Everything you discuss with me will remain confidential from the first point of contact. As I abide by the ethical code of the National Society of Talking Therapies (NSTT), I am ethically bound to partake in regular supervision with another psychotherapist. Therefore, in your best interests, I may need at times to discuss your care with my supervisor.

Please be assured that any personally identifiable information will be kept to an absolute minimum, if required at all, and that the supervisory therapist also abides by the same ethical code and holds your best interests and confidentiality as a high priority.

There are some contexts in which the law forbids our normal confidentiality it must be breached. These contexts are:

• I become aware of information which I either know or believe might help prevent another person carrying out an act of terrorism or might help in bringing a terrorist to justice in the UK, or about specified activities related to money and property used to assist terrorist activities.
• If I observe physical signs that an act of female genital mutilation may have been carried out on a girl under the age of 18 or I am informed by a girl under the age of 18 that she has undergone an act of female genital mutilation.
• The police request information about the driver of a vehicle at the time of an offence it must be disclosed by me as failure to do so would constitute a criminal offence on my part.
• I become aware of drug trafficking or money laundering that may be required to be reported under the Drug Trafficking Act 1994, Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 or the Money Laundering Regulations 2007, if this happens, I may seek legal advice as to any statutory duty.
• I must disclose information that I am ordered to by a court or by a statutory request for access to personal data made under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.

I may break our normal confidentiality if I become aware (or have good reason to suspect) that you have knowledge of:

• A past, present or future incident/situation that may be dangerous or harmful to you, another adult or a child and that is not known to the relevant authorities.
• Future or past criminal activity that has not been resolved in law. This means any criminal activity, of which the relevant authorities are either unaware or a case they know about which they consider not to be closed (provided you do not present information in therapy which would reasonably re-open the case). This does not include parking or traffic offences unless there is intent, by you or anyone else, to cause danger to yourself or others, or that it is deemed to be a serious offence. In such circumstances, I will work with you to see if we can work together to make appropriate disclosures. For our purposes a serious offence is:

‘Murder, manslaughter, rape, treason, kidnapping, child abuse or other cases where individuals have suffered serious harm or there is serious harm to the security of the state or to public order and crimes that involve substantial financial gain and loss.’

Hypnosis is a natural state that we go in and out of all the time, such as when you are daydreaming or immersed in a movie. We refer to this state as ‘trance’. Hypnosis in a therapy setting involves learning how to go in and out this state on purpose. This can be used for relaxation purposes, or its use can be extended to include psychotherapeutic work. Individuals will naturally vary in terms of how quickly and deeply they go into trance and that is no problem. We will work together at your pace, there is no right or wrong way to do it.

Yes. Therapeutic hypnosis is not like stage hypnosis. You will not do or say anything that you don’t want to. It may feel similar to a daydream, in that you are free to move around as you wish and and are aware of your surroundings whilst your attention is focussed on the therapeutic target. I abide by the ethics code of the NSTT and as such, I practice in your best interests at all times.

I try to be as flexible as possible with my appointment times. I ask for a minimum of 24 hours’ notice for cancellations. If a session is cancelled or rearranged within 24 hours or in the event of a no-show the full session fee will apply. This is to ensure sessions remain available for other clients who may require them.

Should I need to cancel your session, for example due to illness, I commit to giving you as much notice as I possibly can.

Finding the right therapist is important. For this reason, I offer a free 15-minute phone or zoom call to all new clients so that we can connect and see if I am the best fit for you.