Terms and conditions

Psychology services

As part of providing psychology services, your psychologist will need to collect and record personal information about you. This information is a necessary part of the psychological assessment, diagnosis and treatment that will be conducted.

All South Eastern Counselling and Psychology practitioners are highly trained and have experience working with a diverse range of clients. Our psychologists are all registered with the Psychology Board of Australia (PsyBA) as registered or clinical psychologists.

All of our psychologists are independently practising psychologists, operating under the South Eastern Counselling and Psychology name.

We do not condone aggressive or intimidating behaviour at our practice (verbal/physical, in person or via phone/email).

Audio/visual recording of any type is not permitted. This includes recording of face to face sessions in our clinic, or during Telehealth (Zoom or similar) or telephone consultations.

Limitations of service

South Eastern Counselling and Psychology is not an emergency service. Our psychologists are often not available at short notice or outside our regular practice hours, so are unlikely to be able to respond to telephone calls or emails requesting urgent assistance. Ask your psychologist if you wish to be given the details of other providers who can offer these services.

Appointments

When you book your initial appointment we require you to provide us with payment information (debit or credit card). This is for use in the event of short notice cancellations or non-attendance, where a fee applies. We store this information on PCI compliant software. If you do not consent to us collecting and storing your payment information, we may not be able to provide a psychology service to you. More information on our non-attendance and cancellation policy can be found in our cancellation policy and on our fees and funding page.

Once your appointment is booked we will email you an online Client Registration Form, which you need to complete and return prior to your appointment. This is required as part of engaging in psychology services with South Eastern Counselling and Psychology.

We offer a text reminder service prior to your scheduled appointment. However, you should not rely on this. It is your responsibility to record and remember the timing of any appointments you make.

If you arrive late to your session you will be entitled to the remainder of the allocated appointment time but the duration will be shortened. This is to ensure appointments run to schedule and following clients are not affected.

Session fees are payable at the time of your appointment. You may instruct your psychologist to process fees using the payment information we have stored on file if you choose.

Confidentiality

The information shared with your psychologist, including conversations in session, assessment results and client files are confidential and client rights to privacy are upheld. Please refer to our Privacy Policy for more information.

Court / tribunal / mediation requirements

We do not provide court reports/letters, nor any legal advice regarding any legal matters. This includes Family Court matters regarding custody and parenting arrangements. We are first and foremost a treatment-based service provider, and not assessment (i.e. ‘fitness’) based for court and similar purposes. For existing clients who later require such a service this may be possible in very limited circumstances and only by certain psychologists.

Assessments

We are currently unable to support clients who are actively applying for (or plan to apply for) the Disability Support Pension or National Disability Insurance Scheme. This may change in future, so please check back from time to time.

Purpose of collecting and holding personal information

Your personal information, which is gathered as part of your assessment and treatment, is, in the interests of your privacy, used only by your psychologist and the authorised personnel of the practice (as necessary). If you do not wish for your personal information to be collected in this way, South Eastern Counselling and Psychology may not be in a position to provide psychology services to you. Please refer to our Privacy Policy for more information.

Professional supervision

Psychologists in Australia are required by the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) to engage in continuing professional development (CPD), peer consultation and supervision. At times it may be necessary for your psychologist to professionally discuss your presenting issues and treatment plan with their supervisor or peers to ensure ongoing quality assurance. If this happens, all information that may identify you is kept confidential.

Mandatory reporting

We adhere to a mandatory reporting policy and are required to report disclosures of harm, including (but not limited to) child sexual assault, physical abuse or neglect. Central to South Eastern Counselling and Psychology’s goals is to act in the best interest of clients’ health and safety. At times, this may require us to report information to the relevant authorities. All decisions to report are considered carefully prior to a report being made.

We are also required to provide written reports to referring GPs for clients in receipt of Medicare rebates under Better Access to Mental Health (Mental Health Care Plans).

Fees, Medicare rebates and other funding

Session fees are payable at the time of your appointment. If your payment is unsuccessful for any reason (e.g. insufficient funds available or incorrect card details provided by you), we will attempt to contact you by phone, text or email and provide you with an opportunity to process the payment again. You will not be able to attend another appointment until payment is successful.

If you have a valid Mental Health Care Plan for individual sessions, you are eligible for up to ten Medicare-rebated visits per calendar year.

If paperwork has expired, or a GP review was not completed and this results in your booked appointment not proceeding, a cancellation/non-attendance fee may apply. Your psychologist will guide you about any paperwork requirements ahead of time, but it is your responsibility to organise this.

For current information on our fee schedule, Medicare rebate amounts and other funding (e.g. third party funding and private insurance Extras) please visit our fees and funding page.

Non-attendance and cancellation policy

Your appointment time is reserved for you. Full details of our current non-attendance and cancellation policy can be found in our cancellation policy.

APS Charter for Clients of Psychologists

The APS Charter for Clients of Psychologists (opens in a new tab) explains your rights as a client of a psychologist.