1. In these terms and conditions "client" means any registered client member of The Counselling Group and "agent" means any registered agent member of The Counselling Group. These terms and conditions apply for the usage of all The Counselling Group services.
2. By confirming during registration that you have read these terms and conditions and whilst continuing to register as a member of The Counselling Group you are notifying your acceptance of these terms and conditions and that they shall be binding in all circumstances in relation to your use of the service provided by The Counselling Group.
3. The services are based in the United Kingdom and are governed by English Law. Users of this site and the above named services are advised that the information contained within this website is written by qualified counsellors. None of the services provided on this website is designed to be used in North America, including, but not restricted to, the USA and Canada.
4. The Counselling Group accepts no responsibility for the information contained within the website, nor for any harm incurred from following or not following advice, provided through this site. The information provided within all aspects of the website, online consultations and listed telephone numbers is not designed to replace a face to face consultation with a medical or mental health professional. Online consultations are not intended for diagnosis nor prognosis. Any diagnoses given are tentative only and are designed to be backed up by a full face to face medical examination by a suitably qualified professional. Clients that take any advice given or gleaned from the website in isolation, do so at their own risk.
5. Online consultations are not intended for emergency use. In the event of a medical emergency please dial 999 in the UK or the local emergency number in the country you are in.
6. Clients commit to behaving appropriately at all times during sessions and in the course of any communication with counsellors and accept that The Counselling Group will consider any inappropriate behaviour as a serious and fundamental breach of agreement and may terminate their membership at any time if The Counselling Group has reason to believe that they have behaved inappropriately, abusively, inappropriately, discourteously, or threateningly without the necessity for The Counselling Group to define or justify the reason for its decision.
7. The Counselling Group reserves the right to monitor sessions and all communications without notice to the client for the purpose of ensuring the security of The Counselling Group and to ensure the safety of agents and clients.
8. The Counselling Group take great care with confidential information. By agreeing with these terms and conditions, the user agrees that a recording of the session may be made for the purpose of mutual protection and quality control. The Counselling Group reserves the right to take and retain a screenshot or screenshots of clients during each session that the client takes part in without notice to the client for the purposes of security and for communication only with agents for the purposes of session records.
9. Users agree not to make any attempt to contact agents other than through the mechanisms supplied by The Counselling Group and that any attempt to do so will be considered a serious and fundamental breach of these terms and conditions and may lead to immediate termination of their membership.
10. Information on this site remains copyright of The Counselling Group. All rights reserved. Unauthorised duplication of any website or online consultation content, including transcripts from sessions or downloads, is not permitted.
11. The user agrees that they are over 18 and authorised to use the credit card involved in credit card transactions.
12. Payment must be made in advance for online or phone sessions. If a client fails to keep an appointment, the advance payment will not be refunded.
13. The Counselling Group and the client agree that once a session has been paid for the session will be provided by The Counselling Group to the client irrespective of any change in pricing that may occur between the date of payment and the date of sessions taken.
14. Sessions once purchased are not refundable.
15. These terms and conditions establish privacy of contract between The Counselling Group and the client only and the session may only be used by the client who originally purchased the session and cannot be transferred assigned or negotiated to or with any other third person who is not a party to these terms and conditions.
16. Session bookings may be rescheduled up to 24 hours before the session is due to start.
17. Sessions may not be rescheduled by the client less than 24 hours before a session is due to start. If the session is not taken by the client the fee will not be refunded.
18. In the event that an agent has to cancel a session booking the agent will contact the client to inform them and the session will be rescheduled.
19. In the event that an agent fails to attend a booked session or does not complete the session then the client should contact The Counselling Group by email within 24 hours of the end time of the session. The Counselling Group will investigate the situation and a credit will be refunded to the client or the session rescheduled if the details of the case are as stated by the client and the cancellation or non-completion of the session was the responsibility of the agent.
20. The Counselling Group will at all times endeavour to ensure that the technical quality of its service is of the highest quality appropriate to the method of communication but will not be held responsible for technical problems experienced by clients with their own equipment or with communications over the internet or such other causes which are outside of their control.
21. Any complaint that the client has with the service provided must be communicated by email using the email facility on the The Counselling Group website within 24 hours of the end of the session concerned.
22. The Counselling Group will not be held liable to the client, his or her agent or any other third party for any consequential loss whatsoever that may be claimed as a result of the service it provides or any deemed failure to provide that service.
23. The Counselling Group will protect the confidentiality of it's clients, but reserves the right to break confidentiality in the event of expressions of self harm, suspected self harm, suspected harm to others, or suspected criminal act.
The Counselling Group reserves the right to amend the Terms & Conditions at any time and to notify all clients via either email correspondence or other appropriate means.