When you start counselling a regular commitment is established between you and your counsellor. That means that if you miss a session your counsellor cannot be available to anyone else.
We do, however, understand things happen in life and there will be occasions when people will need to cancel their appointments. This policy sets out how we will treat cancelled appointment and refunds.
When you cancel an appointment
We operate a 48-hour cancellation policy. If you cancel an appointment giving over 48-hours’ notice, we will not charge you for the missed session. If you cancel after that, or if you do not attend, you will still be charged for the appointment.
When you cancel an appointment with more than 48-hours’ notice we will in the first instance allocate the payment you have already made to your next session. If that is not possible, we will refund your payment.
To be fair to you the 48-hour widow operates irrespective of our opening hours or the clocks changing. We count the number of hours between receiving your notification of cancellation and the start time of your appointment.
How to cancel an appointment
You can cancel an appointment by:
- calling us on 0808 802 0050 and speaking to a member of our appointments team or leaving a message that includes your full name and the date and time of your appointment
- sending an email to [email protected] from the email address we have registered for you
- replying to a SMS we have previously sent to you
When we cancel an appointment
We will always endeavour to deliver your session as agreed. Occasionally, circumstances might prevent us from doing so. We will give you as much notice as possible if this happens. We will not charge you for appointments we cancel and will book you a new session at a time that suits you. If that is not possible, we will refund your payment.
Repeat cancellations
Repeatedly cancelling appointments, regardless of the amount of notice given, disrupts the smooth running of our counselling service and delays us from being able to offer appointments to others.
Should you repeatedly cancel appointments we will, in the first instance, seek to understand the reasons for cancelling and suggest alternative arrangements. Ultimately, we reserve the right to end to your counselling sessions should we deem it necessary to do so.
Exceptional circumstances
On most occasions we will apply this policy evenly and fairly to all clients. We do, however, understand that people face a range of circumstances that can make attending a scheduled appointment impossible.
In cases of genuine emergency, we will consider waiving this policy. However, this does not include regrettable but common occurrences such as illness or travel disruption.
If you are aware in advance of any circumstances that may make consistently attending appointments challenging for you, please let us know when you book. We will take this information into account when considering if a cancellation should be chargeable.
This policy applies to all our self-funded counselling services other than Fast Access Single-Session Therapy. Where your counselling sessions are being paid for by an employer or similar organisation you may be covered by a 24-hour cancellation policy.