Frequently Asked Questions

No, just bring yourself

It is very difficult to say how many sessions you will need.  It depends on the complexity of your problems and your willingness to work on yourself between sessions.

You can attend your sessions in person, talk by telephone or by video link.  For video link you need to have a smart phone, a tablet, a laptop or a PC.  During the pandemic we can only offer either video link or telephone counselling.  This will continue until restrictions are lowered enough to allow us to reopen our Clitheroe practice.

No, you can arrange your sessions at a times that both you and your therapist mutually agree to

Yes, your notes are confidential and are kept in a locked cabinet In compliance with GDPR. Your notes are kept for seven years and then destroyed. Under exceptional circumstances they can be shared:

they could be subpoenaed by a judge if they had reason to think that they would contain useful information.

Yes, everything that you say in a session is confidential and is kept between your therapist and yourself. However, there are circumstances where information may be shared with or without your consent. If your therapist believes that you are actively suicidal, that means that she believes that you would seriously harm yourself with an intention to end your life and that this is imminent, she would share only relevant information to emergency services in order to keep you safe. At the start of therapy your therapist will ask you to provide her with the name of an emergency contact person that she can’t contact if she is concerned that you may try to end your life. she will only contact this person in these circumstances.

If you informed her that you knew of a serious crime that had or was going to be committed, she would be required by law to report this to the police.

If you informed her that you knew that a vulnerable adult or child was at risk of serious harm, she would be required by law to report this to relevant services.

In addition, all good therapists attend supervision. During supervision aspects of work with you may be discussed. However, supervision is about your therapist practise and therefore the information disclosed would be limited to what was relevant to this. Supervisors also adhere to the same GDPR requirements as your therapist.

Recording of sessions is not allowed. 

If both parties agree to this it may be possible and would be at the discretion of your therapist.  It would be necessary though, for both to receive equal numbers of individual sessions.

No, if you wish to share the contents of your notes with someone else you will need the consent of your partner to do so.

Yes, At the start of therapy your therapist will discuss confidentiality with you and explain the limits of this. There are some circumstances why your therapist may feel that she needs to share information outside of the therapy room. These circumstances are as follows; if she fails that one or both of you are in serious danger or that you disclose that’s a serious crime has or will be committed. under these circumstances, your therapist will share only the relevant information with the relevant services. If at all possible, she will inform you of this before she does it.

For video link therapy you need access to either a smartphone, a laptop, a tablet, or a Desktop computer and internet access.

For both video link and telephone therapy you will need to be in a quiet place where you will not be disturbed and cannot be overheard.