a weekly basis at the same time and day each week.

4. Payment
4.1 Payment for your sessions is made at your first session.

5. Cancellations
5.1 If you should need to cancel an appointment with us please call us on 0191 241 6731.

5.2 We ask that you give at least two working days’ notice so that we can reallocate that hour to someone else.

5.3 If the notice period has not been given or you failed to attend your session with no prior notice the full session fee will be charged for the session. For you to get the most out of therapy and for it to work you need to attend regularly.

5.4 Where the notice period has been adhered to the full session fee can either be refunded or carried over to your next booking.

6. Breaks in Therapy
For therapy to be effective you need to attend your sessions on a regular and consistent basis. It’s important that both you and your therapist are aware of any planned breaks so that you can plan and prepare for the break in the therapeutic work. Your therapist will give you enough notice to ensure this and we ask that you do the same.

7. Raising Concerns
Should you ever have any problems with our service please let your therapist know however if this does not resolve the issue, please raise your concerns with the Director of Kalmer counselling Victoria Beattie via email to our info address info@kalmercounselling.co.uk.

7.1 All of our therapists work in accordance with the ethical guidelines of the British Association for Counselling & Psychotherapy (BACP) and the UK Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP). Kalmer is an organisational member of the BACP working towards accreditation.
These guidelines protect you as a client and ensure that our organisation and staff team conduct themselves with professionalism and integrity. If you feel any of the issues raised at Kalmer have not be resolved by then you can contact our regulatory body BACP.