Counselling Information
Please read the following information carefully and feel free to ask any questions, either before, or at the start of your first counselling session.
Counselling sessions
An initial counselling session has 75 minutes allocated and following sessions have 50-60 minutes allocated. Please note that if you are late to your scheduled session, your session will usually still need to conclude at the scheduled time.
Counselling sessions will occur at a frequency to be agreed between you and your counsellor. This may be weekly to fortnightly initially.
Fees and payment
Counselling costs are $150 (for an initial session) and $125 each following session (unless an alternative arrangements have been made due to financial hardship). Payment is usually made via the Stripe Payment system integrated into bookings made online at https://christiancounselling.sydney. This is the preferred payment method.
However, there may be exceptional circumstances where another form of payment is required. In this case payment can be made directly to Jeremy’s bank account via PayID or account and BSB (details below).
PayID & bank account details
PayID (pay to mobile): 0452 481 848
Account name: Jeremy Philip Ward
BSB: 670-864
Account number: 1969-3538
Note: please tag your surname in the reference section to help match your payment to your booking.
If at any point you would like to give a donation to subsidise other counsellees who are experiencing financial difficulty please contact Jeremy.
Cancellation
The time for your appointment is set aside for you and given the small size of this practice, it is unlikely to be rebooked for someone else if you cannot attend at the last minute. So, if you become unable to attend a scheduled appointment, please let me know as soon as possible at jeremy@christiancounselling.sydney or 0452 481 848.
Bookings cancelled less than 24 hours before the scheduled appointment time will incur a cancellation fee of $50.
Confidentiality
Ensuring the confidentiality of the content of our counselling sessions is essential to maintaining counselling as a safe place for you to work through the issues you are seeking help with. The information you share in counselling will be kept confidential using all reasonable means, subject to the following exceptions:
- Legal obligation: where there is a legal obligation to disclose the information (e.g. a court subpoena, search warrant, medical board (AHPRA) etc).
- Risk of harm: where there is a reasonable opinion that you are at a serious risk of harm to yourself or others (such as suicide, threat of violence, child abuse, serious neglect of a child etc).
- Supervision: during regular supervision and consultation with other mental health professionals regarding counselling. Your situation may be discussed in a supervisory or consultation relationship. Every effort will be made such that you are not identified in such consultations.
- You give consent: where you give consent to share content of our counselling sessions with another person. Information will only be shared where you agree for it to be shared and only to the extent that you give permission.
Emergency situations
In the event of an emergency, I will be unlikely to be able to respond immediately or even within the time frame you may want. So if you feel that you are in a crisis situation and require emergency assistance, you will likely need to seek appropriate assistance elsewhere (e.g. calling 000, crisis counselling hotlines such as Lifeline 13 11 14, emergency departments etc).
Availiblity between appointments
Availability for contact by phone/text/email between scheduled appointments is not guaranteed and may not be possible for a range of reasons. It is recommended that you maintain contact with your regular supports as appropriate such as your GP, mental health service, psychologist, psychiatrist, pastors and friends.
Use of Technology
Should counselling take place using videoconferencing, you will need sufficient internet connectivity to facilitate the session. If internet connectivity be lost, every reasonable effort will be made to resume the session, however, the session will still conclude at the scheduled time.
Conclusion of counselling
The counselling relationship will usually conclude by mutual agreement but may be brought to an end at any time. If you wish to stop counselling, you should discuss this so that adequate concluding arrangements can be made. If your counsellor brings the relationship to an end, this will be discussed with you.