Client Informed Consent

Updated: 25 May 2024

Welcome to The Lion Mind! Below are some information about the counselling and psychological services provided that is important for you to understand. The purpose of this form is to share some important guidelines to manage your expectations before the start of our services and for us to manage the therapy process together. Review this information carefully and ask our staff any questions before you sign this consent.

We reserve the right to change or modify any of the terms and conditions or any policy or guidelines, at any time and in our sole discretion without prior notice. Any changes or modification will be effective immediately upon posting of the revisions on our website https://thelionmind.org.sg/client-inform-consent/ , and you waive any right you may have to receive specific notice of such changes or modifications. Your continued use of our services following the posting of changes or modifications will confirm your acceptance of such changes or modifications. Please check the latest information posted to inform yourself of any changes or modifications as they are binding to you.

1. Services and Staff

The Lion Mind ensures that we offer high quality standards of counselling and psychological services. Our clinicians have extensive post-graduate qualifications and trainings, and they are accredited by their relevant association(s). Any services provided by interns and / or trainees are supervised closely by a qualified supervisor.

2. Your Privacy and Confidentiality

The laws and ethical standards require The Lion Mind to keep a copy of the client record. A client file will be created for you during your journey with us. This file is private and confidential, and is protected under the Personal Data Protection Act (Singapore). We will take all reasonable measures to protect your privacy. You have the right to request to view a copy of your records as long as it does not cause you or anyone else harm to do so, or for other reasons outlined by applicable laws. Because the records are written by professionals, they can be misinterpreted by non-professional readers. If you want to see your records, you may schedule a session and request to view it with your clinician so that they may discuss and explain the contents with you. However, we reserve the rights to reject any request to view the case record if it does not benefit your therapeutic journey. We will keep the files for two (2) years after you have ended your journey with us, after which the records will be destroyed.

Our staff may look at your registration form to help determine your level of need and has access only to your name, phone number, and email address for the purposes of booking appointments. This person does not read your case file. Only your clinician is allowed access to your case notes.

For security, and internal training purposes, video recording (with audio) are commonly conducted for counselling. This recording will be conducted during your counselling session(s). The strictest confidentiality will be maintained, and there will be no sharing of the recorded material. All footages will be kept for two (2) years from the day it is recorded, after which the files will be destroyed.

All information shared by you during the therapy session is confidential and will not be revealed to any other person or agency without your written permission with the following exceptions:

2.1 Duty to warn

If you intend to take harmful, dangerous, or criminal action against another human being, or against yourself, it is the clinician’s duty to warn immediately the appropriate individuals or agencies of such intentions. In addition, any actual or suspected acts of child, elder, or disabled person abuse (including physical abuse, sexual abuse, unlawful sexual intercourse, neglect, emotional and psychological abuse) will be reported to the appropriate agencies (e.g., police) by the clinician.

2.2 Court Subpoenas

When lawyers believe that a client’s clinician may have valuable information for their case, they will subpoena her/his notes, records, and in some instances, even the clinician themselves. In general, once a subpoena is served, it must be obeyed.

2.3 Consultation / Supervision

Information about you may be discussed in confidence, without revealing your identity, with other counselling professionals and / or supervisors for the purpose of consultation and providing you with the best possible service.

2.4 Debt Neglect

In the event that you are unable to make payment for the services provided by The Lion Mind, no services will be rendered to you. However, our staff will refer you to another clinician or organisation (e.g., Institute of Mental Health) or any others as deemed applicable.

2.5 Rights of the Minor

Our clinicians who work with clients below the age of 21 (a minor) have the difficult task of protecting the minor’s right to privacy while at the same time respecting the parent’s or guardian’s right to information. Counselling is most effective when a trusting relationship exists between the clinician and the client. We seek your understanding that privacy is especially important in securing and maintaining trust. To safeguard a minor’s privacy, we will not provide detailed information to the parent regarding what was shared in the session unless consent by the minor is given. However, we can provide general themes, ideas, and recommendations if needed after discussing with your child.

Also, typically, we only provide update to parents when critical information as stated in point 2.1 is to be informed and not after every session. However, you may request an update from the clinician in charge after the session, and they can give you a short debrief on how the session went. The debrief duration is part of the session, and prevailing charges will apply.

3. Professional Relationship

The relationship with any of our clinician is a professional one guided by ethics set by the accreditation bodies that our clinician may be registered to. In general, our clinician cannot:

• Have a business or personal friendship relationship with you.
• Be your counsellor if you are related.
• Have any type of romantic or sexual relationship with you, or with any people close to you.
• Be your supervisor, teacher, or evaluator.
• Receive gifts from you.

4. Counselling

Counselling is a collaborative process aimed at addressing emotional, psychological, and interpersonal concerns within a supportive and confidential environment. It focuses on exploring thoughts, feelings, and behaviours, developing coping strategies, and fostering personal growth and resilience.

Your clinician is the subject matter expert in using psychotherapeutic tools to help guide you in resolving your issues. However, you are the subject matter expert in yourself. Thus, it is important for you and your clinician to work together to achieve the most favourable outcome in managing your issues faced.

Each counselling session duration can be extended or reduced by your clinician depending on the complexity. In the event that your session is extended beyond your original booking duration, the prevailing charges for extension will apply.

Our clinicians may conduct informal assessments using screening questionnaires during counselling sessions. These questionnaires assist in gauging severity levels and identifying potential concerns or risk factors, which then inform the focus of the counselling process. Please note that while these informal assessments and screening questionnaires are valuable tools, they are not diagnostic in nature.

It is important to note that while counselling can be an integral part of mental health care, it is distinct from psychological diagnosis or formal assessments. Therefore, our counselling sessions do not provide diagnoses or comprehensive psychological reports.

Instead, our primary goal is to support you in understanding and managing your emotional and psychological well-being, enhancing coping skills, and working towards your therapeutic goals. If the need arises for formal assessment or diagnosis, our clinicians may provide appropriate recommendations to external professionals or resources.

You have the right to request for a change to another clinician if you feel that your current clinician is not the right fit for you. Please inform us in advance, and we will make reasonable efforts to accommodate your request by assigning another clinician within The Lion Mind. We will have to conduct a new intake if advance notice for the change is not provided.

You have the right to ask questions about anything that happens during the therapy session. Your clinician will be willing to discuss with you. You can feel free to discuss with your clinician to try something that you think will be helpful, to or refuse any psychological intervention proposed to you. If you are dissatisfied by the services provided by The Lion Mind, please inform us though the feedback channels provided. We will try our level best to work with you.

Having someone constantly available to assist you in your counselling journey is always lovely. While your progress is essential, there are times when our clinicians are engaged with other clients or performing other duties. Therefore, we hope to seek your understanding that you must discuss all matters relating you within the session, and any request for discussion out of the session (e.g., via text / email / phone) will be rejected. You can write it down in a note and highlight it to your clinician in your next session.

5. Termination

Either you or our clinician may end therapy at any time. Our clinician may discuss termination if:

• You are no longer benefiting from therapy
• There is a conflict in values
• They are already providing therapy to a related person involved in your case

If you need additional counselling, we will assign another clinician within The Lion Mind or refer you to external agencies. We also reserve the right to terminate any clients, including their next of kin, who are abusive to our staff.

6. Risk and Benefit

6.1 Risk

As with any therapy, some risks come with counselling and psychotherapy. For example, after your session with us, you may experience discomfort levels of negative emotions such as sadness, guilt, anxiety, anger, frustration, loneliness, helplessness, etc. You may recall unpleasant memories, and the feelings associated with them may continue to affect your daily life. Also, counselling may impact your relationships with others, including your marital relationship. Family secrets may need to be revealed for improvement to occur, which may disrupt your current relationship. It is important to keep in mind that even with the best efforts, there is a risk that counselling may not work out well for you and may lead to undesired outcomes.

6.2 Benefit

While there are potential risks involved in counselling, the benefits have been supported by extensive research. Through counselling, you will have the opportunity to delve into your concerns, address your emotions, and find solutions to your problems. This can lead to improvements in your relationships and coping skills, increased satisfaction in social and family life, and greater clarity about your personal goals and values.

It’s important to keep in mind that attending counselling session(s) with The Lion Mind and our clinicians does not guarantee a specific outcome, stated or implied. The success of the therapy process depends on your active participation and dedication to personal growth and improvement.

7. Legal Involvement

If you ever become involved in a legal dispute, it is important to understand and agree that we will not provide evaluations or expert testimony in court. You should engage a mental health professional who specialises in providing the evaluation or testimony for the legal purposes that you require. This is because:

• Any statements from our clinicians will be seen as biased in your favour,
• Our testimony will affect the counselling relationship, and we must put your therapeutic relationship first.

If you as a client, file a complaint / legal suit against The Lion Mind, its staff, and / or clinicians, you authorize us to fully disclose any and all relevant information regarding your records, test, results, and therapy sessions in our legal defence, and you hereby waive any right to confidentiality and privacy.

8. Documentation: Letters, Memo or Reports

Counselling sessions are primarily focused on the therapeutic relationship and exploring your concerns in a confidential space. Generally, we do not provide documentation for personal use due to potential ethical and legal concerns. However, we acknowledge that there may be instances where you require documentation for various purposes:

• For specific administrative needs: Documentation might be required for insurance purposes.
• Verification of Attendance: In specific situations, verifying your participation in therapy might be necessary.
• Supporting your Therapeutic Efforts: On rare occasions, a letter of recommendation might be appropriate for specific goals after careful consideration, with clear limitations outlined.

To assist in the purposes stated above, we can consider providing a letter. The information contained in the letter is part of your confidential mental health record, and our clinician cannot share it without your explicit consent. By requesting a letter, you authorise our clinician to release the information in the letter.

The contents of the letter must adhere to ethical considerations and professional standards. Requests to change, edit, amend, add, or delete any contents in the letter will not be accepted or entertained and will be rejected.

The letter will not include any copies of the screeners or assessments administered during your session(s), nor will it contain the scores obtained. These screeners or assessments and their scores are intended solely to assist your clinician in formulating an intervention plan for you and are not meant to be shared.

Furthermore, the letter will not include any mental health diagnosis, as diagnosis is a specialised service separate from counselling.

Our clinician reserves the right to refuse to provide the letter if they determine that doing so does not benefit you, if it does not adhere to ethical and professional standards, or if they believe the request is not valid.

We strictly do not provide any memos or reports regarding your counselling sessions.

As our clinician requires time to prepare this letter, and this time is taken outside of the counselling sessions, we seek your understanding that we need at least seven (7) working days to provide any documentation.

9. Appointment Scheduling

Please feel free to use our booking system to arrange for a session. All sessions with The Lion Mind must be arranged in advance. Walk-ins are not allowed and will be rejected.

During your session with your clinician, they may arrange with you for your next session. We recommend maintaining a regular schedule (e.g., every Wednesday afternoon) to aid in your rehabilitation. In order to be effective, therapy needs to take place on a regular basis. The best results occur when appointments are consistently scheduled and regularly attended.

All appointment requires a 100% payment and are non-refundable. This policy helps ensure commitment to counselling schedules.

9.1 Late Arrivals

Please arrive for your appointment on time. As a courtesy to the client who has booked the next appointment, your session will still end at the original scheduled time. Any extension after the original scheduled time is charged accordingly.

In the event that if you are on time for the session, and we cannot start the session on time, we will endeavour to ensure that your session duration is unaffected.

9.2 Rescheduled / Cancelled / Missed / No-Show

If you need to cancel or reschedule an appointment, please do so at least 24-hours before your scheduled time, so we can offer your appointment to someone else who needs it more.

A full session fee will be charged if:

• You fail to reschedule or cancel a scheduled appointment 24-hours before your scheduled timing.
• You missed or did not show up for your scheduled appointment. Your session is considered missed if you have not arrived within 20 minutes of the scheduled start time.

Strictly no refund will be provided for any of the above cases. Please get in touch with us as early as possible for alternate arrangements if it is due to an emergency or illness. We appreciate your understanding that last-minute work commitments are not considered emergencies and cannot be accommodated with schedule changes. In instances of illness, we may request documentation, such as a medical certificate, to assist in processing any schedule changes.

We seek your understanding of this important matter as this is a standard practice within the counselling profession.

10. Couple / Joint Counselling Session

This section applies to clients engaging in couple counselling or joint counselling for two individuals.

The purpose of the joint session is to facilitate the improvement of the relationship by addressing and resolving conflicts, enhancing communication, and fostering a deeper understanding between both parties.

Your active participation and commitment to the process is vital for achieving the best outcomes.

It is essential to be aware of our clinician’s role within joint sessions to ensure mutual understanding and a productive therapeutic environment. Our clinician acts as a neutral facilitator within the joint or couple sessions, refraining from taking sides or making decisions for the participants. This neutrality allows for a balanced exploration of issues and fosters an atmosphere of trust and open communication.

Given that this is a joint session, kindly note that the session can only commence with both parties present. Hence, in the event that if either party is late for the session, the session will still end as scheduled. The session is considered missed if either party have not arrived within 20 minutes of the scheduled start time. Please note that in the event of a no-show by either party, the full session fee will be considered utilised.

For joint sessions, the individual who made the booking will serve as the primary contact person and will be solely responsible for managing the appointment. Regrettably, we are unable to accommodate requests to modify appointments from any other party except from the primary contact person.

11. Personal Data

You consent to the use of your personal data provided in this consent form by The Lion Mind for the specified purposed of sending you The Lion Mind announcements and any other communications on matters pertaining to programme, events, and services related to The Lion Mind.

12. Mental Health Crisis / Emergencies

The Lion Mind counselling & psychological services is a non-critical service and are not meant to address crisis situations as we cannot attend to you immediately.

You are responsible for making the decisions and acting on them to address any issues. All decisions implemented will be made personally and no one else will be held responsible for the decisions made by you.

If you are facing a crisis or an emergency, please contact the following 24-hours resources immediately:

• Institute of Mental Health Hotline – 6389 2222
• Samaritans Of Singapore (SOS) – 1767
• Police – 999
• SCDF Emergency Medical Services – 995

Kindly update your clinician of your situation during your next appointment.

13. Waiver & Release

You are aware that the counselling session(s), which you will be participating in, present risk(s) that are stated in this informed consent.

You certify that your participation is voluntary, and you assume all risks, consequences, and potential liability for this participation.

You hereby release, waive, discharge, and agree not to sue The Lion Mind, their staff, clinicians, agents, and volunteers (jointly “Releasees”) for any and all claims, demands, losses, damages, or expenses arising out of or in connection with the services provided to you.

You agree that this Waiver and Release is intended to be as broad and inclusive as is permitted by the law of the state in which the activities take place, and that if any portion is held invalid, it is agreed that the balance shall continue in full legal force and effect.

If, despite this Waiver and Release, you make a claim against any of the Releasee(s), you (or in the case a claim is made on behalf of yourself, the parent(s) and/or legal guardian(s)) will reimburse the Releasee(s) for any money which such Releasee(s) incur in defending the action, including but not limited to damages and legal fees and costs.

You have read this Waiver and Release, fully understand its terms, understand that you have given up substantial rights for yourself by signing it, and have signed it freely and voluntarily without any inducement, assurance, or guarantee being made to you and intend your signature to be complete and unconditional release of all liability to the greatest extent allowed by law.

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