Sustain Psychology’s Therapy Terms & Conditions.
Should you wish to engage with our therapy services, we will send you a full version of this form to complete and sign securely. They are displayed here for your information.
These Therapy Terms are the standard terms which apply to the services we provide to you (known as the “Services”), by us, Sustain Psychology (trading name of Dr Rebecca Chasey) whose business address is: 1 Barnfield Crescent, Exeter, Devon, UK, EX11QT (known as the “Practice”, also referred to as us/we/our).
Please read these Therapy Terms carefully and sign at the end to indicate your acknowledgment and acceptance. If you have any questions on any part of this document, please do not hesitate to ask before signing (contact Dr Rebecca Chasey at info@sustainpsychology.co.uk).
Professional Information:
Dr Rebecca Chasey is registered with the United Kingdom’s Health and Care Professions Council, (HCPC), Registration number PYL03648. All Clinical Psychologists practising within the UK must be registered with the HCPC. In order to maintain their practising registration, all Clinical Psychologists must continue to demonstrate compliance with a range of HCPC minimum standards of conduct, performance and ethics. www.hcpc-uk.org.
All Services offered by the Practice are delivered under the regulations in law as specified by the HCPC in the United Kingdom.
Dr Rebecca Chasey is also chartered by the British Psychological Society https://www.bps.org.uk and abides by their code of Ethics and Conduct, https://www.bps.org.uk/news-and-policy/bps-code-ethics-and-conduct
Who The Service Provided by Sustain Psychology is for:
Sustain Psychology provides services to adults aged 18 and over.
Our services are only available to people resident and located within the UK.
We can only provide services to people who are not currently linked with other mental health services.
Consultations and Appointments:
Consultations shall be by appointment only. Details of the consultation timings, length and fees shall be made available to you in advance of the consultation.
Initial appointments can be made by emailing the practice at info@sustainpsychology.co.uk or via our website www.sustainpsychology.co.uk.
Subsequent appointments can be made face-to-face during your consultation or emailing the practice at info@sustainpsychology.co.uk or via our website www.sustainpsychology.co.uk.
Online Sessions:
In some circumstances, and by mutual agreement, sessions may be provided online via a livestream service. We use Zoom (www.zoom.us)
When using a third-party supplier for online sessions your personal and special category data will be treated in accordance with our Privacy Policy, and may be subject to the privacy policy of the third-party supplier. We will not be liable to you for any costs or losses incurred by you as a result of using any third-party online provider for the purposes of attending a session virtually with us. You should make yourself familiar with such providers’ own terms and conditions and privacy policy.
In order to use Zoom properly you are responsible for having the necessary hardware, software and reliable internet access for the duration of the session.
If we provide any of our Services as a livestream, we will use all reasonable endeavours to start at the time scheduled. If the start is delayed by circumstances beyond our control, we will not be liable for any such delay. We will not extend a therapy session due to problems with your internet connection or equipment which affect your ability to connect to Zoom.
In some limited circumstances, we may need to suspend the provision of an online session for one or more of the following reasons:
(i) To fix technical problems or to make necessary technical changes;
(ii) In the event of illness or other circumstances beyond our control.
In the event of any of the circumstances listed above occurring, then we will use reasonable endeavours to give as much notice as possible to you.
If we agree to use Zoom, by agreement, I will share with you some best practice tips for accessing our services via an online provider either before or at the beginning of the first online session.
Ahead of your online session, we ask you to plan where in your location you will sit for the meeting. It is important that your connection to the internet is as strong as possible.
In the event that the session is interrupted by technical glitches which are beyond the control of either you or us, your clinical psychologist will spend up to 10 minutes trying to reconnect with you. If they are unable to do so due to technical glitches the session will continue by telephone if appropriate, or we will offer to reschedule the appointment. Where rescheduling is due to technical difficulties on our part you will be refunded for the amount of time you lose. Where this is due to technical difficulties on your part, this will be treated as a cancellation, and we will charge you for the full session.
It is important that you ensure the space is private and that you cannot be interrupted or overheard. You are strongly encouraged to make any necessary arrangements with anyone you may normally share the location with to ensure that your protected space can be achieved.
Wearing earphones attached to your mobile, laptop or tablet device is helpful in blocking out “feedback” noise and ensuring extra privacy.
In the event that sessions are arranged online, you agree to be suitably dressed as if we were meeting face to face; not to drink alcohol or use other mind-altering substances during or prior to meeting; and not to undertake other activities (e.g. running errands or driving) while the meeting is ongoing.
Recording of Sessions:
You must not live stream or record or distribute any audio and visual images from the sessions without discussing and agreeing this with us first.
It is not permitted, under any circumstances, that any agreed recording is shared with others or on any social media platform.
If either party wish to record sessions, then (i) both parties must have agreed to this in advance of the session and (ii) such agreement must be recorded in writing.
If You Are Ill:
We insist that we do not meet you face to face if you are experiencing symptoms of an infectious illness, e.g. Covid 19, influenza or chest infection. Online or telephone sessions can be arranged in lieu, should you be well enough. Otherwise, you are advised to cancel your appointment (see below).
Cancellations:
a) Cancellation of Free Introductory Meeting:
You may cancel a free introductory meeting without charge.
b) Cancellation of Booked Therapy Appointments:
You have the right to cancel your appointment within 14 days of booking if it was arranged online, in compliance with the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013. If your appointment is scheduled to begin within this 14-day period and you request immediate provision of services, you acknowledge that your right to cancel will end once the service has commenced.
Please note that if you cancel within the 14-day cooling-off period and the service has not yet commenced, no cancellation fee will apply.
For appointments booked face to face you may cancel an appointment without charge if you give us at least 48 hours in working days prior notice. If you do so, we will refund to you any sum you paid in advance.
Any cancellations made with fewer than 24 hours’ notice will be charged at the full rate. Cancellations made between 24- and 48-hours’ notice will be charged at 50% of the full rate. This is the case no matter whether the appointment is for a face-to-face or online session.
If, due to exceptional circumstances you cancel an appointment without giving at least 48 prior notice we will consider the circumstances and, in our discretion, decide whether to waive any charges for late cancellation that we are entitled to make.
We will always try to arrange for another client to attend to avoid you having to pay the cancellation fee. However, it is not usually possible to book another patient at such short notice.
If you cannot attend in person, an online or telephone consultation will be offered instead.
Where funding is via a health insurance company, your employer, or is provided as part of a legal process, cancellations with fewer than 48 hours’ notice, or failures to attend are likely to be counted as one of your designated appointments. You should check with your health insurance policy to ensure you know when they will and will not cover your costs.
If you cancel as allowed by this paragraph, and you have already made any payment(s) to us for any appointments, we will refund the payment(s) to you within 14 days of receiving your request.
We may cancel an appointment booked by you at any time before the time and date of that appointment in the following circumstances:
(i) The required personnel and/or required materials necessary for the provision of the Services are not available; or
(ii) An event outside of our reasonable control occurs.
If we cancel an appointment in such circumstances, we will refund to you in full any advance payment that you have made to us for that appointment.
We will use all reasonable endeavours to start appointments at the time you have booked, but the start may be delayed by the overrun of a previous appointment or by other circumstances. If the start is delayed by 20 minutes or more, you may cancel the appointment and we will refund you in full any deposit or other advance payment that you have made to us for that appointment.
If you know you are going to be late for an appointment, you should contact us to tell us. If you arrive later than 15 minutes after an appointment time, we will try to provide the Services you have booked, but if we decide that we cannot, the appointment will be treated as cancelled without notice by you and you may be charged. This is the case no matter whether the appointment is for a face-to-face or online session.
If we are prevented from or delayed in performing our obligations by your act or omission or by any circumstance outside our control, we will not be liable to you for any costs, charges or losses sustained or incurred by you that arise directly or indirectly from such prevention or delay.
Communications following Cancellations and Missed Appointments:
a) If you cancel or miss your free introductory session:
If you cancel or miss your free introductory session we will take this to mean that you are not wanting to meet with us at the present time and will take no further action. You are of course welcome to rebook an introductory meeting through our website.
b) If you cancel or miss a booked therapy appointment:
If you contact us to cancel an appointment, we will contact you by email to invite you to rebook a further appointment. We will aim to contact you about this within 2 working days.
If, following our initial contact with you, we have not heard from you after a week, we will briefly write again inviting you to make contact. If we do not hear from you further to this, we will close your case after 30 days.
If we have to cancel an appointment due to unforeseen circumstances, we will use all reasonable endeavours to contact you by email as soon as we are able to invite you to rebook a further appointment as soon as this is available.
In the event that you miss an appointment without telling us about this or break contact with us during one of your sessions (either face-to-face or online), and we have significant concerns about your safety/wellbeing, we will contact you to confirm your safety/wellbeing. Should you not reply, we will then get in touch with the emergency contact that you have given us and with your GP and/or other services as appropriate to ensure your safety.
Regular attendance at sessions is important to get the best outcomes from therapy. We recommend that therapy sessions occur on a regular basis. We will agree their frequency with you and we ask you to commit to this (as far as reasonably possible). If it seems that you are having difficulty attending regularly, we may discuss this with you to ensure that your experience with our services is as helpful as possible to you.
Third-Party Venues:
If Sessions are held in person at a third-party venue, you agree to comply at all times with that venue’s policies and rules about that venue (particularly fire safety and health and safety rules).
You are responsible for your own belongings that you take to a Session. We will not be liable for any loss, damage, theft or destruction of any of your belongings.
Fees & Payment:
At present we are only able to accept clients who are self-funding and do not accept payment from Private Healthcare Insurance Funding. We will notify you if this changes.
You must pay for all Services in accordance with our current price list (displayed on our website).
All prices of Services shown in the price list are exclusive of VAT (which is not chargeable unless we notify you otherwise).
Due to high demand and in order to most effectively manage our waiting list we are unable to hold an appointment slot without payment. Payment of each consultation must be made at least 24 hours in advance in order to secure your appointment. Unfortunately, if we have not received payment, we will not be able to hold your appointment time for you.
No charge will be made for any brief phone calls or emails or for sending on copies of existing letters/reports in relation to your care and treatment (where ‘brief’ is 15 minutes or less).
No charge will be made for any communications regarding safeguarding of you or others.
You will be charged at the hourly rate for services if I am asked to write a new report and/or have an online meeting or extended* communication by email or telephone with anyone involved in your care as part of my work with you. * ‘Extended’ will be taken to mean exceeding 15 minutes.
You may pay us for Services (and for any deposit or other advance payment on account of that payment) using any of the following methods:
a) By BACS transfer to the following account: **
(For reasons of security these details are not provided here on our website but will be supplied to you as a trusted client once you have registered with our services)
Name: **********
Bank: **********
Sort Code: *********
Account Number: *********
** Please note that we will not send you a notice by email alone that our bank details have changed during the course of a transaction; (ii) Any such email you may receive will not have come from us and should be reported to the police and to us immediately; (iii) Please be careful to check bank account details with us in person if in any doubt. We will not accept responsibility if you transfer money into an incorrect account.
b) By debit or credit card using Square payments (online or face-to-face transactions)
Clients are requested to use the reference number on the invoice, so that the payment can be easily identified.
All prices of Services shown in the price list are exclusive of VAT (which is not chargeable unless we notify you otherwise).
We may alter our prices. We will not normally increase your individual rate during your personal course of therapy within a 12-month period. We will provide at least 12 weeks’ notice of any price increases during ongoing therapy. Increases made between the time when you book an appointment, and the date of the appointment will not apply to your appointment on that date.
Invoices for services, including cancellation fees, must be paid within 5 working days of the date of invoice.
Chasing unpaid invoices attracts an administration and interest charge of 8% above the Bank of England base rate from the due date until the final settlement date. We may suspend the provision of our Services to you in the event that any due fees remain unpaid.
Confidentiality:
The information discussed in our consultations and appointments with you is of a confidential nature. We provide a safe place in which you can share your feelings and thoughts with us.
Our commitment to client confidentiality is not affected by who pays for the service provided by us.
We will ensure that any confidential information you disclose to us shall not be disclosed to any person except as permitted in this section.
We may disclose confidential information relating to you: (i) to our employees, advisers, other healthcare professionals or social agencies who need to know such information for the purposes of carrying out our Services to you; (ii) as may be required by law, a court of competent jurisdiction or any governmental or regulatory authority; and/or (iii) if we believe that you are at risk of harming yourself or others, in which case we are entitled to report this to the relevant organisation. Where possible any breach of confidentiality related to risk of harm will be discussed with you first.
We shall not use your confidential information for any purpose other than to perform our obligations under these Therapy Terms.
We shall ensure that any person to whom we disclose your confidential information in this section also comply with these confidentiality obligations.
It is a requirement for all Clinical Psychologists to have regular Clinical Supervision sessions in which they discuss their work in a safe and confidential space with an equally or more experienced colleague. All work that is discussed in these sessions is completely anonymised. Supervisors are bound by the same professional and ethical regulations as our practitioners and do not discuss clinical material outside of the supervisory context.
If you are attending face-to-face appointments at my office, please be aware of the potential privacy issues related to any location-based services on your mobile phone or other electronic devices. Other people may be able to use these to discover that you are attending therapy sessions. Please be aware of this risk if you have GPS tracking enabled on your device; if you are intentionally “checking in,” from my office; if you have a passive LBS app enabled on your phone; or if you or people you know use ‘Find My Phone’ to track your whereabouts. You might want to disable these electronic trackers to protect your privacy.
Contacting Your GP:
We recommend that you inform your GP about our sessions. We require your GP’s name and surgery address and details of your next of kin/emergency contact person.
If a medical or legal professional or social worker requests information from us, we will not release this without your consent unless there is a legal obligation to do so.
How We Use Your/the Patient’s Personal Information (Data Protection):
We will only use your personal information as set out in our Privacy Policy on our website at Privacy Policy — SUSTAIN PSYCHOLOGY. If you do not have access to the internet we can provide you with a printed version of our Privacy Policy.
We are registered as Data Controllers with the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) as required by the Data Protection (Charges and Information) Regulations 2018. Dr Rebecca Louise Chasey is the registered data protection officer, Ref number ZB074457.
We comply with all relevant data protection legislation (including the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA) and the UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)). Sustain Psychology is DPA and GDPR compliant. Please see our Privacy Policy for more information about how we protect your data.
Notes and Record Keeping:
Brief notes are made after each session in order to recall information and support the quality of our work together. All clinical psychologists are professionally required to keep notes and records of their work.
Notes and records of our work with you are kept securely, according to the Data Protection Act (2018).
These will be kept electronically with secure practice management software. We use Writeupp software (www.writeupp.com).
We will not keep paper copies of any documents.
Notes are not kept on a computer or hard drives.
Our Privacy Policy provides more information about what information we keep about you, why we keep this and how we maintain your confidentiality and keep it safe and secure.
We retain ownership of notes and records, but we are happy to discuss their contents with you and you also have a right to access them formally. Should you wish to do this, please contact us in accordance with the Your Rights section of our Privacy Policy.
It is possible for the courts to access notes should they need to in relation to a matter of public interest. In this unlikely event, you will be informed before the notes are released.
If we need to send emails that contain detailed information pertaining to your care (for example to yourself or to your GP), we will send these using end-to-end securely encrypted links. If you are sending us detailed confidential information, we encourage you to use a password-protected word document, with the password sent separately, or other secure means.
Limitation of Liability:
We will be responsible for any foreseeable loss or damage that you may suffer as a result of our breach of these Therapy Terms or as a result of our negligence. Loss or damage is foreseeable if it is an obvious consequence of our breach or negligence or if it is contemplated by you and us when a contract with you is created. We will not be responsible for any loss or damage that is not foreseeable.
We provide all Services only for your personal and private use/purposes. We will not be liable to you for any loss of profit, loss of business, interruption to business or for any loss of business opportunity.
Nothing in these Therapy Terms is intended to or will exclude or limit our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, or for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation.
Furthermore, if you are a “consumer” as defined by the Consumer Rights Act 2015, or a consumer for the purposes of any other consumer protection legislation, nothing in these Therapy Terms is intended to or will exclude, limit, prejudice, or otherwise affect any of our duties or obligations to you, or your rights or remedies, or our liability to you, under the Consumer Rights Act 2015; the Consumer Contracts (Information and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013; the Consumer Protection Act 1987; and any other consumer protection legislation.
For more details of your legal rights, please refer to your local Citizens’ Advice Bureau or Trading Standards Office.
The Practice does not recommend or make any representation about the efficacy, appropriateness or suitability of any treatments, services or opinions. We cannot guarantee any outcome nor promise to provide a diagnosis.
Force Majeure (Circumstances Beyond Reasonable Control):
We shall not be in breach of this agreement nor liable for delay in performing, or failure to perform, any of its obligations under this agreement if such delay or failure result from events, circumstances or causes beyond our reasonable control.
In such circumstances the time for performance shall be extended by a period equivalent to the period during which performance of the obligation has been delayed or failed to be performed.
If the period of delay or non-performance continues for 3 months, you may terminate this agreement by giving 14 days’ written notice to us.
If we are prevented from or delayed in performing our obligations by your act or omission or by any circumstance outside our control, we will not be liable to you for any costs, charges or losses sustained or incurred by you that arise directly or indirectly from such prevention or delay.
Refunds:
Save as set out in these Terms in relation to your consumer cancellation rights, we are not obliged to provide any refunds of any amounts paid for the Services.
Changes to these Therapy Terms:
We may from time to time change these Therapy Terms without giving you notice, but we will use our reasonable endeavours to inform you as soon as is reasonably possible of any such change.
Complaints and Standards:
We are committed to providing as helpful and compassionate a service as possible to meet the needs of all our clients and hope that the need for complaint will not arise. If it does, the following applies:
We always welcome feedback from our clients and, whilst we shall use all reasonable endeavours to provide a high standard of service, care and treatment to all clients and patients, we nevertheless want to hear from you if you have any cause for complaint. If you have any complaint about our Services or any other complaint about us, please raise the matter with Dr Rebecca Chasey who can be contacted at info@sustainpsychology.co.uk, 1 Barnfield Crescent, Exeter, Devon, UK, EX11QT.
If this is not possible, or should you feel you would like to take the matter further, you can contact the British Psychological Society for further advice. https://www.bps.org.uk/submitting-complaint
You may wish to raise your concern directly with the Health and Care Professions Council, should you feel you have encountered an issue of fitness to practise. This can be done by following this link: https://www.hcpc-uk.org/concerns/raising-concerns/
Crisis Management and Emergencies:
The type of psychological work offered by Sustain Psychology is not suited to managing emergencies or crisis.
If you require urgent help between appointments then please contact your GP, use the NHS 111 service for advice, phone 999 or attend Accident & Emergency (A&E) at your local hospital. You can also contact the Samaritans’ anonymous helpline on 116 123 or Childline on 0800 1111 (for those under 19 years). For further information about crisis support please see our website resources www.sustainpsychology.co.uk/resources
Email:
Appointment times or other queries can be clarified by contacting Dr Rebecca Chasey at info@sustainpsychology.co.uk
We do not provide therapeutic support outside of therapy sessions.
Email should not be used by clients in times of emotional or mental health crisis or to communicate risk issues since we cannot guarantee that emails will be read or responded to in a timely way.
We aim to respond to emails within 48 hours during our normal working times. Our working hours are 9.00 – 17.00 Mon – Friday. Please be aware that an immediate response may not be possible.
Although we do not anticipate any problems, we reserve the right to block the use of our email address if we feel it is being used inappropriately by anyone.
A full copy of our email policy is available upon request.
Social Media:
We don’t accept or make friend or contact requests with current or former clients on any social networking site. We believe adding clients as friends or contacts on these sites can compromise your confidentiality and our respective privacy. It may also blur the boundaries of our therapeutic relationship.
Please do not use SMS (mobile phone text messaging), messaging on Social Networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, or LinkedIn to contact me. Neither should you use Wall postings, @replies, comments on blogs or other means of engaging with me in public online if we have an already established client/therapist relationship. These sites are not secure, I may not read these messages in a timely fashion and engaging with me this way could compromise your confidentiality and the boundaries of our relationship. It may also create the possibility that these exchanges become a part of your legal medical record and will need to be documented and archived in your client record.
A full copy of our social media policy is available on request and is displayed on our website.
Professional Relationship and Boundaries:
Respect, integrity and trust in the professional relationship between us and you, the client, are very important. The relationship between us must remain professional in line with the professional and regulatory codes of conduct that we follow in Sustain Psychology: We offer psychological talking therapies based on a safe and boundaried relationship between you and your psychologist. Social, romantic or sexual contact is not allowed.
Our Contract with You:
Our acceptance of your order will take place when we email you to accept it, at which point a contract will come into existence between you and us.
If we are unable to accept your order, we will inform you of this in writing and will not charge you for the Service. This might be because we have not got capacity to take on more patients at this time or because of other restrictions on our ability to perform the Services.
We will accept your typed full name as your signature on these terms.
Leave & Holidays:
We will give you a minimum of 4 weeks’ notice of any planned leave dates when our Psychologist will be unavailable.
We require, where possible, 4 weeks’ minimum notice of any planned holidays from you.
Right to Refuse or Withdraw Services:
If we are unable to accept your request for psychological therapy or services, we will inform you of this in writing and will not charge you for the Service. This might be because we have not got capacity to take on more patients at this time or because of other restrictions on our ability to perform the Services.
We reserve the right, at any time, to withdraw therapy and our Services to you based on clinical judgment. In these circumstances, we will, as far as reasonably possible, work to ease the transition of service provision and give as much notice as is practical in the particular situation. Any advance payments will be refunded for any Services not provided.
General:
We will not undertake any procedure that is in conflict with any law in force, any voluntary or mandatory code or practice, or any similar rules, regulations or codes.
We are required to ensure that certain information is given or made available to you as a Consumer before we make our contract with you except where that information is already apparent. This information is included in these Therapy Terms or will be made available to you before we accept a booking from you. All that information will be part of the terms of our contract with you.
If you have any questions regarding these Therapy Terms, please do not hesitate to discuss with us, either in a session or by contacting us.
No Waiver:
If a party fails to enforce a right under this Agreement, that is not a waiver of that right.
Severance:
If any provision of these Therapy Terms is held by any competent authority to be invalid or unenforceable, in whole or in part, the validity of the other provisions of these Therapy Terms and the remainder of the provision in question shall not be affected.
Governing Law and Jurisdiction:
These Therapy Terms are subject to the laws of England & Wales and the jurisdiction of the English Courts.
As a consumer, you will benefit from any mandatory provisions of the law in your country of residency.
Your Agreement to These Terms And Consent to Treatment:
By signing below, you explicitly consent to the following:
1. By ticking this box, you give your explicit consent for us to collect, process, and store your personal health information (in accordance with our privacy policy) for the purpose of providing psychological services and support. You understand that this may include sensitive data regarding your mental and physical health.
2. By ticking this box, you give your explicit consent for us to share your personal and sensitive data with third parties for the purposes of carrying out our Services (such as third-party suppliers that assist with our practice management – see our Privacy Policy for more information).
3. By ticking this box you give your explicit consent for us to occasionally transfer your personal and sensitive data outside of the UK and EEA (but only in line with our Privacy Policy).
Your First Name: …………………………
Your Surname: …………………………….
Date of Birth: ………………………………
Your Address: ……………………………..
Your City: …………………………………….
Your Postcode: ……………………………
Your Email: ……………………….…………
Your Mobile Number: ………………….
Please provide details of your GP and, if possible, someone who could be contacted in the unlikely event of an emergency arising. We require these details as a condition of working with you.
Name of GP (doctor)………………….
Address of GP (doctor) ……………..………………………………………
Name of next of kin/emergency contact: ....................………………………………….
Telephone contact for next of kin/emergency contact: ...........……………..……………………...
Next of kin/emergency contact relationship to you: ………………………………
The contact details which you provide to Sustain Psychology must be correct and you agree to promptly notify us of any changes to your contact details.
Please sign here to confirm that you have read, understood and accept these Therapy Terms:
Signature: …………………………
Date: ……….……………
If you have questions about any of the content of this document, please contact Dr Rebecca Chasey on info@sustainpsychology.co.uk
Thank you for reading and completing this form.
Last updated December 2024 based on a copyrighted template provided by Aubergine Legal Services
© Sustain Psychology 2024