BOOKING AND CANCELLATION POLICY
1. Booking & Payment Terms:
- Prepayment Required: All sessions must be paid for in advance.
- Zoom sessions: Payment required no later than 48 hours before.
- In-person sessions: Payment required no later than 72 hours before, including room fee (£12/hr Mon–Fri for counselling/standard psychotherapy/ £18.75 per session for EMDR).
- A session will not be booked or confirmed until full payment is received.
- Clients with outstanding balances will not be able to book further sessions until cleared.
2. Cancellation & Refund Policy:
Zoom Appointments:
- Cancellations with at least 48 hours’ notice incur no charge.
- Cancellations with less than 48 hours’ notice are non-refundable and charged in full.
In-Person Appointments:
- Cancellations with at least 72 hours’ notice incur no charge.
- Cancellations with less than 72 hours’ notice are non-refundable, and the room fee will still apply.
Additional Booking and Cancellation Agreement
- Missed sessions or late arrivals (10+ minutes for zoom/ 15+ minutes for in-person) without contact will be treated as cancellations and charged in full.
- Transferred or rescheduled sessions are subject to the same cancellation terms and conditions as the original booking.
- Repeated short-notice cancellations may result in therapy being paused or terminated without refund.
3. Session Conduct & Attendance:
Clients are expected to:
- Arrive on time, fully clothed, and free from drugs or alcohol.
- If under the influence, the session will be terminated and charged.
- Ensure privacy during remote sessions. Public spaces or shared environments (including children present) may require rescheduling.
- Understand that sessions cannot be extended if the client is late.
- If the therapist is late, the full session time will still be provided.
- All emotions are welcome, including clients expressing anger and swearing. However, I have a firm boundary regarding aggression and verbal abuse directed toward me. I will not tolerate any aggression or verbal abuse directed at me. If this occurs, I will have to end the session, and I will not be able to continue working with you. This is nothing personal against you, but rather me taking personal accountability and responsibility by not working with clients whom I do not feel are a good fit for me. I am unable to do my best work in that situation. There are therapists who may feel comfortable with this and who are able to continue working with a client behaving in this manner, but it is outside my competence. As explicitly explained in this contract within the Boundary Policy, and agreed to by the client when signing, any such behaviour will be considered a boundary breach by the client. If a session ends early due to a boundary breach, the payment for that session will not be refunded.
Session Frequency & Therapeutic Commitment
While your autonomy and pace are important, infrequent sessions can be unsafe, especially with high-risk mental health conditions that may cause harm or severe impairment. Long gaps between sessions risk emotional destabilisation or retraumatisation because therapy can bring sensitive material up to the surface
For effective trauma work, sessions are ideally weekly at first (Phase 1 & 2). I require sessions at least every two weeks unless we are in Phase 3 (winding down therapy).
Monthly sessions are usually for review and support, not in-depth therapy. They don’t provide the continuity or relational depth needed for trauma work and would not be clinically appropriate.
To keep therapy safe and effective, I cannot continue monthly sessions unless we both agree you are near discharge. If you prefer a slower pace, we can discuss goals that fit that approach. If you are unsure and want to understand this a bit better, please see here under 'Session Frequency and Therapeutic Commitment'.
4. Notice Period (Therapy End)
Notice Requirement
A four-week notice period is required when ending therapy. This notice period is in place to allow for appropriate clinical closure, planning, and transition, which are considered best practice in therapy.
Prepayment of Final Sessions
To simplify this process and ensure the notice period is covered, clients are asked, after the initial consultation and when confirming the first session, to pay in advance for their final sessions as follows:
- Four sessions (standard), or
- Two sessions (if the client has financial difficulties and a reduced payment plan has been agreed).
These pre-paid sessions act as the final sessions of therapy and automatically cover the required four-week notice period.
No additional payment required
When notice is given, clients will already have paid for their final sessions (two or four, depending on the agreement) and will not be required to make any additional payments for those sessions.
Sudden Termination / Missed Sessions
If therapy is ended suddenly without providing the required notice, or if the pre-paid final sessions are not attended, the pre-paid sessions will be retained in lieu of notice, in accordance with the contract.
Purpose and Ethical Rationale
This policy is in place as a contractual provision designed to:
- Ensure fairness for both client and therapist,
- Maintain the integrity of the therapeutic process, and
- Allow the therapist to manage clinical scheduling responsibly.
This approach aligns with ethical guidelines from professional bodies, which support clear agreements regarding notice, fees, and structured, safe endings to therapy.
5. Addiction & EMDR Protocol:
If you have relapsed or taken substances within 12–24 hours before a session:
- EMDR cannot be provided.
- You may either:
- Reschedule (cancellation terms still apply), or
- Switch to a general counselling session.
- If the room has been booked, full room and session fees apply even if EMDR is not delivered.
- In this case, you will be charged the counselling rate, and if applicable, the EMDR room booking fee.
6. Therapy Planning & Breaks:
- Once a therapy plan (e.g. EMDR, counselling) is agreed, it will be followed unless reviewed together and changed by mutual agreement.
- Clients may request to switch therapy types, but this requires a new agreement and re-contracting.
- Clients must give:
- 1 week’s notice for short breaks or adjustments due to life circumstances affecting EMDR/intensive work.
- 1 month’s notice for extended breaks (over 2 weeks) or permanent schedule changes.
- Therapy may be paused if this notice is not given. Unused sessions witout notice will still be charged.
7. Therapist Commitment to You:
Your therapist agrees to:
- Keep to time boundaries. If late, will try to ensure you receive the full session.
- Offer sessions via Zoom in colder months (Oct–Mar) or on windy days due to medical health needs.
- Contact you promptly in the event of illness or cancellation. Where possible, sessions will be rearranged within the same week (If I have a sudden health flare up, I will have to take sick leave and will not be able to work. I will do my best to give you as much notice as possible, but sometimes short notice can’t be avoidable. I’ll do my best to offer you a session another day that same week)
- Maintain professional boundaries, including if you cross paths outside sessions (see Boundary Policy below for further details).
- Be emotionally and physically fit for work and work within their competence.
- Refer you to another practitioner if issues arise beyond their capacity.
- Provide a minimum of one month’s notice if therapy must end unexpectedly (except in emergencies).
- Follow the NCPS Code of Ethics, hold valid insurance, and attend regular clinical supervision (at least once monthly).
8. Confidentiality & Ethics:
- Your sessions are confidential, with limits outlined in the Confidentiality Policy.
- Confidentiality may be broken if you are at risk of serious harm to yourself or others. Where possible, you will be informed beforehand.
- Supervision is held with a qualified supervisor and fully anonymised.
- Support sessions as an addition to regular therapy sessions are available. These are not emergency/crisis support. Therapists do not provide emergency/crisis support. Clients should contact emergency services or crisis helplines if/when required.
9. Record Keeping & Data Protection:
- Notes are kept brief, factual, securely stored, and coded. You have a right to access them.
- Data is processed in compliance with the UK GDPR and guidance from the ICO.
- If you consent, secure AI tools may be used to support supervision or note-taking.
- Therapists may occasionally request consent to record sessions for training, always without identifying you.
- Some administrative tasks are handled by a trusted third party under strict confidentiality agreements, for example my PA
- Other sensitive data that may be accessed by trusted third parties includes information held within my scheduling platforms (Acuity/Squarespace) accessed by Acuity/Squarespace, as well as my bank and my accountant. However, all of these services are GDPR-compliant, and I only grant access to any third party after confirming their compliance with GDPR regulations in advance.
10. Medical Limitations:
- Therapists cannot prescribe medication, diagnose medical conditions, or provide medical advice.
- Clients are responsible for informing their therapist of:
- Any mental or physical health conditions, past or present.
- Any substance use, prescribed or recreational.
- Any changes in health or medication between sessions.
11. Additional Terms:
- Fees are: £85 for 50 mins counselling/ £115 for 90 mins Specialist Trauma Therapy (and room fees where applicable). Reduced rates are applicable at the Clinical Director's discretion and the discounted fee will remain as agreed. Clients will be notified 2 months in advance of any changes.
- Clarification about how 90-minute sessions work: Booking 90 minutes (60-minutes for clients on the accessible therapy package) is the maximum time we would spend on an EMDR session, but it doesn’t mean we automatically go the full 90 minutes. If we naturally reach the end of a processing phase, we’ll finish there, especially after grounding and regulation, so we don’t start a new topic when it’s not ideal. Also, if you book a 90-minute session (60 minutes for clients on the accessible therapy package) but decide not to do EMDR, the session will be counted as a Phase 1 talking session and will end around the usual 60-minute mark (50-minute mark for clients on the accessible therapy package).
- One client per session unless prior agreement has been made for systemic/family/couple support sessions.
- Sessions moved to another day/time due to rescheduling or therapist illness are still subject to standard terms.
- Stepping Stones Psychology reserves the right to pause or end therapy at any time, particularly in cases involving high-risk behaviour, addiction relapse, or breach of agreement.
- Therapy will not resume if there is any outstanding balance.