You know what you can expect from me. Here’s what I need from you.
I love what I do. I love helping people to achieve their goals, to feel better about themselves, to be liberated from their pasts and problems.
My website is full of explanations as to how I will work to ensure that you receive the best possible hypnotherapy, the best possible outcomes and the most professional and ethically sound service.
It should be borne in mind, however, that in agreeing to work with me you also incur some responsibilities of your own.
These responsibilities are based on the principle that I am a human being, worthy of respect, and that I am working to support my family through helping others to live better, happier and more fulfilling lives. By agreeing to work with me you therefore indicate acceptance of these terms and conditions.
Please have a read of these terms and conditions. If they feel too onerous and unreasonable (I believe them to be in accordance with standard practice) then please feel free to find a therapist who works in a different way. Otherwise, feel free to get in contact should you agree that they are reasonable.
You agree to give adequate notice of cancellations
Very few people simply fail to turn up. Those few who do, however, leave me out of pocket because I still have to pay room rent and because I will have had to travel to the location concerned. I’m also left with a period of dead time in which little of any importance can be achieved. Somebody else could have taken that slot.
I need 48 hours notice of cancellation. Sessions cancelled at less notice will incur a cost of half of the normal fee in the first instance and the full fee for further instances.
Of course, in cases of sudden illness, acts of God or other emergencies I am free to exercise discretion with regard to fees for late notice cancellations. This, however, will be at my own discretion.
People who forget, fail to arrive and thus leave me with no notice at all will incur a full fee charge for the missed session. If you fail to turn up for a second time then you will find that I will be unable to arrange any further sessions with you.
I work in a caring profession but you’ll understand that I do need paying clients who actually arrive for their sessions, for this is my living. You’ll also understand that as a father, a partner, a therapist, a person studying a language as well as for an MA in child and adolescent psychotherapy, my time is precious. I have none to waste.
You will do your best to be on time for sessions
We can’t avoid the occasional traffic jam, blocked road or faulty alarm clock. However, if you’re late to our session then I reserve the right to stick to our allotted time.
You are paying for an hour of therapy and that hour begins when our agreed time begins. It doesn’t begin upon your arrival.
Please do your best to be on time for every session. An hour isn’t a very long period of time and the quality and quantity of that which we’re able to achieve will often be impaired by lateness. To get the best value for your money it really is best to arrive on time.
If you’re running late then it would be wonderful if you could safely let me know of your impending late arrival.
As stated above, my time is precious and if I am still waiting for you, ten minutes into the session, (with no explanation or warning given) then I reserve the right to claim back what is left of the hour and to wander off to do something more constructive instead. If you then were to arrive and find me absent, this would be unfortunate.
I might add, at this point, that there’s no use in arriving early either. I would love to have a receptionist and a waiting room ready to welcome you. However, in the real world: if you arrive early and begin ringing bells then you risk disturbing another person’s session, finding me simply on a break or waiting outside in the cold. So, please do try to arrive on time and, therefore, neither early nor late.
Payment
I will outline payment options when I email you directions, forms and the like. Please do come with full payment for every session. If people repeatedly forget to bring payment, in full, then I reserve the right refuse future sessions until the outstanding amount is settled. Future sessions may then, at my discretion, have to be paid for in advance.
If I agree to payment via bank transfer then please be sure to transfer the money within 48 hours of our session having taken place. I reserve the right to refuse further sessions to those who haven’t done this. I’m not a ‘big business’ and can’t afford to wait an age for people to get around to such things. Neither can I afford to continually chase people for payment. I’m fully booked and time spent chasing payment is eating into that precious little spare time I do have left to enjoy.
The complete refusal or failure to pay outstanding fees may result in action being taken through the small claims court.
Therapy under the influence of alcohol or narcotics
If you arrive for a session under the influence of drugs or alcohol, to the extent that I judge proceeding with therapy to be inadvisable, then I reserve the right to refuse you admittance to the location concerned and to refuse to conduct the session. This will be at my discretion. The session will be charged for nevertheless. If I judge you to be incapable of making your way home safely then I will take whatever steps are necessary in order to keep you and the public safe. I would, in such circumstances, have to charge you for the session.
Contact between sessions
If we judge it desirable and therapeutic for there to be contact between sessions then that’s all well and good. I’m more than happy to have the occasional ‘phone conversation, or an exchange of emails, if that proves helpful to the therapy.
If I am working with your child then regular contact will be arranged after every four sessions.
However, such contact will always be at my discretion. At the time of writing I have 70 clients and would be unable to cope with excessive quantities of correspondence between sessions, should they all choose to get in touch.
If we cannot establish a reasonable agreement regarding such things and should I therefore find myself subjected to unreasonable demands regarding contact then I will remind you that contact is at my discretion and will act to re-state expectations.
If unreasonable demands continue then I reserve the right to terminate therapy. This very rarely happens (in fact it has only happened once thus far) but it is best to make such things clear beforehand. They say that ‘good fences make good neighbours’. Good therapeutic boundaries also make for a good therapeutic relationship.
Safety and abuse
This has never been an issue, to date, but your safety and my own are paramount. If I consider that your behaviour or state of mind are such that your safety or mine are endangered, I reserve the right to end the session and call upon the appropriate services for assistance.
With regard to abuse, it is sometimes the case (rarely) that I become the focus of the client’s anger and distress. That’s fine. I’m trained for it and am sufficiently strong to cope with it. If, however, you direct verbal abuse at me which I consider to be outside of the general therapeutic remit, I reserve the right to terminate the therapeutic relationship with immediate effect.
Resolved! Hypnotherapy’s GDPR (use of data) policy
Statement of Intent
This policy explains how Resolved! Hypnotherapy uses and protects the information you
provide when becoming a client and using this site.
The information you give me will be kept secure, treated with respect and will only be used for the purposes for which it has been provided.
This policy will be updated periodically in line with current legislation.
When you contact me via my website, phone or email I will collect your:
Name
Email Address
Telephone Number
Any information necessary for you to explain the nature of your problems, goals and circumstances.
How is this information used?
I use this information to get in touch with you in order to discuss your needs and goals.
I may also use this information so that I may improve my services.
If you choose to come to see me I will send you a copy of this Privacy Policy so that you’ll be aware of how I use data gathered before and during our sessions.
I will ask you for your GP’s contact details and some basic health information: Some rare conditions prevent the ethical use of hypnosis and I sometimes need to consult with medical professionals as to whether they’re happy for me to work with their patients.
I will ask you regarding these things during our first session, or during our telephone conversation prior to that session.
I will ask you for details of your next of kin: this is used very rarely and only in emergency situations. In fact, I have never had to contact the next of kin to this point in time.
You do not have to consent to the collection of information, however, if you choose
not to provide it, I may not be able to work with you.
In the course of our sessions:
I will ask for your email address for the purposes of sending you any recordings we make as a part of the therapeutic process. It may also be necessary to send emails to confirm or rearrange appointments.
I will make a note of information you provide me in order that we can plan bespoke therapy sessions and recordings.
I will not ask for and do not receive or retain your bank details.
Under the General Data Protection Regulations which are effective from May 2018
you have the following rights:
The right to be informed (which is why I have produced this policy)
the right of access: if you wish to see your file then please make a request in writing to me, Paul Hughes, the Data Processor. I will provide you with the information within 30 days of your request.
The right to rectification: this means you can request changes to any information I hold that is factually inaccurate. If you believe any of the information I hold on you is incorrect then please let me know as soon as possible and I will make the relevant changes, as soon as is possible.
The right to erasure: given the nature of our work it is considered good practice to hold your details for a period of time. After this your information will be securely destroyed. My insurers have no fixed policy on this matter and so I opt to keep this information for two years.
The right to restrict processing: I will only use the information for the purposes that I have stated above. I uphold the common law principles of confidentiality where the duty to keep confidence is measured against the concept of
‘greater good’. If in my opinion, as a therapist, there is good reason to believe not to disclose would cause danger or serious harm to self, the therapist or others then your GP or other appropriate agencies may be contacted. Only information required to ensure safety of relevant parties would be disclosed. Information may have to be disclosed without consent for the prevention, detection or prosecution of a crime. The sharing of anonymous case histories with my supervisor is not a breach of professional confidentiality.
The right to data portability: this right is more relevant to IT companies e.g. the sharing of information when moving from one utility provider to another. I will not share your information without your specific consent, other than in the
situations described above.
The right to object: I will not contact you for marketing purposes unless you have given me specific consent to do so.
The right not to be subject to automated decision-making including profiling: I will not use your information for profiling purposes.
Cookies
Cookies are small files which ask your permission to be placed on your computer’s hard drive so that it can analyse web traffic to my website.
I have Google Analytics monitor the location of visitors, which pages they visit, for how long and so forth. All of this data is completely anonymous, of course.
The cookies monitor only your use of my site and cannot see whatever else you may be doing online.
As soon as you close the window the cookie stops operating.
Through this I can see which of my website’s pages are being viewed and this helps me to improve my website’s performance. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies but you can modify your setting to decline them if you prefer. If you choose to do this you may find that you cannot make full use of my website.
Links to other websites
My website may contain links to other websites. However, once you use these links please be aware that you have left my website and I do not have any control over other websites. I cannot be held responsible for the protection and
privacy of any information which you provide when visiting such sites and these sites are not governed by my privacy policy. Please exercise caution and look at the privacy statement applicable to the website you are visiting.
Agreement to work with me signals an acceptance of these terms and conditions
These terms and conditions come into play from the very first moment we agree to meet. I’m sorry to have had to spell them out in such a manner. It is, as always, the behaviour of one or two people, among the hundreds of lovely people I’ve helped, which has necessitated spelling these things out in black and white.
Best wishes
