IMPORTANT Service Agreement Statement for individual therapy:

Please discuss any aspects of this with your therapist if you require further clarification, otherwise we will assume you have read and understood this statement.

Please look over the Preparing for Therapy information to help you get the most from your appointment.   

• PRIORITISE ATTENDING

  • Please prioritise attending your appointment(s) as you would a medical appointment. We do endeavour to bear in mind any timetabled restrictions you may have when offering your first appointment, but we ask that you accept the appointment if possible, bearing in mind that you will be able to agree the days and times of any follow on appointments with your therapist, within reason.
  • Your appointment will last up to 50 minutes from the start of your allotted appointment time. If for any reason you are unable to keep a scheduled appointment, it is important to give as much notice as possible. Please click on ‘decline’ on the wellbeing portal appointment invitation. This enables us to offer the appointment to another student who is waiting.

  • Please be aware that once you have agreed your session schedule with your therapist and booked your session(s), you may not be able to rebook any appointments which you cancel or do not attend.

  COMMUNICATION

  • Please use the Wellbeing Portal for any logisitcs communication, e.g needing to reschedule an appointment.
  • However, the Wellbeing Portal should NOT be used to communicate any urgent messages. If you require an out of hours or emergency response, please go to https://warwick.ac.uk/services/wss/students/emergency_contacts/

  CONFIDENTIALITY

  • In general, the therapists will not inform a third party (ie someone outside of Wellbeing and Student Support) of any details relating to your attendance without your explicit permission. There are some situations in which therapists may have to pass on personal information, including if there is a concern of serious risk, or when required by law to disclose, but consent to release any information is sought if possible. If you see or meet any member of the staff outside of the Service, they will not initiate any contact with you.
  • Notes: brief notes from counselling sessions are kept on a secure, dedicated records system. Only staff from Wellbeing and Student Support have access to the records system.
  • On occasion, if your wellbeing is a cause for concern, the University support staff team involved with welfare may share information in order to ensure you are offered the most appropriate support.
  • In order to monitor and develop our professional practice, the psychological therapists work with consultant clinical supervisors (external to the university) and in addition may discuss issues within the Wellbeing and Student Support staff team.
  • The Counselling and Psychotherapy Service (CAPS) works to the Ethical Framework for the Counselling Professions as produced by the BACP (British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy) to ensure we manage issues such as confidentiality in a responsible way. Further details about this are available at www.bacp.co.uk . The CAPS staff may include therapists in training, all of whom are clinically supervised in-house by experienced therapists from the core team. For more information about the CAPS code of confidentiality or ethical practices, please discuss with your therapist.

ADDITIONAL CONSIDERATIONS FOR VIDEO THERAPY

• • Online therapy will be provided via Microsoft Teams which meets GDPR requirements regarding confidentiality and the protection of electronic patient health information (often referred to as ePHI). Warwick students have access to Microsoft Teams through their Office 365 email account. The Microsoft Teams App is also available on iOS and Android mobile devices; you can download it for free from the App Store or Google Play.
  • Please ensure before your appointment that you have:

Access to a reliable, well-maintained laptop, desktop computer or mobile device

A high-speed, reliable internet connection

Technology isn’t perfect and there may be times when the internet will go down or the app won’t open. If this occurs during your appointment it may be necessary to reschedule the session to allow time to resolve the technical problems.

Access to Microsoft Teams

A headset or earphones

It’s important that you and your Psychological Therapist can hear and understand each other well. A handheld device may become uncomfortable to hold over a 40-50 minute session. Headphones will free up your hands and provide you with more privacy.

A quiet, private area in which to have your session

As best you can, please find somewhere quiet and indoors where you will not be interrupted or overheard to have your video therapy session (avoid public places, driving or walking around). Outdoors is not recommended, because of background noise and a lack of privacy.

ADDITIONAL CONSIDERATIONS FOR EMAIL THERAPY

• • Emails are stored in a secure folder accessible only by Counselling and Psychotherapy Services team members, and your therapist will uphold confidentiality within the limitations of the security inherent within University of Warwick e-mail communication.
  • EMAILS MAY NOT BE READ BEFORE YOUR SESSION TIME. Your therapist may not be able to read your email before your session time, or later in the rare circumstances that your therapist is unexpectedly unavailable for your session. If you are feeling, or begin to feel significantly vulnerable – maybe suicidal or in some way a serious danger to yourself or another – please seek out more immediate support by going to https://warwick.ac.uk/services/wss/students/emergency_contacts/
  • Please use the email address provided for email therapy exchanges only. All other communication (about appointments etc) should be carried out using the wellbeing portal.
  • Please use your Warwick email address for your email therapy exchanges. This gives you added security and also ensures that your email will be allocated to your therapist. Please also ensure the computer you use is safe, perhaps password protected and as virus free as possible.
  • PLEASE USE A MAXIMUM OF 750 WORDS IN EACH EMAIL
  • Please comply with intellectual property rights and do not modify, copy, transmit or reproduce all or any part of the email correspondence.