FAQ

How do I contact you or make an appointment?

To book an appointment, please complete the New Enquiry Contact Form on the contact page.  For a brief informal discussion about your needs, please call 07920 062142 and leave a message, we will call you back when we are not in session.  You can also email any questions to . We will only offer an assessment appointment if we feel we can help you with your difficulties and think your needs are within our area of competence and expertise.

What happens at the first appointment?

You will meet with a clinical psychologist for fifty minutes for an initial assessment. This will involve talking about the difficulties that are concerning you. This assessment works at a pace that makes you feel comfortable to help you think about whether psychological therapy sessions could help. If the outcome of the assessment session is that therapy could be helpful, then you will be offered sessions. It is your decision as to whether you wish to accept this. There will be no ‘hard sell’ and you will not be pressured in any way to take up a course of sessions.

Is everything I tell you confidential?

Yes. The only exception to this would be if there were significant concerns about your wellbeing or harming yourself or somebody else.
If this were the case, as much as is possible, we would discuss with you whether involving other professionals would be appropriate and helpful. Kingston Psychology Clinic has an administrator who handles invoicing and liaising with the insurance companies. The administrator will have your basic details in order to manage this but no access to any clinical information about you.

How do I pay for sessions?

Fees are payable weekly via email invoice and bank transfer.

How many sessions will I need?

This is a very difficult question to answer as it depends entirely on the individual and their needs. Some people have a short–term intervention e.g. 8-12 sessions, whilst others need longer to address their difficulties and find ways to manage.

It seems very expensive compared to seeing a counsellor or psychotherapist, why is this?

Clinical Psychologists are highly trained mental health professionals, the basic training process takes an average of 8-9 years. Some clinicians then have additional qualifications on top of this basic training. They are trained to offer ‘evidence based’ treatments, which means that the input you receive will have been shown to provide effective outcomes and help for people with the difficulties that are being experienced.

Do you also work with children and teenagers?

Yes.  The service works with ‘young adults’ who are struggling with similar difficulties as the adults that we see.  We are happy to see young people from the age of sixteen upwards.

Please note,  we do not offer assessment for learning difficulties, ADHD or autistic spectrum disorders (ASD).

What I am struggling with is not on the list of difficulties that you treat, can you still help me?

The list of difficulties that our service treats is not exhaustive and we may still be able to help. You are welcome to call for a brief discussion to see whether an assessment session could be helpful.

I feel like something is wrong but I don’t know what it is, can you still help?

You do not have to know what is wrong before you call our service. Sometimes people are aware that something is ‘not right’ but they don’t know exactly what is ‘wrong’. It is the job of the clinical psychologist to help you make sense of your difficulties in the assessment session.

I feel very nervous about talking about my difficulties…

It is very common to feel anxious or nervous before meeting with someone to talk about your difficulties for the first time, this is to be expected. You will be put at ease as much as is possible and the sessions will be paced to suit you. You do not have to talk about anything that makes you feel very uncomfortable if you do not want to and this will be respected.

How do I know if my health insurance will cover my fees?

This is a discussion that is best held between yourself and your health insurance company. Quite often, depending on the company, they will offer to cover fees for a fixed number of sessions. If you require more sessions, then you would need to negotiate this with your insurers or decide whether it is possible for you to fund your own sessions. Kingston Psychology Clinic will not charge you additional fees i.e. ‘top up’ or ‘administration’ fees if your insurer caps the fee for clinical psychology sessions. Your insurance policy may have an ‘excess’ payable on any claims and this will be payable to Kingston Psychology Clinic.  Please note, it is your responsibility to ensure that your treatment is covered by your insurer, if your insurer will not pay then you will be liable for the fees charged.

Please note, if your insurance cover reaches it’s limit and you choose to continue self funding, sessions are charged at the self-funding rate.

What do you do with the information I give you/how do you store your data?

We understand that the information you give us and the things you tell us about yourself are very private. We take the protection of this information or ‘data’ extremely seriously. It is standard clinical practice, for psychologists to keep notes of your sessions. We use an online practice management system, ‘Cliniko’, for storage of client information and clinical notes. This system has very high levels of data security, all information is encrypted and the system adheres to all UK data protection legislation. Please see our full Privacy Policy here. We are also fully registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).