Terms and Privacy

Last updated: June 2026

This page sets out how the practice works, how your information is handled, and what you can expect as a client. Please read it before your first session. If anything is unclear, you are welcome to ask about it during your free consultation.

1. About this practice

Therapy is provided by Dr Richard Pione, a Clinical Psychologist, trading as The Compass Psychology Practice. He is registered with the Health and Care Professions Council (registration PYL38730) and is an accredited CBT therapist with the BABCP (#101271). He holds professional indemnity insurance through Balens. You can contact the practice at Richard@compasspsychologypractice.co.uk.

2. The therapeutic agreement

Therapy is offered to adults. Sessions last fifty minutes and take place in person in Essex or online. The focus of the work is set collaboratively, based on what you want to address and a shared understanding of the difficulty.

Cognitive behavioural therapy and the related approaches used here are collaborative. The work depends on building a shared understanding of the difficulty and on your active involvement, which can include agreeing tasks to try between sessions. You are free to end therapy at any time, and endings will always be discussed with you where possible.

This is a talking therapy service. It does not provide psychiatric medication, diagnosis for legal or benefit purposes, or emergency care. If your needs would be better met by another service, you will be told honestly and, where possible, helped to find more suitable support.

3. Fees, payment and cancellations

Sessions are charged at £120 in person and £110 online, and are paid for in advance of each appointment by bank transfer. The initial fifteen-minute consultation is free.

If you need to cancel or rearrange a session, please give at least forty-eight hours’ notice. Sessions cancelled with less than forty-eight hours’ notice, or missed without notice, are charged in full, because the time has been reserved for you.

4. Confidentiality and its limits

What you bring to therapy is treated as confidential. Notes and information are kept securely and are not shared with anyone outside the practice without your consent, with a small number of important exceptions.

Confidentiality may need to be broken, ordinarily after discussing it with you first wherever it is safe and possible to do so, in these circumstances:

• Risk to life or of serious harm. If there is an immediate and serious risk to your safety or to someone else’s.
• Safeguarding. If there is information suggesting a child or a vulnerable adult is at risk of harm.
• A legal requirement. If disclosure is required by law, for example under a court order or a specific statutory duty.

In these situations only what is necessary will be shared, and only with the people or services who need to know.

Regular clinical supervision is undertaken, which is a professional requirement. Your case may be discussed in supervision to support the quality and safety of your care. This is done in a way that protects your identity, and supervisors are bound by the same duty of confidentiality.

5. How your information is handled

This section is the practice’s privacy notice and explains how your personal data is processed under UK data protection law (UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018).

Who is responsible. Dr Richard Pione, trading as The Compass Psychology Practice, is the data controller and is registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (registration CSN7940660).

What is collected. Contact details, and the information needed to provide therapy safely, including clinical notes and relevant health information. Information about your health is treated as special category data and is handled with particular care.

Why, and the lawful basis. Your information is used to provide and manage your therapy. The lawful bases relied on are the performance of our agreement for therapy and, for health information, the provision of healthcare by a health professional bound by confidentiality.

Where it is held. Clinical records and bookings are held in a secure clinical record system, BacPac, provided by Mayden, which processes this data on the practice’s behalf under a data processing agreement. Online sessions take place using Microsoft Teams. Payments are made by bank transfer. Website analytics are provided by Google LLC (Google Analytics) and Microsoft Corporation (Microsoft Clarity); both act as data processors under data processing agreements and receive anonymised usage data about how visitors interact with this website.

Who it is shared with. Your information is not sold or used for marketing. It is shared only as described in the confidentiality section above, or with your consent, for example with your GP if that would support your care and you agree to it.

Analytics and cookies. This website uses Google Analytics (provided by Google LLC) and Microsoft Clarity (provided by Microsoft Corporation) to understand how visitors use the site. Both tools use cookies, which are small files stored on your device. They collect anonymised information about pages visited, time spent on the site, and how visitors navigate between pages. No individually identifiable personal data is collected through these tools. The lawful basis for this processing is your consent, which you can give or withhold via the cookie banner shown on your first visit. You can withdraw consent at any time by clearing your browser cookies and declining when the banner next appears. You can also opt out of Google Analytics across all websites by installing the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on. For Microsoft Clarity, you can opt out at clarity.microsoft.com/optout.

How long it is kept. Clinical records for adults are retained for seven years from the end of your therapy, after which they are securely destroyed.

Your rights. You have the right to ask for a copy of the information held about you, to ask for inaccurate information to be corrected, and, in certain circumstances, to ask for it to be deleted or for its use to be restricted. To make a request, contact Richard@compasspsychologypractice.co.uk. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ico.org.uk) if you are unhappy with how your data has been handled.

6. In a crisis

This practice is not an emergency or crisis service, and messages are not monitored around the clock. If you are in crisis or worried about your immediate safety, please use one of the following:

• NHS 111, then select option 2, for the mental health crisis line in your area.
• 999, or your nearest A&E, in a life-threatening emergency.
• Samaritans, free, day or night, on 116 123.
• SHOUT, a free 24/7 text service, by texting 85258.

If you are already under the care of a mental health team or crisis service, please also use the contact arrangements they have given you.

7. Complaints and feedback

Feedback is welcome, including when something has not gone well. If you are unhappy with any part of your care, please raise it directly in the first instance, by email at Richard@compasspsychologypractice.co.uk, so it can be discussed and put right where possible.

If a concern cannot be resolved that way, you can take it further:

• For concerns about professional conduct or practice, you can contact the Health and Care Professions Council (hcpc-uk.org), the statutory regulator, or the BABCP (babcp.com).
• For concerns about how your personal data has been handled, you can contact the Information Commissioner’s Office (ico.org.uk).

8. What therapy can and cannot do

Psychological therapy can be very effective, but it works differently for everyone and outcomes cannot be guaranteed. The work will be delivered to a professional standard and in line with the evidence, with honesty about what is and is not likely to help. Engaging in therapy is not a guarantee of any particular result. Nothing in these terms limits any liability that cannot be limited by law.