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Counselling
online
Will
you be able to help me?
Some people use online counselling to unburden
themselves of thoughts and feelings that keep going round and round
in their heads, seemingly not getting anywhere. Writing down these
thoughts and feelings helps to get them out of your head and you
do feel they are less of a burden afterwards. If you are using emails,
you can write to me, press the Send button and wait for my reply
feeling better because you are doing something about the situation
(even though nothing has changed yet). In my online counseling practice
I have helped people with problems in the following areas:
Anxiety
and panic attacks (read more)
Bereavement and other Losses (read
more)
Depression (read more)
Relationships (read more)
Stress both at home and at work (read more)
This
is a joint task - you are not alone
Our work together is a joint effort. By sharing
your thoughts and feelings with me you are no longer dealing with
them on your own. I encourage you to focus and prioritise the situations
that are causing you a problem. Together we look for new ways of
understanding them perhaps by problem-solving, perhaps by challenging,
perhaps by doing some writing about them.
What
does it cost?
My charges for counselling are shown below
as different combinations of email and live session.
1
Email (of at least one page) £25
Or pre-paid package of emails paid ahead in one payment:
3 emails (£23 per email) £69
5 emails (£21 per email) £105
1
Live session (one hour) (text/audio/whiteboard) £40
Or pre-paid package of sessions paid ahead in one payment:
3 one-hour sessions (£38 per session) £114
5 one-hour sessions (£36 per session) £180
I
accept payment in £ sterling through Google Checkout or internet
bank transfer. I also accept sterling cheques through the UK post.
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Is
it confidential and private?
I follow the Guidelines for Good Practice
of my professional body, the British Association for Counselling
and Psychotherapy (BACP)
which means I have regular supervision of my internet work. I don't
identify you to my supervisor and any transcript material I might
send is always anonymised. Reviewing my work with my supervisor
helps me give you the best service I can. Whilst we are in counselling
contact, I keep my copies of our work on my personal, password protected
computer (it requires my fingerprint to unlock it). If I am away
from my desk for long periods of time, or there are visitors in
the house, the computer is locked. When our work is ended I transfer
the transcripts on to a CD which is locked in my filing cabinet
for 2 years - in case you want to return. After that time, the CD
is destroyed. The next paragraphs tells you how to protect your
computer and keep our work private.
If
you are sharing a computer or using a workplace computer for our
emails (or have curious friends or relatives who look inside your
computer) you could use a portable key drive (also called a USB
drive); or a memory stick; or an external hard drive. Then you can
write and store our emails on the portable drive or memory stick
which can be removed and hidden when not in use. If you also download
a portable version of your web browser, use your ISP's website to
collect and send your emails and do all your counseling work on
the portable drive you won't leave a cyber 'footprint' on the computer
you use. Please ask me if you're not sure how to do this. Another
option would be to encrypt our emails (but you would need to follow
the privacy suggestions above as well once the emails were de-crypted
on your computer). I have an email address at hushmail (which is
free to download for personal use), please ask me for details. Do
remember that if you use a workplace computer, your employer has
legal ownership of any emails that are on it.
The
Instant Messenger chatroom I use for live sessions sets up a direct
connection between our two computers and our conversation does not
pass through a third party server (where our conversation could
be intercepted or stored). It is also encrypted, so anyone intercepting
our messages would have to unencrypt them to read them. You can
read more about this chatroom software here
(it is free to download for personal use)
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Email
or live sessions
Clients who work online with me can choose
to send emails or attend live chat sessions. As we do not see or
hear each other, the words we write become our main method of communication.
This has both advantages and disadvantages. We can't see or hear
each other (we use text instead) but there is less chance of you
missing or misunderstanding something because you can always go
back and re-read it another time or ask a question about it. There
are other advantages, some people find that a face to face counselling
session makes them anxious. They may have had to make complex arrangements
to attend the session and this can be on their minds at the same
time. Sometimes they worry about their counsellor's reaction to
what they say and try to 'please' them (telling the counsellor what
they think s/he would like to hear). Some online clients have said
to me they felt freer to write whatever they wanted because they
couldn't see my reaction.
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One-off
('instant') Emails
Some people prefer to receive a one-off ('instant')
email reply rather than negotiate an Agreement and package of emails
or live sessions. I am happy to offer this email service and undertake
to send you a 500-word (approx.) email response within 48 hours
of receiving a 500-word email from you and card payment via Google
Checkout or PayPal
(see also How Do I Begin?)
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How
do I begin?
Traditionally, counselling is conducted on
the basis of an agreement between the counsellor and the client
but not everyone wants to go through that process before receiving
a reply. So there are two possible routes for you to choose - either
the One-off Email route or the Counselling Agreement route (see
below).
One-off
Email Route (within 48 hours)
1.
Write a description of your problem ( 500 word maxmimum).
2. Send it to me and make a card payment of £25 through
Google Checkout or PayPal.
3. I will send you a 500-word reply within 48 hours of receiving
notification of your payment and your email.
Counselling
Agreement Route
1.
Send me an email with a brief outline of the problem you want
to explore. Don't go into too much detail at this stage, a sentence
or two about yourself and the problems you want to examine will
be sufficient.
2. I send you my thoughts about what you have written and possible
ways we might work on the issues. I will attach my basic Agreement
to the email and suggest you ask me questions before completing
it.
3. Once you have completed the Agreement, sent it to me you then
pay me for whatever counselling package you choose.
4. When I have received the completed Agreement and notification
of your payment, I send you the first therapeutic email or we
arrange the first live therapeutic session.
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Agreement
Before online counselling can begin, we agree
when and how it will take place. It is helpful that we agree our
expectations about the timing of counseling communications because
we have to trust each other to respond when expected. We also need
to have a back-up plan for a technology crash (the internet and
computers are still not 100% effective all of the time) or other
emergency situation. I send to you a copy of the basic Agreement
(below) which can be altered to suit you and invite you to ask me
any questions about it. When you are ready to begin you complete
the Agreement and send it back to me, together with notification
of your payment and we are ready to begin our therapeutic work together
(see also How do I begin?)
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SAMPLE AGREEMENT
COUNSELLOR
SECTION
I can offer you online counselling either live, using a private
Messenger chatroom (a confidential Instant Messenger can be
downloaded free for personal use from www.bitwiseim.com) or
by email either plain or encrypted (ask me for details). Whichever
method you choose the following points form the basis for
our working agreement.
Emails
can be exchanged in different ways in my online counselling
service and I ask you to indicate your preference in the Client
section of this Agreement.
You may
want to write to me as often as you like, knowing I will respond
to all your emails on a set day each week (e.g. a Thursday.)
You may want me to respond to each email as I receive it.
I normally reply to emails within 48 hours and will let you
know when this is not possible.
You may want to make a weekly payment to exchange as many
emails as you choose during that week.
My main
email response to you I call a Therapeutic Email and that
is the one I charge for. (I number the emails in a pre-paid
package in the subject line as TE1/3 or TE2/5 etc.) You may
have a query after you have read a TE and I reply briefly
to such queries at no additional charge. Any administrative
emails (e.g. to query something I have written or to book
a live session) are also not charged for.
Live
Sessions need to be booked with me in advance by email
or telephone 01908 550570. It normally takes 24 hours to arrange
but can sometimes be done more quickly.
Confidentiality
I keep our counselling sessions and records confidential within
the framework described on my website www.gjcounselling.co.uk.
I work to the Guidelines for Good Practice of my professional
body, the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy
(BACP)
where I am a Senior Accredited Counsellor. You can check my
details in BACP's online directory at www.counselling.co.uk
I am registered as a controller of sensitive data under the
Data Protection Act (Reg. No. Z6065539) and comply with their
recommendations for storing sensitive data. Sensitive data
includes our counselling emails or chat transcripts and any
further notes I may make about our work. If you have concerns
about keeping our work confidential on your computer, please
ask me about this, as it may be prudent for you to open a
new email account using a remote server such as hotmail just
for sending and receiving emails or you may wish to encrypt
emails.
Your identity
and personal details will be protected by me and the only
exceptions I will make are when I judge that there is serious
risk to yourself or others or when I am compelled to by Law.
In the rare event that I break confidentiality, this is done
with your prior knowledge if possible and only to people who
absolutely need to know (e.g. doctors). I have regular supervision
of my online work but I do not disclose your identity to my
supervisor.
Referral
It is not always possible to know if working online is the
most appropriate way for you to get help. If I believed that
face to face counselling would be a better way to help you
I would suggest that either we hold face to face sessions
or, if this were not possible, I would help you to find a
counsellor near to you and support you whilst you made the
change to face to face counselling. If I felt that another
online counsellor might be better placed to help you than
I am (because they had specialised skill or experience) I
would suggest a change and support you whilst you made it.
Emergency
Contact In the event of complete technology failure, I
suggest we each send a text message to our mobile phones and
use the same system to let the other know when they are back
online. My mobile phone number is 07939 244765.
Payment:
The charges for my counselling services are set out here (See
What Does it Cost) I respond to your emails and hold live
sessions after I receive notification of payment. Payment
can be made using:
Google
Checkout
Internet
bank transfer.
Cheque
Details available on request
HOW WE CAN WORK TOGETHER ONLINE - Basis for Our Agreement
CLIENT
SECTION
Please ask any questions before completing the blank spaces
below and returning the form to me with your next email.
I have
read through and agree with the previous page of this Agreement.
I confirm that I am over 18 years of age and that the information
given by me here is accurate to the best of my knowledge.
Basic
Details about me
Name …
Telephone
number (for emergency text message in case of computer or
internet failure)…
Email
address …
Communication
I would like us to communicate in the following way (please
put X against the option you prefer - you can always change
it later)
Method
of Payment
I will pay for my counselling in advance using
(put X against method)
Google
Checkout ... Bank Transfer …. Cheque….
The
following information is optional.
1. Name
of GP ...
(only contacted with your prior knowledge)
2. Tel.
No. of Surgery …
(please include full dialling code)
Date
of commencement of this Agreement …
IMPORTANT
NOTICE for clients who are resident in the US or Canada.
My professional indemnity insurance covers me to work with
any client no matter where in the world they reside. However,
if a resident of the US or Canada makes a claim against me,
this insurance cover will only apply if the case is "heard
in a British court under American or Canadian law" (whichever
is appropriate).
So far,
I have never had any claim made against me either for online
or face to face work. If you live in the US or Canada and
you agree to work with me, please add your name and the date
below to show you have read, understood and agree to this
limitation in the unlikely event you may wish to make a claim
against me.
I have read, understood and agree to the terms of this Notice.
Name .........................................
Date ..................
Country
of Residence ........................
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Choosing
an online counsellor
I've put down here some ideas you might like
to consider before deciding which online counsellor is best for
you.
1.
Is the counsellor properly trained, not only as a counsellor but
also to work online?
(See About Me page for my
qualifications)
Most counsellors list their counselling training qualifications
somewhere on their website. If they don't, you can email them to
ask what training they have completed in order to work as a counsellor.
Have received additional, specialised training to work online? Counsellors
who have received such training will tell you about it and how you
can check this out.
2.
Do they belong to a professional accrediting or registering body?
Are they listed on a professional register or can their credentials
be checked out by visiting another website?
(See About Me page for my
qualifications)
Most counsellors will describe their professional or regulating
body on their website and if their credentials can be checked out,
they should include a link to the website of this body. It's up
to you to follow that link (or visit the website yourself) and check
that what they are claiming for themselves is true.
3.
Do I understand enough about them and how they work, from their
website? Has the counsellor given you a sufficient picture of how
they work?
If not, ask. Most counsellors are happy to answer questions before
an agreement to work together is set up.
4.
Do I trust them with my personal thoughts and feelings?
You are preparing to reveal vulnerable parts of yourself to a complete
stranger. It is important that you trust they will treat your writing
with respect and respond to it without judging you. As you read
the different pages of a website you will be forming an opinion
about the person behind it and you can ask yourself if you believe
they are trustworthy before contacting them.
If everything they claim for themselves checks out and you feel
you can trust them, then you are probably ready to go to the next
stage of setting up an arrangement to work together - but you may
want to take the next point into consideration as well.
5.
Do I like their website?
Is it clear, informative and easy to find your way around? If it
is, then working with that counsellor is also likely to be clear.
Do you understand the language they use? If you do, then working
with that counsellor may be easily understandable.
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