What is counselling?
Counselling is a therapeutic relationship formed on the basis of counsellor and client it’s both professional and intentional. We work together to discuss what’s concerning you at this point in time. We will not give you advice or offer solutions but work with you to understand yourself fully and discover your own inner resources, We set goals to help you treat your issue or issues and hopefully make some positive changes that will lead to making your life a little bit easier. You are always in control and the expert on what’s best for you at all times. The counsellor’s role is to make the counselling process both safe and supportive.
Terms and Conditions
Confidentiality
Everything you share with us in the course of working together will be treated as highly confidential.
We will implement measures to protect your personal information from misuse, loss, unauthorised access, change or disclosure. We will destroy or permanently de-identify personal information when we no longer need it or it is no longer required to be kept for legal purposes.
We may use your details for a secondary purpose but only if you agree and provide written consent:
- Research or marketing.
- If requested by another party or agency, for example a referral to a specialist.
There are also limited circumstances where we will disclose personal information to third parties without your consent:
Limits to this agreement
1. In some legal proceedings a judge may issue a court order requiring your counsellor to testify in
court.
2. If your counsellor learns of or believes there is physical or sexual abuse or neglect of any person
under 18 years of age, they must report this information to the child protection helpline or the
police.
3. If your counsellor learns of or believes an elderly or disabled person is being abused or neglected,
they must file a report with the appropriate state agency that handles elder abuse.
4. If your counsellor learns of or believes you are threatening serious harm to another person, they are
obligated to report it. This can be in the form of telling the person you have threatened, contacting
the police or placing you into hospitalisation.
5. If there is evidence you are a danger to yourself and your counsellor believes you are likely to kill
yourself unless protective measures are taken, they may be obligated to seek hospitalisation for you
or to contact family members or others who can help provide protection
6. There may be times when your counsellor consults with outside sources about cases. No personally
identifiable information will be used to discuss the case; however, discussion topics will be used in
order to ensure your counsellor is getting and giving the best assistance possible. The persons with
whom your counsellor discusses these cases are legally bound to keep this information confidential.
Record Keeping
Note taking during or after each session is used to help track progress, these notes are stored in a private and secure location and may be viewed by you if you so wish. Your counselling and coaching records will be kept by Mindfulness and Wellbeing Counselling Service for a period of seven (7) years from the date of your last contact with us.
Access and correction
You can access, correct and update the personal information that we hold about you. Please contact our office at the address provided on the documentation sent to you.
Payments and cancellations
Payment will be taken at the end of each session by EFTPOS, credit card or direct deposit for online, phone and face to face appointments. Face to face appointments can also be paid by cash. We do not accept AMEX or personal cheques. We ensure that payment card information is kept confidential and secure and that there is compliance with the payment card security standards. All outstanding fees must be paid in full prior to your next appointment. As payment is required after your consultation we do not offer refunds.
Whilst we understand circumstances arise which may result in you having to cancel your appointment, we do require adequate notice. If you fail to attend your scheduled appointment and have failed to contact us prior, you will be charged an $80.00 non-attendance fee. This fee is required to be paid within 14 days and will be enforced.
Email and telephone contact
Email or telephone contact will be limited to practical arrangements only. We will not enter into telephone or email counselling or coaching except by prior arrangement. If you are faced with an emergency in between sessions, please contact the appropriate emergency service. In a life-threatening situation, call 000 without delay.
Completing or ending your counselling/coaching consultations
Normally, the end of counselling and coaching consultations would be by a mutual prior agreement however, you have the right to end counselling or coaching at any time. If you choose to discontinue your counselling or coaching consultations we require at least 48 hours notice. If at any time we consider our counselling or coaching services are no longer appropriate for you, we will discuss this with you and may suggest discontinuation or a referral to a more appropriate service.
Complaints
We value your feedback, if you would like any further information or wish to make a complaint, please contact our office:
Phone: 0409 515 934
Email: info@mawcs.com.au
Website Security
Personal Information
Personal information is only collected when knowingly and voluntarily submitted to provide you with further services or to answer requests or enquiries such as our ‘Contact Us’ and ‘Booking’ online forms. Correspondence via our website is stored for record-keeping and back-up purposes only.
We use “cookies”. A cookie is a message given to a web browser by a web server. The browser stores the message in a text file. The message is then sent back to the server each time the browser requests a page from the server. The primary purpose of collecting this information is to ensure the website operates well and for security reasons. You can configure your web browser to accept, block or notify you when a cookie is sent. If your browser is configured to block cookies you may not be able to access our full website.
We will take all reasonable steps to protect any personal information you transmit to us online. Unfortunately, no data transmission over the Internet can be guaranteed to be totally secure however, we will not be held responsible for events arising from unauthorised access to your personal information
Links to other sites
This website contains links to other websites. This statement only applies to this website. Mindfulness and Wellbeing Counselling Service is not responsible for the privacy practices or contents of any other website.
Social Media Policy
Our social media platforms allow users to comment on and share content. Once published, comments on Mindfulness and Wellbeing Counselling Service posts are in the public domain. By commenting on content or sharing via social media, you acknowledge that we cannot prevent third parties from using this publicly available information. All interactions on our social media platforms are conducted at your own risk, we will not accept responsibility for the misuse or unauthorised access of your information.
We may sometimes share links to third party websites via social media. Mindfulness and Wellbeing Counselling Service is not responsible for the privacy practices or contents of other websites and users should read the privacy policies of these sites.
Messaging
Please do not use messaging on social networks such as Facebook, Twitter & Linkedin to contact us. Mindfulness and Wellbeing Counselling Service does not constantly monitor its social media accounts. We accept no responsibility for the failure to receive information delivered by these formats. If you need to contact us please do so by the means provided on this website.