Calm Amid Chaos Therapy Limited t/a Jess Marriner Therapy

(Registered in England with Co. No. 15972670)

Terms and Conditions of Therapy

1. Introduction

This document provides an outline of the key principles and expectations that will be used to guide our approach to therapy with you and how we will work together. It also details our terms and conditions of business relating to the therapy services that you will receive in treatment sessions. It supersedes any prior terms, conditions or agreements relating to these services or any verbal representations, warranties or undertakings given to you at any time. The commencement of treatment sessions with you will be taken as evidence of your agreement to these terms and conditions. Accordingly, please read this document carefully and raise any questions with your therapist directly.

2. Qualifications

We are bound by the British Association of Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies (BABCP) Standards of Conduct, Performance and Ethics. A copy of the BABCP Standards can be seen here.

3. How we will work together

a) At our initial session(s) we will work together to identify the problem(s) or issue(s) that you would like help with. We will explore these problem(s), how they trouble you, and when and how they started, as well as any other treatment or support you may have had or are having now. This may take one or two sessions. At the end of this period (the assessment) we will agree on your goals for therapy, decide if we are likely to be able to help you, and if you would like to continue therapy. You will be under no obligation to continue these sessions if you choose not to. Our role throughout is to help you through this process without criticism or judgement, to listen to your difficulties and provide feedback and suggestions based on our professional observations and specialist training.

b) If we agree that we will work together to address your goals, we will discuss with you the number of sessions that you may come to expect as part of your treatment plan – the total number of these sessions will depend on the nature of the problem(s) and your agreed treatment plan and goals but will usually involve between six and twenty individual appointments. We can revise this to have more or fewer sessions and will, in any case, look to routinely review your progress as we work through your treatment plan. You can end therapy at any point. Similarly, if at any time we feel that we can no longer help you further, we will offer to refer you to another service or recommend an alternative approach and our sessions may then end. Either way, we will normally look to discuss ending therapy with you a minimum of two sessions prior to the agreed end date.

c) Therapy sessions normally last fifty minutes and will usually take place on a regular weekly basis. Sometimes it may be clinically useful to have longer, or shorter sessions and we can discuss that if relevant. If you are late for one of our sessions, we will be able to meet for the scheduled time but we may not be able to continue beyond the time we had originally scheduled to meet.

d) Our therapy sessions will be held online. Sometimes we may look to continue our online treatment in other ways as part of the treatment plan. We will discuss this with you and will only use therapeutic techniques that are completely safe and relevant to your problem(s) and goals.

e) There may be times when we may need to take a short break from our sessions (e.g. the therapist has a planned holiday or period of absence) or when sessions are cancelled because of illness or because of other work commitments. We will always seek to give you as much notice as possible if we need to change these sessions and will offer you an alternative session time to meet.

4. Cost and payment

a) The cost per individual therapy session will be communicated and agreed with you ahead of your first session, in the absence of which will be the published price on our website/literature at the time of the relevant session. This may be adjusted if we agree to have a longer or shorter session for a clinical reason.

b) The cost of individual therapy sessions will be reviewed periodically. In the event of such an increase, not less than six weeks’ notice will be given to you. If you choose to continue therapy sessions, you will be deemed to have accepted the change in therapy session costs at the expiry of the six weeks’ notice period.

c) Payment should be made ahead of each session by bank transfer to our nominated bank account included in our invoice to you. If payment is not received ahead of the originally scheduled session, then we reserve the right to cancel the session and will look to agree with you an alternative session time to meet. In the case of two or more consecutive sessions where prior payment has not been received then we may immediately end therapy with you and any future treatment sessions, without further liability to you.

d) You will be required to attend all scheduled sessions promptly at the time and date agreed. If for any reason you are unable to attend an agreed appointment, you must endeavour to provide a minimum of 48 hours’ notice to your therapist. If you fail to attend agreed sessions without providing 48 hours’ notice, you will be required to pay a cancellation charge equal to 100% of the agreed session costs.

e) The cost of therapy includes any written materials that may be supplied, but not the cost of any books or literature that we may recommend; however, these books may be available through your local library at no cost.

f) If you are using a private health care plan to pay for your therapy services, treatment will not begin until we receive authorisation from the private health care organisation.

5. Confidentiality, supervision and note keeping

a) The BABCP Standards of Conduct, Performance and Ethics require that we maintain your confidentiality and keep information about you safe and secure. We are also registered with the Information Commission for the purposes of data protection.

b) As a means of protecting you, to ensure safe and ethical practice, and to maintain our accreditation we are required to have continued training and to engage in regular supervision. Therefore, we may discuss your case in supervision. If we do so, the therapist would not use any identifying details and the supervisor will also be bound by the BABCP Code of Practice and confidentiality.

c) From time to time, we may audio / video record our treatment sessions together. The therapist will ask for your agreement before making a recording. Recordings are used in clinical supervision and will form part of your clinical notes. We will destroy recordings of our treatment sessions after we finish our treatment plan together or where these services otherwise cease. You are also welcome to record the session, but please let us know if you want to do this. Please keep any recordings that you make secure so that other people cannot access them.

d) The therapist will take clinical notes during and/or after our sessions (which may take the form of written and/or AI transcribed notes) and will keep these securely, in accordance with the Data Protection Act 2018 and our Privacy Policy (a copy of which is available on our website). We may also ask you to complete questionnaires about your experiences and/or symptoms and this will form part of your clinical notes. You can inspect copies of these if you wish; please ask your therapist during one of our sessions.

e) Your clinical notes will also be kept confidentially. In limited circumstances we can be required to share your clinical records in court, by a judge. If this is requested by a court/judge, we would look to let you know of this (subject to our duties at law).

f) There are some limits to confidentiality. We may be required to break confidentiality if we consider that there is a risk you may harm yourself or others. We are required to break confidentiality if we become aware of acts of terrorism, safeguarding issues, illegal activity, or misuse of vulnerable persons. You should therefore be cautious about sharing any information with us that may mean we have to break confidentiality. If we are considering breaking your confidence for the reasons outlined, we will, where reasonably practicable, normally discuss this with you first.

g) If you have been referred by an outside agency, for example a solicitor or insurance company and there is a civil court case pending (for example if you have been injured in a road accident), under the Data Protection Act 2018 we may need to supply copies of our therapy records to an appropriate party, providing you consent for us to do so.

6. Therapeutical relationship, working together and ending therapy

a) Psychological therapy can often be demanding, frustrating, and emotional. Sometimes you may find treatment difficult or even want to end therapy. You may find that some ‘tasks’ you are given are very challenging and you should feel able to tell your therapist of this and to ask for support. We want to hear about how you think treatment is going and how you are experiencing it and will ask you to review your treatment with us regularly.

b) It is important that you understand the reasons behind your treatment plan. If you feel unhappy or unsure about any aspects of the treatment, please try to tell your therapist during the treatment sessions. This gives both of us the chance to try to address the issue(s) and to resolve it/them. If you have serious concerns about any conduct or your treatment and cannot resolve this with the therapist, you can complain to our professional body as noted below at section 7.

c) If, during a session, we become concerned about you harming yourself we will discuss what to do and how to seek help in an emergency. We do not offer an emergency service.

d) Please do not contact your therapist on social media – our relationship is professional and it is not appropriate or ethical for us to have a non-professional relationship with you. This would be a breach of our professional ethical code.

e) We will discuss your progress regularly and you should be aware when we approach the end of treatment. Before we reach the end of the treatment plan, we will discuss with you how to prevent relapse and any other professional help or support that might be useful.

f) Other than as set out in this document, we will not look to end our treatment suddenly or without discussing this with you first, unless there are exceptional circumstances (e.g. the therapist is taken ill or is not able to work with you for any other reason). In this case, we will look to refer you to another service or recommend an alternative approach.

g) Please note that any threats or acts of violence or discrimination will not be tolerated and will amount to your irremediable and material breach of this document. In this case, your therapy will cease immediately on notice to you. Similarly, sessions will not take place if you arrive under the influence of alcohol or non-prescribed medication and any persistent repeat of this will also amount to your irremediable and material breach of this document, leading to the immediate cessation of therapy on notice to you.

7. Complaints, service feedback, liability and governing law

a) All complaints will be reviewed in strict accordance with the codes of conduct laid down by the BABCP. Accordingly, if you are unhappy with the therapy services that you have received please discuss this with us in the first instance. If you feel unable to do so or if you are not satisfied by our response you have the right to complain to our professional body, the BABCP – please see https://babcp.com/.

b) We are committed to excellent customer service and continuous improvement. You can provide feedback at any point during therapy by speaking with your therapist or contacting us by email. Your feedback will be reviewed and you will normally receive an acknowledgement or reply within five days.

c) Nothing in this document excludes or limits our liability to you:

i.

for death or personal injury caused by our negligence; or

ii.

for any matter which it would be illegal for us to exclude or attempt to exclude our liability; or

iii.

for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation.

d) Subject to section 7c above, our total liability in contract, tort (including negligence or breach of statutory duty), misrepresentation, restitution or otherwise, arising in connection with the performance or contemplated performance of therapy services shall be limited to the aggregate amount paid by you to us in the last 12 months. Furthermore, if we fail to comply with these terms, we will be responsible to you only for loss or damage that you actually suffer where that is a foreseeable result of our breaking these terms or our failing to use reasonable care and skill, but we will not be responsible for any loss or damage that is not foreseeable.

e) This document shall be governed by, and construed in accordance with, English law and both parties agree that the courts of England shall have exclusive jurisdiction in relation to any dispute or matter arising in connection with these terms.

© Calm Amid Chaos Therapy Limited t/a Jess Marriner Therapy, November 2025