Step 1 · The wording
The exact title used.
What we do, in detail
Titles and how to check them, confidentiality and its limits, the work, and where it is not the answer.
Program 01 · The one-minute check
Which title, exactly
Practitioner psychologist, registered psychologist, and the clinical, counselling, educational, forensic, health, occupational and sport and exercise variants are protected by law and require statutory registration. Using one without it is a criminal offence. The bare word psychologist is not protected, and neither are psychotherapist or counsellor. None of that makes an unregistered practitioner unsuitable, but it does mean the only thing that settles the question is the exact title plus the public register.
Step 2 · The status
Protected, or not.
Step 3 · The register
Searched, not assumed.
Step 4 · The decision
Made knowing which.
Step 1 · The explanation
Before work begins.
Step 2 · The limits
Named specifically.
Step 3 · Your decision
What to share, knowing.
Step 4 · The record
Kept as required.
Program 02 · Said at the start
Confidentiality and its limits
Unlike a lawyer's professional privilege, confidentiality in psychological work is not absolute. The limits include a serious risk of harm to you or to someone else, concerns about the safety of a child or an adult at risk, and disclosure required by a court or by law. Those limits are explained before any substantive work begins rather than raised at the moment they apply, because a client deciding what to say is entitled to know the boundaries first.
Program 03 · Scoped in writing
The work itself
What the work is, what it is intended to address and how fees are charged are settled before it starts. There are no success rates on this site, no client testimonials and no comparison with other practitioners, because none of those could honestly be stated in the way marketing wants them. No outcome is promised: psychological work depends substantially on circumstances that no practitioner controls.
Step 1 · The question
What is actually sought.
Step 2 · The fit
Whether this is the right help.
Step 3 · The scope
Agreed, with the fee basis.
Step 4 · The review
Including if it is not working.
Step 1 · What is brought
Heard properly first.
Step 2 · The category
Clinical, or not.
Step 3 · The referral
Where it should be.
Step 4 · The urgency
Emergency services if needed.
Program 04 · Referred, not absorbed
Where this is not the answer
Coaching, consultancy and training are not therapy and are not sold as such. Where what somebody brings indicates that clinical input is appropriate, it is referred rather than absorbed into a non-clinical engagement, which is a temptation in this field and a damaging one. And this is not a crisis service: the contact form is not monitored continuously, and where there is a risk to life the emergency services or an urgent mental health service are the right call.
Wondering whether this is the right kind of help?
A first conversation, with no obligation.