Psychotherapy & Counselling Terms
Psychotherapist/Counsellor (“I”): Ales Zivkovic, MSc (TA Psych), PTSTA(P), CTA(P)
Client/Patient (“you”)
General Terms
The term “therapy” is a synonym for psychotherapy and/or counselling, whichever is applicable based on the nature of our work.
We treat each other with respect. There will be no tolerance for verbal or physical abuse.
Honesty and open communication are of fundamental importance for the therapeutic process. Therefore, you will not resort to dishonesty, lying, deceit, or withholding information, all of which will be addressed as a priority.
Therapeutic boundaries and a firm therapeutic frame are important so that, not only we are able to work together in practical terms, but also for the effectiveness of your treatment. This also includes boundaries around therapy time, space, payments, etc. There will be no therapy, or any other discussions performed outside therapy times—i.e., therapy is limited to our sessions only. There will be no therapy performed over email, texts etc. This also means no discussions of any sort, even when they may seem of practical nature to you.
Sessions
The duration of a session is 50 minutes.
Before we start our work, we will have an initial assessment. This is normally done in two or three separate 50-minute sessions. After the assessment we will determine whether we agree on further treatment and, if so, what the main characteristics and goals of such treatment will be. Undertaking the assessment does not guarantee further treatment.
Your therapy sessions will take place on regular basis and at the same predetermined times and days of the week.
If your treatment entails more than one session per week, the reduction of sessions, unless proposed and/or decided by the Therapist, must be for clinical reasons agreed upon with the Therapist, and needs to be agreed at least one month prior to its effect. If my professional judgement is that a reduction of sessions may not benefit your treatment, or may even pose a risk of harm, and if you simultaneously do not agree to continue therapy at the current frequency, you will always have an option of terminating the treatment (see the section on Termination for more). There will normally be no alterations to the session frequency during the termination period.
You agree to arrive to sessions 3-5 minutes prior to your session time to be able to start on time and will refrain from arriving earlier than that. If you are more than 10 minutes late for the session, the session will not take place and will be regarded as unattended.
If sessions are held online, this will be in the form of video calls (normally over Zoom). There will be no therapy conducted over the phone or by audio-only calls.
In the case I am travelling, I may give you an option of an online session.
You accept that the sessions that are not held in person pose higher risks to confidentiality because of the technology that is used, and this is something I cannot influence.
Fees and Payments
Unless we contract otherwise, regular sessions are payable on the 1st of the month for the applicable month. They are payable on per-calendar-month (pcm) basis.
Payments for assessment sessions and other ad-hoc/individual/one-off sessions are payable prior to the session. (For the avoidance of doubt, the term “individual session” refers to a one-off/single session not “individual therapy” session. As such, it also applies to couple therapy sessions.)
Sessions are payable regardless of your attendance or if you cancel. (See the section on cancellations and rescheduling of sessions for more details.)
In the case of regular sessions, you will pay the monthly fee by the first calendar day of the month for which the fee is intended. In the case of delays in payments, I normally do not provide therapy until the outstanding fee has been paid. Such sessions are regarded as unattended by the Client and will hence remain payable.
We may agree on a fee that is different from my regular fee (e.g., reduced rates). In such case, the fee is based on your individual circumstances. As such, you agree to keep the fee confidential.
Any change to rates (either temporary or permanent) is normally agreed a month in advance.
I generally do not offer sessions over weekends or Bank Holidays, however, if we agree to have a session on those days, I will charge a 50% premium to your regular rate.
We may agree on ad-hoc/individual/additional sessions during any period of our work. You will make payments for additional sessions separately and on per-session basis.
Your payments are for my time and the availability of my psychotherapy and/or counselling services to you. The payments are not for the result of therapy as the result will depend on many factors, including how you utilise therapy that is available to you.
Fees may be charged through a company.
Cancellations and Rescheduling of Sessions
If you have to cancel a session, you will notify me as soon as possible—preferably during one of the previous sessions. If this is not possible, you will inform me by calling, texting, or emailing me (see the section on Contacting Between Sessions for more).
Sessions are payable regardless of attendance. Therefore, cancelled or unattended sessions are payable/non-refundable.
If you wish to reschedule a session less than one week prior to the session time, the alternative session, should one be available, is payable as an additional session.
If you wish to reschedule a session, I will endeavour to offer you an alternative session within the same week, however, this may not always be possible. Rescheduling is only possible if another slot is available within the same week. Rescheduling sessions between weeks (i.e., carrying over a session into another week) is not possible.
Similarly, if you cancel a session and at a later time change your mind and wish to set it up again, I will endeavour to accommodate you, but this may not always be possible, in which case the session will remain cancelled.
I may sometimes need to reschedule or cancel a session. I will in such case see if I can offer you an alternative within the same week. If I am unable to do so the session will not be payable. If you have already paid for the session that I have cancelled, and which I was unable to offer you an alternative for, I will deduct the payment from your future scheduled payments.
Should you wish to make changes to your regular weekly session slot(s) (e. g. change the time and/or day of when you have your regular sessions), such changes will be subject to availability. You will notify me of such need to change at least 2 calendar months prior.
Contacting Between Sessions
My availability to you is limited to our scheduled sessions and does not extend beyond that.
You contacting me between sessions will only be limited to the matters of booking, rescheduling, or cancellations. You will not be contacting me in-between sessions for any other matters. For instance, resolving of disagreements, clarifications of potential misunderstandings, discussions around the diagnosis and similar matters will take place in the sessions so that we can analyse them appropriately.
If it appears that the practical matters that you wanted to contact me for may have other underlying psychological foundations, these will need to be discussed during our next session as this is an integrative part of the therapeutic process.
If the need to contact me arises, you are, therefore, advised to mention this (along with the experience you had at the time that you wanted to contact me) in the next therapy session for us to analyse it.
There will also be no contacting me in the case of emergency or crisis. Should you experience a crisis that may result in behaviour that you feel you may not be able to control (e.g., self-harm, suicide, etc.), you will, if necessary, resort to appropriate emergency services (see the section on Safety for more).
I may not be able to respond to calls, texts, voice messages, or emails promptly as they may only be checked periodically, so it may be some time before I respond.
Safety
You will keep yourself, others, the environment and me safe. This means no matter how you feel, you will control your behaviour and not act violently or threaten with violence. You will express your experience and feelings verbally to the best of your abilities. You will not make any explicit or implicit threats. You will keep yourself and others safe and from the risk of harm. Should you indicate an intention to harm, or report of harming either yourself or others, you accept that in such case I reserve the right to break confidentiality (see the section on Confidentiality for more).
You will attend your sessions free from the influence of alcohol or any non-prescribed drugs. This means that on the day of the session, prior to the session, you will not have consumed any of these substances.
You will also not attend sessions in-person if feeling ill and where you pose a risk of infecting others. We may have a session online in such case if you feel able to.
I work with you on private practice basis and, as such, am not able to provide any other support outside of our scheduled therapy sessions and outside of the limits of therapy. I therefore do not provide any sort of emergency services. In the event of emergency, you are committed to use appropriate emergency services to keep yourself and/or others safe and out of risk of harm. If you experience the need to self-harm or suicidal thoughts and are, simultaneously, in a position to not act on such thoughts, you will report of your experience in our next scheduled therapy session for us to discuss (i.e., you will not be contacting me in-between sessions). In the case you are not able to keep yourself safe and find you are at threat of acting on your self-harming or suicidal impulses, you will keep yourself safe by utilising appropriate emergency services immediately.
Termination
We will attempt to conclude your treatment by getting to a natural end which is normally determined by the “therapeutic contract”. (The therapeutic contract is a set of treatment objectives that are set out at the start of treatment and may be altered/added during the course of it.) If you decide to terminate therapy beforehand, you will give at least one month notice. You agree to do so in the session so that you can avoid potentially acting out on a momentary impulse and so that we can discuss your reasons in more detail. You will, therefore, refrain from terminating therapy (impulsively) over text, email, or phone, and without discussing it, and the reasons behind it, in the session. This is important for us to be able to indicate potential ulterior psychological motives. In any event, the decision you make will be fully respected and entirely yours to make.
I will endeavour not to terminate your treatment unless we have reached the contracted end. However, there may be professional, ethical, moral, or other reasons that may require me to terminate prematurely. In such case, I will normally discuss this with you in a session.
Confidentiality
I will maintain confidentiality of the content of our sessions except in the context of professional supervision or other academic and professional purposes, when your anonymity will still be maintained.
I may break confidentiality if I believe that a child is in danger and if I believe that you are at serious risk of harm to yourself or others. I will attempt to let you know in the case I break confidentiality for such reasons before I do so should this be possible.
Due to reasons of my ethical and professional practice and due to other regulatory and administrative reasons, I am obliged to keep notes of our sessions for a period of 7 years following the end of your treatment. If the therapeutic context requires, these notes may also include sensitive personal information (such as information about your health etc).
As a qualified psychotherapist, I am committed to professional supervision and continuous professional development (CPD) to maintain my good professional practice. I may discuss elements of my work in clinical supervision. Your anonymity will nonetheless be maintained. I may also use such anonymised information for other (e.g., research, academic etc.) purposes. The information I share this way will be anonymous and/or aggregated (i.e., your identity will remain anonymous) and is fundamental to my good professional practice.
Avoiding Dual Relationships
If you are my psychotherapy and/or counselling client, you agree to not attend any of my supervision and/or training/teaching events or any other event whatsoever.
Miscellaneous
I normally do not produce clinical letters or reports (e.g., reports for private health insurance, etc.).
These terms may periodically be reviewed and updated. Current version is available on my website. You may access the terms through the link sent to you at the start of therapy or alternatively by searching for “Ales Zivkovic psychotherapy terms”.
By using my psychotherapy and/or counselling services, you agree to these terms and accept the responsibility to keep yourself acquainted with the latest version of the terms.
These terms need to be read in conjunction with my Privacy Notice (and Couple Therapy Terms if applicable) which you may also find on my website.
Ales Zivkovic, MSc (TA Psych), PTSTA(P), CTA(P)
Psychotherapist, Counsellor, Supervisor, Trainer