6 key policies/contracts you need in a psychology private practicePolicies might seem like a boring subject but trust me, the first time something unexpected happens in your practice you will be grateful that you did all your thinking in advance. In the past year I have faced situations where people haven’t paid me for my time and where I have been very worried about the wellbeing of a client. These were horrible, painful, moments but having policies laid out for me to follow meant I could feel confident that I handled them in the best way I could. 
Some of these policies and contracts are legal documents that need input from a lawyer. Others are more essential from an ethical and practical standpoint and juts require you to sit down and think about how you want to handle situations that come up in your business.


Therapy contract
This can be one or two documents depending on how you work but it needs to include at least three main areas:


What you expect from your clients
What they can expect from you
How they let you know if something goes wrong and how you will let them know if something goes wrong



It is worth having a lawyer draw up a contract for you that meets your specific requirements. I don’t want to be the prophet of doom but sadly, in private practice, you will most likely at some point experience people who ghost you without paying or expect you to work outside of your office hours or who claim you have not provided the services you were paid for. Thankfully this hasn’t happened to me frequently but I did once have a client who refused to pay a large sum of money. I was incredibly grateful that my contract was watertight and the matter was resolved quickly. A horrible experience and I will make another podcast about that at some stage, but at least there wasn’t the added anxiety of an ambiguous contract. A good lawyer who understands the nature of your work will make sure your contract has explanations of what will happen in all kinds of situations, including a global pandemic, for example, so you and your clients have a safety net of certainty to fall back on. Clare Veal, our resident lawyer in Psychology Business School has created a template that students can adapt for their practices based on knowledge of how we work 


In my opinion, you also need a plain English section that explains, human to human, the process of working with you, how they should pay you and how to contact you. This needs to spell out what happens if they are paying by insurance, who is liable for any excess on an insurance policy, what happens if they miss a session (including who pays for it) and how much notice you need of session cancellations. You may need different contracts for different insurance companies. I now only work with two so I just have clauses for them in the main contract but if you have several that have different DNA policies of their own you may need individual contracts. All of that stuff falls into the category of what you expect from your clients. 


You also need to set out clearly what your clients can expect from you (and what they can’t) state your working times, how long they should expect to wait for an email response. How they can contact you and whether you are willing/able to provide short notice phone calls or sessions. My life means my clients need to be very clear that when I am not at work I am NOT available so my contract spells this out and gives them other services they can access if they need help and I’m not available. 


You can also state here how you intend to let them know if you need to cancel and what happens to their booking if you cancel as well as how much notice you will give for planned holiday.


Personally, I have combined my plain speaking and legal contract into one document so I can easily get electronic, GDPR complaint consent from my clients before they come to their first session, or in session, with me if there are queries...