Therapy, Booking & Cancellation Terms

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1. Nature of the service

Thinking Free provides psychotherapy, counselling, clinical hypnotherapy and related therapeutic services.

Therapy is a collaborative process. I will use my professional knowledge and experience to work with you towards agreed therapeutic aims, but no particular result can be guaranteed.

You remain responsible for decisions, choices and actions you take outside therapy sessions.

2. Medical assessment and treatment

Therapy does not replace appropriate medical or psychiatric diagnosis, investigation or treatment.

Some difficulties may have physical, medical or medication-related causes. Where appropriate, I may ask you to obtain medical assessment or advice before therapy begins or before particular therapeutic work proceeds.

For certain presentations, I may decline to begin or continue treatment until an appropriate medical assessment has taken place. You should not stop or alter prescribed medication without discussing this with the prescribing clinician.

3. Emergency and crisis situations

Thinking Free is not an emergency or crisis service. I am not able to provide continuous crisis support between appointments.

If you believe that you or another person is in immediate danger, contact the emergency services or an appropriate NHS/crisis service.

Contact with me outside therapy sessions should normally be limited to arranging or changing appointments, practical administrative matters and occasional brief queries related to the therapy.

4. Initial consultation

Where offered, an initial consultation allows us to discuss what has brought you to therapy, what you would like to change, whether my approach appears appropriate, any relevant practical or medical considerations, and whether we both feel comfortable proceeding.

An initial consultation does not create an obligation for either of us to continue into therapy.

5. Fees and payment

Current fees are displayed on the Thinking Free website and booking system. Payment is normally due at the time the appointment is booked. A booking is not considered confirmed until any required payment has been received.

6. Cancellations with more than 24 hours’ notice

If you cancel an appointment more than 24 hours before the scheduled appointment time, you may choose either a full refund or transfer of the payment to another available appointment.

7. Cancellations with less than 24 hours’ notice

If you cancel with less than 24 hours’ notice, the appointment fee is normally forfeited and is not refundable.

I may, entirely at my discretion, transfer the fee to another appointment where I consider the circumstances exceptional. Examples may include sudden illness, bereavement, serious family emergency, severe travel disruption, dangerous weather conditions or another genuinely unavoidable circumstance.

The existence of an emergency does not automatically create a contractual right to transfer or refund, but I will always try to apply the policy reasonably and humanely. Your statutory consumer rights are unaffected.

8. Failure to attend

If you do not attend an appointment and give no notice, the appointment fee is normally forfeited.

I may choose to transfer the payment to another appointment where the circumstances justify doing so, but I am not contractually required to do this.

9. Late arrival

If you arrive up to 15 minutes late, the session will normally continue for the remainder of the original appointment time and will still finish at the time originally scheduled.

If you are more than 15 minutes late, the session will normally not proceed and will instead be transferred to the next available appointment slot.

10. If I cancel an appointment

If I need to cancel an appointment because of illness, severe weather, emergency or another unavoidable reason, you may choose either a full refund or transfer of the payment to another appointment.

11. Online and distance bookings: statutory 14-day cancellation rights

Where you book a service online, by telephone or otherwise at a distance, consumer law will normally provide a 14-day cancellation period beginning the day after the contract is made.

If you ask for an appointment or therapeutic service to begin before that 14-day period has expired, you expressly request that the service begins during the statutory cancellation period.

If you later cancel during the statutory cancellation period after expressly requesting that services begin, you may be required to pay a proportionate amount for services already supplied. Where the service has been fully performed during that period, and you expressly requested early performance and acknowledged that the cancellation right would be lost once the service was fully performed, the statutory cancellation right for that completed service may end.

Nothing in these terms removes or restricts any statutory right that cannot lawfully be excluded. Where statutory cancellation rights conflict with the practice’s ordinary 24-hour cancellation policy, your statutory rights take precedence.

The booking system should therefore ask you to confirm: “I expressly request that the service begins during the 14-day statutory cancellation period. I understand that I may have to pay for services supplied before I cancel, and that once the requested service has been fully performed I may lose my statutory right to cancel that completed service.”

12. Confidentiality

Therapy is confidential. Information you disclose will not normally be shared without your permission.

However, confidentiality is not absolute. I may need to disclose information where there is a serious and immediate risk of harm, a child or adult at risk may require safeguarding, disclosure is required by law or court order, or another overriding professional or legal duty applies.

Where reasonably possible and safe, I will discuss a proposed disclosure with you before it occurs.

13. Professional supervision

I undertake professional supervision. Therapeutic work may be discussed in supervision for professional and clinical purposes. Clients are not normally identified.

14. Communication outside sessions

Email, text and WhatsApp should primarily be used for practical matters and occasional brief queries. They are not substitutes for therapy sessions.

Please do not use ordinary messaging or email to send lengthy clinical histories, highly sensitive material or urgent crisis communications unless specifically agreed. I cannot guarantee immediate responses outside scheduled appointments.

15. Online therapy

For online appointments, you are responsible for finding a reasonably private location and for taking reasonable steps to protect your own privacy.

Technology can occasionally fail. If a connection problem prevents a session from proceeding, we will attempt to agree a practical alternative, which may include reconnecting, using another method or rescheduling.

16. Recording sessions

Sessions are not normally recorded by me. You may record your own session where this has been agreed, but you then become responsible for the security, confidentiality, storage and sharing of that recording.

If you ask me to make a recording, the file will temporarily be created on my laptop, made available to you through a temporary website download, and my local and website copies will be deleted within 24 hours. I will not keep a permanent copy.

Once the recording is in your possession, responsibility for its security and confidentiality passes to you.

17. Contact with other professionals

I will normally obtain your written consent before contacting your GP or another healthcare professional about you. There may be limited exceptions where disclosure is required by law or necessary for safeguarding or serious risk.

18. Clients under 18

Thinking Free is primarily an adult practice but may occasionally work with children or young people. I generally prefer to work with clients aged 13 or over, although younger children may occasionally be seen where appropriate.

Where a client is under 18, consent from a person with parental responsibility will normally be required; the young person will be given an age-appropriate explanation of the therapy; where appropriate, their own agreement to therapy will also be sought; and confidentiality and its limits will be discussed with the young person and parent or person with parental responsibility.

19. Ending therapy

Either you or I may decide to end therapy. Where possible, it is usually helpful to discuss ending therapy rather than simply ceasing contact.

I may recommend ending, pausing or referring therapy where another form of treatment would be more appropriate, medical assessment is needed, the work falls outside my competence or scope of practice, continuing would not appear clinically appropriate, the therapeutic relationship has broken down, or safety or professional concerns make continuation inappropriate.

20. Privacy and records

Personal information is handled in accordance with the Thinking Free Privacy Notice. By engaging in therapy, you confirm that you have had the opportunity to read the Privacy Notice and these Terms.

21. Changes to fees or terms

Fees and terms may change from time to time. Changes will not normally be applied retrospectively to appointments already booked and paid for. Material changes affecting ongoing clients will be communicated appropriately.

22. Governing law

These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales. Nothing in these terms removes any mandatory consumer rights that apply to you under the law.

23. Model cancellation form for statutory cancellation rights

You do not have to use this form. Any clear statement that you wish to cancel is sufficient, provided it is sent within the applicable statutory cancellation period.

To: John R. D. Taylor, Thinking Free, Craven Clinic, Mount Pleasant, High Street, Skipton, BD23 1JZ; john@thinkingfree.co.uk

I hereby give notice that I cancel my contract for the provision of the following service: ______________________________

Booked on: ____________________ Name: ______________________________

Address: _________________________________________________________________

Signature (only if sent on paper): ____________________ Date: __________

24. Questions or concerns

If you are unsure about any part of these terms, please ask before booking or before beginning therapy.

Contact: John R. D. Taylor, Thinking Free, john@thinkingfree.co.uk.