Information for Clients

Student Counselling

Before your first session please read this leaflet as it contains important information about what you have a right to expect as a client of Student Counselling. It also explains how you can help us to make best use of the resources we have at our disposal. If you have questions about any aspect of the service we offer, please ask any member of the Student Counselling staff team. There is no charge for students making use of Student Counselling.

Client Information Form

When you complete the Client Information Form you are asked to sign to say that you have read and understood this leaflet. The form provides us with the information we need about you in order to safeguard your use of this service. Your agreement to the conditions as laid out in this leaflet becomes the basis of the contract between you and Student Counselling. It also gives us basic information that enables us to provide an anonymous analysis of the work of the service, which we publish in our Annual Report. If you have concerns about completing any part of the form, please discuss this with your counsellor. If you do not feel able to sign the form, we will see you on a 'one-off' basis, but cannot offer further sessions.

First session with the Counsellor

Your first, full appointment will be an assessment session with one of the counselling team. We will ask you to arrive twenty minutes early to complete a "CORE" evaluation questionnaire and a Client Information Form before you meet with the counsellor. This session will help us to decide with you whether counselling is appropriate for you.

If counselling is appropriate, we are most likely to offer you up to four further sessions. It may be possible to extend this offer if after reviewing progress with you, we reach that decision. Counselling sessions usually last for fifty minutes

Counsellors

The counsellors are qualified and experienced in working with a range of issues and difficulties. In addition, we usually have two or three counsellors in training on placement with the service.

Drop In Sessions

Each weekday during semester a counsellor is available for brief consultations between 12.00 noon and 1.00pm. You do not need to make an appointment to use the 'Drop In’.

Late Arrival

If you know that you are going to be late for the start of your session please inform us. The counsellor will be available for the remainder of the session when you do arrive. If you are late for your session and have not informed us, the counsellor will wait for the first fifteen minutes, after which the rest of the session may be offered to someone else.

Cancellation

If we need to cancel or change your appointment, we will give you as much notice as possible and will offer you another appointment. If for any reason you need to cancel, please give us as much notice as possible so we can offer the appointment to someone else.

Changing Counsellors

It is sometimes necessary or desirable to change the counsellor whom you see. If at any stage you want to change your counsellor, please discuss this with a member of staff (your own counsellor, the receptionist or the senior counsellor). Counselling is very individual, and we seek to place you with a counsellor with whom you can work effectively.

Non-attendance

If you do not turn up for your session, please get in touch to confirm or cancel any further appointments you have made. If we do not hear from you by 5.00pm on the day of your appointment, any further appointments you have arranged may be offered to someone else.

Confidentiality

The fact that you make use of Student Counselling, and what you talk about in your sessions are both treated as confidential. The only exceptions to this are the following:

• Supervision:

  All counsellors are required to receive professional supervision of their work to ensure the quality of counselling we offer. Your sessions may be discussed in supervision. This supervision is itself confidential and is undertaken with an experienced practitioner who is not a member of the University.

• Contact with others at your request:

  We may agree to a request by you that we break confidentiality because you consider this to be in your best interests.

• Self or others in danger (Duty of Care):

  If you give us information that leads us to believe that someone is in serious danger of harm, we may take steps to minimise this danger. Any action would usually be discussed with you first.

• Legal Obligation:

  Under exceptional circumstances we may be required by law to break confidentiality.

• Mutually Agreed:

  You and your counsellor may explicitly agree to different boundaries of confidentiality.

  If you have any concerns about confidentiality please discuss them with your counsellor.

Concerns & Complaints

If you are unhappy with any aspect of Student Counselling, please let us know of your concerns. You can make your complaint verbally to any one of the counselling team. Alternatively you may put the complaint in writing to the Senior Counsellor. If you are not happy with the response to your complaint, you may make a formal complaint to the University Adjudication Officer. There is general information available about making a complaint within the University here, and the policy under which it operates is outlined in the Quality Handbook; which is available on the University website.

The service works within the Ethical Framework of The British Association for Counselling & Psychotherapy, a copy of which is available at Counselling reception and at the Advice Centre. It is also availabe at this web address: www.bacp.co.uk/ethical_framework

If you think your Counsellor or Student Counselling has acted in a way contrary to the BACP Ethical Framework, you have the right to make a formal complaint to the BACP Tel: 01455 883300 Email: enquiries@bacp.co.uk

Counselling Notes, Data Protection & security

Your counsellor will keep brief written notes of your sessions and list the main issues you present for anonymous analysis. These notes are kept securely.

Some of the data we hold about you is deemed to be 'Sensitive' within the definition of the Data Protection Act (1998). All records are kept securely and are confidential within the Service. Personal data is held for a period of five years from the academic year in which you last saw one of the counsellors and then destroyed.
 
University of Hull
Student Counselling
138 Cottingham Road
Hull
HU6 7RY

Tel/Fax: (01482) 465166 (with answerphone)

E-mail: studentcounselling@hull.ac.uk

Website: www.hull.ac.uk/counselling

(Revised December 2011)