Client agreement

How we work with you

We meet with thousands of clients every year and we want them to get the most effective help possible. That’s why, if you’re coming as a couple, we’ll talk with you together and individually because this helps us all to work out if Relate is the best place for you to be or whether another resource could be more helpful. Many clients find that those initial conversations help them to make the best use of ongoing counselling or to get to other forms of support as quickly as possible.  

Our clients want to talk with us about all sorts of issues. We will always aim to help and support you to explore, understand and potentially make the changes that feel most important to you. Sometimes though, clients coming as a couple or perhaps as a family or group of friends find it very difficult to agree together on what most needs to happen or change as a result of coming to counselling.  Where that’s the case, wherever possible, our practitioners will support you to discover if there is any common ground on which you can both agree to work or if different forms of support are more likely to be of greater benefit.

We take the safety and welfare of our clients very seriously. This is why we are only able to offer our services to those clients who are residing or working in the UK or who are members of the UK’s armed forces currently working abroad. This approach ensures that where necessary we can more easily support those clients who require additional resourcing to organizations or statutory bodies external to Relate but within the UK.

Individual time with a practitioner

The content of any individual conversations is confidential between the client and us. 

Mobile phones

Please switch off your mobile phone during your sessions.

Unauthorised electronic recording

So you can work safely and effectively with a practitioner, it is important that privacy is respected. Please do not attempt to record your sessions using any device or app. If we find that recordings have been made covertly, services for the individual responsible will be discontinued immediately. We reserve the right to seek legal advice and take further action.

Authorised electronic recording

Sometimes a practitioner needs to record a session. Some practitioners regularly use audio or video recording in their work and in these circumstances, you will be asked to give your written consent for this.

The consent will specify all the ways the recording will be used, for example, training, supervision or research, and how and when the recording will be destroyed.
Where a session is online, such as a web conferencing service, this will be made clear along with any additional data privacy information.

Student Counsellors

We provide training to qualified or those training to be Counsellors. This means that the practitioner you see may be a student or a qualified practitioner who is now undertaking training in a different discipline. For example, a qualified relationship practitioner who is now training in sex therapy.  

All our practitioners in training have been assessed as competent to work with their clients on a wide range of issues. Our practitioners receive regular, ongoing and professional clinical supervision for the work they undertake with clients. Clinical supervision supports their work with you to ensure it meets the highest professional standards. If you would prefer not to be seen by a practitioner in training, please let us know before your appointment. Contact details can be found on your booking confirmation.

Payment and cancellation policy

Payments:

• Payment is required no later than 48 hours prior to secure your appointment.
• Due to our high demand and waiting list, any appointment not paid by the deadline may be offered to another client.
• If we don’t receive payment by the deadline, we will assume that you no longer require this appointment, it will be cancelled and will be made available for a new client.
• Please note that once appointments have been cancelled, you could lose your regular ongoing slot with your counsellor and be required to go on the waiting list until they have further appointments available.
• For online appointments, your Zoom link will only be sent once your appointment has been paid for and confirmed. This is emailed to all attendees approximately 1 day prior to your appointment.

Need to cancel?

• You can cancel up to 48 hours before your appointment.   
  If you want to cancel your appointment after the cancellation period or end your session early, you won’t be eligible for a refund or a free reschedule.  
• Two or more consecutive cancellations or no-shows will prevent future bookings.  
• We can accept cancellations via phone or email – please leave a voicemail if there is no answer.

How to pay:

• The person who registered the appointments will receive an email with a secure payment link approximately 6 days before your next session. Simply follow the link to pay online.
• The email will come from relate.appointments@relate.org.uk, you might need to check your junk folder. Please do not reply to this email address as it will not be read.
• Please note that you will not be able to access the secure payment link once your session has been cancelled
• Prefer to pay by phone? Call us on 0300 100 1234 (England) or 0300 003 2340 (Wales), Monday to Friday, 9am-1pm.