FAQ’s
Our online counselling sessions are charged at £25 per 50 minutes. This helps us to cover the cost of retaining qualified counsellors for our Assessment and Safeguarding team, Clinical Supervisors, and business overheads and administrative costs. We also offer ongoing in-house training and development for our counsellors to ensure best practice and improve the service provided to our clients. As a non-profit Community Interest Company, we reinvest our profits into local community initiatives and charities.
Each online session lasts 50 minutes. Sessions are held weekly at the same time and day. Your regular time slot will be reserved only for you.
Counselling is a very personal experience and you are invited to have as many online sessions as you feel you is helpful for you.
Sessions are offered on an ongoing basis with 12 week reviews. We encourage you to give their counsellor at least two weeks notice if possible when you plan to stop therapy, so that your counsellor can plan a meaningful ending with you.
Many of our volunteers are trainee counsellors and psychotherapists in clinical placement with us. When they are coming to the end of their placement, they will let you know 12 weeks in advance that they are unable to extend sessions after this period.
If this happens, you can request to work with a new counsellor, take a break while you think about what you’d like to do, or work towards an ending in therapy if you feel ready to move on.
Our online therapy sessions are available every day. Our first session time is 8am and our last is 8pm. We are also pleased to be able to offer some counselling sessions over the weekend, however this depends on the availability of our counsellors. Please provide as many options for sessions times as possible, if you’re options are limited we will do our best to find a counsellor with suitable availability but this may take slightly longer.
Once you have agreed a suitable time with your therapist, your weekly counselling sessions will take place on the same time and day each week.
We understand that it isn’t always possible to commit to weekly sessions if you work shifts. Please let us know if this is the case during your assessment and we will try to accommodate your schedule.
We request a minimum of one week’s notice if you need to cancel a session, otherwise your normal fee will still be due. In the event of exceptional circumstances that prevent you from attending, please let your therapist know as soon as possible and confirm this to us by email: info@affordablecounsellingnetwork.co.uk
During your assessment, we will get to know you and develop an understanding of your counselling needs.
We allocate every client to a suitable therapist who we believe has the appropriate level of experience and availability to meet their individual counselling needs.
We appreciate how important the client/therapist relationship is, therefore, if for any reason you struggle to form a positive relationship with your therapist please contact us and we will endeavour to place you with a new therapist.
We are committed to supporting your wellbeing and development through the provision of a safe, non-judgemental space to explore your personal objectives, process and therapeutic journey.
Yes, all of our counsellors are registered with their relevant professional membership bodies and bound by a code of ethics, which includes keeping your therapeutic space confidential.
There are very few situations in which counsellors are legally obligated to break confidentiality without your consent, including if there was immediate threat to life (for you or another), if a child or young person under 18 was at risk of harm (under the Children Act 1989), if we became aware of offences under the Terrorism or Drug Trafficking Acts, or we were compelled to do so by court order.
Breaking confidentiality is always a last resort. As you are in relationship with you counsellor, they would always discuss any concerns with you directly if appropriate in the first instance.
Your counsellor can also discuss these aspects of confidentiality with you in more detail during your first session, especially if it is something that you are worried about.
Our initial assessments are conducted by qualified counsellors who operate within the safeguarding requirements of our ethical framework. We have a duty of care to both our clients and counsellors, and this allows us to ensure that the counsellor allocated to each client has an appropriate level of experience.
Many of our therapists are trainee counsellors in clinical placement. They practice a range of therapeutic modalities and styles and join us at different stages in their learning journey. We believe this is one of our strengths and it allows us to accommodate a broad range of clients.
Counsellors registered with a professional body must complete a minimum of 100 hours in clinical placement before they qualify – similar to student nurses and doctors. We ask our trainee counsellors to provide a ‘fit for placement’ letter from their training institute and evidence of their professional memberships.
Our counsellors must go through an interview and training process before they join the Affordable Counselling Network. They have also undertaken additional training to work effectively and safely online.
Online counselling has potential benefits including easier access to counselling and the convenience of meeting from a location of your choosing. To ensure confidentiality and comfort, you should use a private and quiet space for your online sessions where you will not be interrupted.
It is important that you are in a private, comfortable space when you meet with your counsellor. To maintain confidentiality, you must never share your online counselling session link with anyone else. If you do share your link accidentally, or your email security has been compromised, you must notify your counsellor immediately so that they can take appropriate measures to ensure your online counselling session will be private.
Your therapist will provide a meeting link to you before your session, to an online platform, often Google Meet, Zoom or Teams. You will need a computer, tablet or smartphone with a camera. You will also need a stable internet connection.
If you need guidance on how to use online meeting spaces, please ask during your initial assessment and at least 24 hours before your first session and we can send you additional instructions.
In the event of technical difficulty accessing this service, you must notify your counsellor that you are unable to join as early as possible and at the latest, 10 minutes before the start time of your session. Your counsellor will contact you by phone, as long as you have taken the appropriate steps to notify them of your technical issues before the start time of the session.
Under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), you have rights regarding your personal data, and we encourage you to contact us if you have any concerns.
We take very brief client notes after each session, typically a sentence or two. This enables us to provide you with the best possible service. All information about you is held securely in accordance with personal data storage requirements.
If you have any queries, please feel free to contact us directly:
Email: info@affordablecounsellingnetwork.co.uk
