Counselling Contracts: What to Factor In

The right counselling contract can protect you from getting sued by patients. Here are a few things to remember when drawing one up.

Sensitivity to the patient’s personal background

Anything that is not understood counts for nothing. The patient is only truly informed if he or she understood what was told. In other words, couch your explanation in terms the patient can understand or relate to. Refrain from jargon and abbreviations. When language is an issue, a counsellor may hire a qualified translator or interpreter. One should also consider cultural barriers and adjust where appropriate.

Counselling Mistakes That Lead to Legal Problems

Counselling is an intensely private field of work, one that is not error free. Below are some common transgressions that often lead to legal consequences:

Using techniques without intensive training. Some therapists practice a technique even if they are not thoroughly trained in its methodology. This often leads to skewed results since the therapist’s knowledge on how to conduct the technique is not what can be considered in depth. Experts remind practitioners to focus on their expertise and invest in a comprehensive training to broaden your skill sets.

Essential Details of a Counselling Contract

Before a counselling or psychotherapy session begins, there should first be a mutual agreement between the counsellor and the client. This document will detail the responsibilities of both parties with regards of the relationship over the course of the counselling or psychotherapy. The document contains information of significant value.

Confidentiality

Confidentiality is one of the most essential elements of the therapeutic relationship between client and counsellor. The counselling contract should state that everything discussed during the session should only be between the counsellor and the client. In cases wherein the clients show tendencies to cause harm to their own person and others, then confidentiality may be broken.

The Importance of a Counselling Contract

As a counsellor, your ultimate goal is to help your client. Working towards this starts even before your actual counselling sessions–upon drafting the counselling contract.

Early counselling sessions will entail obtaining a lot of information. There will be many details that will be difficult to remember, especially because the client is likely to be under emotional distress. Nonetheless, you need to make sure that the details are clear. You’ll still need to discuss them verbally, but this won’t be enough. That’s where the contract comes in.