
FEEL HAPPY THERAPY PRAGUE
Zuzana Jochmannova
psychologist, therapist

THERAPY AGREEMENT
My purpose as a psychologist and therapist is to create a comfortable, safe and confidential space in which you can explore your difficulties and work towards aquiring better, more balanced life. To this end I bring as much care, attention and expertise as I can.
Every therapeutic relationship is a specific type of relationship and needs to have a certain form. The client and the therapist therefore enter into the Therapy Agreement which details the rules and boundaries within which cooperation takes place. This provides a safe space for both client and therapist. The Therapy Afreement highlights are summarized below:
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Therapy
The therapy session takes place on a pre-arranged date, time and place. Therapy cannot be arranged during the planned leave and in case of illness of the therapist. The duration of one therapy session is 50 minutes.
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Therapy process
Participation in therapy can result in a number of benefits to you, including improving interpersonal relationships and resolution of the specific concerns that led you to seek therapy. Working toward these benefits, however, requires effort on your part. It includes active involvement, honesty, and openness in order to change your thoughts, feelings and/or behaviour. Change can sometimes be easy and swift, but more often it is slow and sometimes even frustrating.
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Holidays
You will be notified about therapist's holidays at least one month ahead or with as much in advance as possible.
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Fee
The fee is paid after the session either in cash or via bank transfer to the therapist's account at Raiffeisenbank 68589587/5500. In case of Therapy Plan purchase, the fee is paid in advance. The client is provided with a receipt for the session and if requested in advance, an invoice for the chosen Therapy Plan.
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Session cancellation
Clients are asked to cancel or reschedule a minimum 24 hours prior to the appointment, should they be unable to keep it. Otherwise they will be required to pay the full cost of the session.
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Contact between sessions
Such contact should be minimal (unless a life threatening emergency)and used for the purposes of administration, i.e. session bookings. If an emergency arises that is life-threatening or needs immediate attention, you agree to contact the emergency services, go to your nearest hospital or phone a crisis help line. If you contact me for an administration purpose and I am not able to receive your call, please leave me a message or send me an email, and you will be contacted as soon as possible.
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Therapeutic relatioship
While the therapeutic relationship is friendly, it is a professional relationship and in order to protect its boundaries and work in an ethical way, it is considered inappropriate to engage either formally or informally through social networking sites or forums. This protects the confidentiality of the counselling relationship.
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Therapy ending
Therapy is generally open-ended and you can terminate therapy whenever you wish to do so. However, it is generally suggested that after an ending has been agreed, to spend some time (e.g. 4 weeks) working towards this. The therapeutic relationship is often a significant one and addressing the ending of the relationship is an important aspect of mutual work.
Similarly, if I assess that I cannot be any further benefit for you, I have the right to end therapy process at any time.
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Confidentiality
The therapeutic service is absolutely confidential activity. I am committed to an ethical framework, which is a set of guidelines that ensure my work is safe and puts my clients' wellbeing at the centre of any work I do. Your identity is kept anonymous and confidentiality maintained.
Whatever you disclose during the sessions I never reveal outside the session in connection with your identity information, unless I am legally required to by law. These instances are for example if the clients threaten to seriously hurt or kill themselves or another person, or if the client reveal he/she has already seriously hurt or killed another person or sexually abused a vulnerable person. In these exceptions only the therapist is legally required to inform a doctor or other emergency services, or the appropriate authorities. This is to protect the client, others, and as well as the therapist.For the purpose to help therapist follow the therapeutic process the session notes are recorded during the therapy session. These are anonymised and kept confidential and secure for one year after you have left therapy. Any other personal information such as the address, telephone number, or other information are also strictly confidential and stored securely.
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Teletherapy (Online Therapy)
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Online therapy is delivered either by video call via the platform Google Meet or Zoom. Both platforms are securely encrypted.
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Therapy session should occur only through a computer that you know is safe and confidentiality can be ensured. It is recommended to fully exit online therapy session (room) once it is finished. It is advisable to delete your browsing history after our communication.
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It is important that the environment you choose to work in allows for your physical and emotional safety as well as your privacy. This helps to ensure our work together remains confidential.
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Working online means you don’t necessarily travel to and from your appointment, and so may not have the travel time to prepare yourself before and after a session. With this in mind, it is good practice to prepare yourself for a few minutes before you start an online session so that you feel ready to start our work together. Likewise, after the session, it is a good idea to give yourself some time to readjust before you go back to your daily life.
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It is important for client and therapeut to agree what to do in the event of a technology breakdown during the online session. Should either client or therapeut experience technical difficulties, we both endeavour to connect back and try this for 10 minutes. If after 10 minutes client and therapeut are still unable to connect, the session will be re-scheduled free of charge. Please note I will never intentionally end a session prematurely.
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It is important for the client to take into account that online therapy might be a different experience compared with in-person therapy. These differences can include the lack of visual and audio cues and the lack of immediacy in responding.
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The client acknowledges that online therapy is not appropriate if he/she has suicidal or murderous thoughts. The client agrees that in the event of a life-threatening situation, he contacts the emergency helpline or the hospital emergency service.
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Therapy with minors
Minor children are granted the same rights as adults in therapeutic relationship. Therefore, the therapy notes will not be released to anyone. Treatment plan or therapy goals might be disclosed to parents or guardians. Authorization to provide therapy to minors must be provided by child's parent or guardian.