Therapy Agreement

Samantha Coleman · Effective 26 September 2026

This agreement sets out how individual and couples therapy with me works. Please read it with the Fees page and the Therapy Privacy Notice. You can ask me about any part before booking.

1. About the service

I am Samantha Coleman, trading as Samantha Coleman and Recognition Loops®. I am a BACP member (MBACP, membership number 72493) and have practised since 2013. My contact address for questions, cancellations and complaints is samanthacoleman@recognitionloops.com.

I offer individual and couples therapy. We will agree what to focus on and review the work as it develops. Therapy cannot guarantee a particular outcome. Recognition Loops® articles, app membership, courses and other educational services are separate from therapy. Using them does not establish a therapy relationship or change your therapy fee.

2. Beginning therapy

The introductory appointment costs £15, takes place on Zoom and usually lasts 20–30 minutes. Standard individual and couples appointments last 60 minutes. Individual 90-minute appointments are also available. Ongoing sessions take place on Zoom or, subject to availability, in person in Bishopston, Bristol.

We will discuss whether the service is suitable for your circumstances. Submitting a registration form or booking an introductory appointment does not guarantee ongoing therapy. If another service would better meet your needs, I will discuss that with you.

This agreement and the linked registration form are for adults aged 18 or over. Enquiries about therapy for a 16- or 17-year-old are considered through a separate assessment, privacy explanation and agreement. A parent or guardian can email me to enquire.

3. Appointments and contact

You can book or change appointments through my Amelia calendar at samanthacoleman.online/booking/ or contact me by email. Messages between sessions are for arrangements and limited clinical communication. I do not provide an emergency or continuous-response service.

For online sessions, please join from a private place and tell me if your connection or privacy is interrupted. Neither of us will record a session without a separate agreement in advance.

4. Fees and prepaid blocks

If you choose a block, you pay its full price when booking the first session. You then receive a code by email to book the remaining prepaid sessions without paying again. Blocks have no expiry date.

You may end a block and ask for a refund of unused sessions. The refund is the amount paid, less completed sessions charged at the usual individual-session rate and any valid late-cancellation charges. A refund under this calculation will not fall below £0, and I will not ask you to pay a further balance. I will consider whether a cancellation charge reflects a genuine loss, including whether the appointment was filled. Your statutory rights take precedence.

5. Cancellations and refunds

Please give at least 24 hours' notice if you need to cancel or rearrange an appointment. When notice is shorter or you miss a session, the full standard session fee is normally payable. For a prepaid block, a reasonable charge may be taken from the prepaid balance, up to the standard session fee; I will not count that appointment as both a completed session and a separate cancellation charge. I will consider the circumstances and whether the appointment could reasonably be filled. If I cancel, I will offer another appointment or refund the affected session.

If you make a distance booking and a statutory 14-day cancellation right applies, you can cancel by emailing me within that period. The period normally starts the day after the contract is made. If you expressly ask me to start therapy during that period and later cancel, you may have to pay a proportionate amount for a service already provided. Where a service has been fully provided following your express request and the required acknowledgement, the cancellation right for that service may end. I will obtain any required early-start request and acknowledgement separately before the session. The 24-hour appointment rule does not remove a statutory cancellation right.

Refunds required by the statutory cancellation rules will be made within the applicable legal period, normally 14 days after cancellation. Other agreed refunds will be processed within 28 days.

You can cancel by emailing samanthacoleman@recognitionloops.com with your name, booking email, what you are cancelling and when you booked. For example: “I cancel my booking or block purchased on [date].”

6. Confidentiality and couples work

I treat what you share in therapy as confidential. I may discuss the work in professional supervision, sharing only what is needed for safe and ethical practice. I may also need to share necessary information where there is a serious safety or safeguarding concern, a legal requirement or another overriding professional duty. Where appropriate and safe, I will discuss this with you first.

In couples therapy, I ask both partners to bring relationship matters into joint sessions. I discourage private disclosures about the relationship outside those sessions, because holding significant information from one partner can affect our shared work. If one partner contacts me privately, we will discuss how to address that information, taking account of safety and safeguarding. We will agree the boundaries together before couples work begins.

7. Records, reports and optional transcription

I keep an adequate record of each therapy session, including the consultation, work undertaken, outcome and relevant follow-up information. Clinical records, including completed reports that form part of them, are kept securely for at least seven years after the last therapy session, or longer where required. My Therapy Privacy Notice explains the providers I use, retention and your data rights.

Recognition Loops® therapy reports are currently included in the session fee for clients who choose to receive them. They can bring together themes across sessions and offer material for reflection. I prepare and review the report personally. Couples who choose reports receive one shared report. A future change in price would be explained and agreed before it applied. If you also use the app, bringing its activity into a therapy report requires another specific agreement.

Zoom transcription, receiving reports and any use of ChatGPT in report preparation are separate choices. Completing the registration form does not authorise recording, transcription or disclosure to an AI service. I can prepare a report from my professional notes without transcription or ChatGPT. For a joint session, both partners must agree independently before transcription begins. Reports are sent by Google email to an address we confirm, unless we agree a more protected delivery method. Ordinary email is not guaranteed end-to-end encrypted. I take reasonable care in sending reports, and this agreement does not remove your legal rights.

8. Safety

The registration form, email and appointments are not monitored as emergency services. In the UK, call NHS 111 and select the mental health option for urgent mental health support. If someone is in immediate danger, call 999 or go to A&E. Outside the UK, use the local emergency and crisis services where you are.

9. Sessions while you are abroad

I practise from the UK under the BACP Ethical Framework. Tell me the country and region where you will be for an online session. Before agreeing to work while you are abroad, I will check professional and insurance arrangements, the rules relevant to that location and the local support available to you. I may be unable to offer a session where these arrangements cannot be confirmed. I cannot provide emergency care in another country. This agreement is intended to be governed by the law of England and Wales so far as applicable law permits. It does not exclude any right or professional duty that applies by law.

10. Questions and complaints

You can ask questions, raise concerns or decide to end therapy by contacting me. We can arrange an ending session if that would be useful. You can also use the BACP professional conduct process where it applies, or contact the ICO about data protection.

11. Your agreement

Please read these terms and the Therapy Privacy Notice before agreeing to them in the registration form or paying for a session or block. I will send you a copy to keep. Choices about transcription, reports, AI assistance, Substack and app updates are separate.