General Service Policies

My professional services are all supported by specific policies designd to align with ethical and legal guidelines, as well as best practices. The below policies apply to all services offered that are not ‘Therapy’ services. For more information about Ben’s professional therapy services and the ethical policies governing them, visit www.benstimsponcounselling.co.uk

Cancellation & Late Policy
Missed appointments and short notice cancellations (less than 48 hours) impact me directly. Please advise as soon as possible by email or phone if you are unable to attend at your reserved time, so that time slot can go to another client. An appointment is considered missed fifteen minutes into the scheduled time. Time shifting the appointment to another time 24 hours before or after is offered at my sole discretion and subject to availability, to mitigate emergency situations. If our booking falls on a Friday, I will look to Monday to rebook. Currently, I only work with clients virtually and so if a client is available but ill, we can choose to do a virtual session with cameras off for the comfort of the client.

Should you give less than 48 hours’ notice of cancellation of an appointment or miss our appointment, 100% of session fee will be charged. Exceptions to this policy include accidents and illness, at my sole discretion.

If a chronic medical issue is present, we can discuss flixibility around this policy. For example, if a condition causes a symptom to flare up hours before out session, flexibility will ofcourse be applied.

Emergency Services
I do not provide emergency or crises services. In the event of emergency or crises, please contact 911/999 or the various crises line services available. I maintain a referral list of specific services available if the client feels they may benefit from having those.

Fees
Fees are structured to be in line with industry standards. Payment is due at the beginning of each session. If falling into arrears, future sessions will not be booked if there is an outstanding balance from the previous session. Extending a session, if the schedule allows, will incur extra fees. Fees are established and agreed to at the commencement of services. All services are provided with a receipt of payment. There is a limited number of sliding scale fee slots available and are offered to clients based upon certain criteria. Unless specifically stated, all services offered are final sale and non-refundable. Course registrations are non-transferrable.

Collection of Personal Information
I have designed my policies to be inline with UK data protection laws (UK GDPR & PIPEDA) to best protect client information. More specific information about each law and my data policy can be found in the service specific tabs below.

Social Media & Electronic Communication Policies

Due to the nature of online communication and the communities I work within, please be advised of the following general policies to safeguard privacy and maintain appropriate professional boundaries in settings where dual-roles may be present

  • I do not generally engage with my clients in public, unless we have previously agreed to do so. If we come across each other in the public, I will take the lead of my client in interacting so as not to break the potential confidential nature of our work. I also ask that clients respect my own privacy boundaries and it is preferred that only simple exchanges of pleasentries take place to respect my own right to a private life outside of our work together.

  • Communication relating to professional services will be restricted to email, in-person or phone calls only. I will not engage with clients via text or personal messeging on social media, unless this is previously agreed to. I regret that at this time I do not offer a service of texting to remind clients of our sessions apart from the automatic reminders sent via my appointment system.

  • My professional social media accounts are there primarily to advertise my services and activities, they are not intended as an avenue for out of office communications. It is not generally expected that clients will follow public social media platforms, if counselling and spiritual direction clients do follow my social media care will be taken to safeguard confidentiality.

  • I maintain personal and professional social media accounts. I do not accept friend requests from clients on my personal social media accounts, but will gladly accept follow/friend requests on my professional pages/profiles. If someone who has previously been following my more personal accounts decides to engage working with me, my general policy is to restrict access to my account for the interest of maintaining appropriate social distance.

  • With some agreed upon exceptions, I do not reply to my professional emails after business hours or on weekends. I endeavour to respond to most emails within 24-48 hours upon receiving said email.

  • One of the realities of working within the LGBTQ+ community and shared spiritual communities, it is likely that we may come across one another on communiy specific social apps (GRINDR, SCRUFF, or other dating apps) or may come across each other in community specific spaces. As such, we will discuss further policies to maintain professional boundaries in those circumstances so as not to interfere with each others personal lives.