Payment Matters

Why do you take deposits?

Deposits are are designed to minimize eleventh hour cancellation of appointments.

They are used to ensure that your counselling slot will be available for your counselling session (see FAQ on Location).

It also offsets the cost of the actual counselling session, allowing us to offer a more competitive hourly rate for you.

When do I need to make payments?

Booking deposits are required to be paid at least 3 days before the date of your session.

Payment for the session can be made up to one week after the session. You will receive an invoice after the session detailing the session fee.

Instalments arrangements are available. Please discuss with the counsellor prior to the session.

How much does a counselling session cost?

Our pricing varies depending on whether the following factors:

1) type of session (individual, couple or family)

2) mode of counselling (online or face-to-face)

3) eligibility on the sliding scale

3) length of session

As session rates are 'per hour', you will be alerted when the session is about to reach the first hour.

You can then decide whether to continue the session, or to end the session at one hour and possibly continue at subsequent session.

If you decide to continue after the first hour, please note that the session cost will be prorated accordingly.

Why are the deposits non-refundable?

In this gig economy, we keep costs competitive by not having a single permanent counselling office, but by having several locations which are only used on demand.

Therefore, deposits are used to secure your counselling room, but only when you need it. (Please see FAQ about Location)

Unfortunately, this also means that once the counselling room is secured, the cost cannot be refunded by the room provider.

This is why the deposits are non-refundable.

To mitigate this, we try our best to ensure that the cost of deposits are also competitive and only necessary for the securing of the counselling room.

Do you offer government subsidies?

Unfortunately, we are a wholly private practice.

We only use CHAS as a publicly available community health subsidy framework to structure discounts, in order to make private counselling more accessible.

However, we do not receive any subsidies from the government and we independently absorb the costs of providing discounts out of goodwill.

On a related note, clients using CHAS rates for our counselling services will therefore not have their data shared with CHAS, because we do not have any links with CHAS.

What are Urgent Sessions and how does the payment work?

Urgent sessions are appointments requested within 24hrs, subject to calendar availability.

The booking deposit includes the charge for the 1st hour of counselling, to guarantee the slot. This method of payment is an industry practice, which we only apply to urgent sessions.

The final session fee will depend on the actual length of the session and you will only need to pay the balance after deducting the booking deposit.

However, please note that there are no refunds for sessions that end before one hour. Thus, you are highly encouraged to fully utilize the counselling time of one hour as booked.

Here are the payment differences in a snapshot:

Non-Urgent Sessions:

Booking Deposit payable prior to session

Session Fee payable after the session, prorated according to session duration

Urgent Sessions:

Booking Deposit and 1st hour Session Fee payable prior to session (Non-refundable)

If session exceeds 1st hour, excess Session Fee (prorated) payable after session

Please note that urgent sessions are not for emergencies. If you are in an emergency or crisis, including a mental health emergency, please do contact emergency services for immediate assistance such as the SCDF or the Police.

I do not have a CHAS card. Must I apply for one in order to receive your counselling services?

You do not need to apply for a CHAS card in order to receive our services.

As mentioned above, we only use CHAS as a publicly available community health subsidy framework to structure discounts, in order to make private counselling more accessible.

You may apply for CHAS if you wish to check your eligibility for lower rates on our sliding scale.

You may also choose not to apply for CHAS, in which case, the counselling session fees will be charged based on our Normal Rates.

How do I apply for a CHAS card?

You may apply for CHAS at the CHAS website, https://www.chas.sg/

Location

Where is the counselling conducted?

Apart from online counselling and house calls, the sessions are conducted at private office meeting rooms around Singapore, which are secured on-demand exclusively for your visit.

The setting typically consists of meeting chairs, a roundtable and a white board for the counsellor.

The specific venue details will be provided upon enquiry or booking.

This arrangement helps to provide the essential logistics that focuses on just the counselling process, keeping costs competitive for you.

It also means that you will not be seen as attending a counselling agency when you visit.

However, if you require a traditional therapy room with plush furniture and ambient lighting, we can also cater to special requests, at additional costs.

Such a venue will be located at Novena. Do reach out to let us know of such preferences.

Do you conduct house calls for individual counselling?

In general, we do not provide house calls for individual sessions for the safety of clients.

House calls are only available for couple or family sessions.

However, exceptions can be made for individual sessions if other family members will be present at home during the house call.

The session must be conducted in an open area within the house where the client can be sighted by family members.

Do let us know to discuss such arrangements.

Counselling Matters

Does counselling and psychotherapy work?

Yes. Research has shown that psychotherapy is a successful form of primary and adjunct treatment for low and high intensity psychological issues.

Psychotherapy is also thus very likely to assist with other situations which are milder or non-diagnostic.

However, the psychotherapist/counsellor must also know the factors which contribute to successful therapy.

Do you do diagnostic or psychological testing?

No, we currently do not.

We do collaborative, systemic assessments which are continuous throughout the counselling relationship.

The counsellor will conduct interviews and reflect his assessment to you, for you to feedback whether it fits with your experience of your issues.

This continues as and when new material surfaces in the counselling relationship.

The counsellor may, however, administer evidence-based progress measures to help you track your progress in counselling.

How many sessions will I need to attend and how frequently?

Our belief is that your therapy sessions also do not need to be packaged, prolonged or stretched endlessly.

Having said that, treatment length does also depend on the nature of your presenting issues.

Generally, therapy may take several sessions as it may involve an extended assessment, monitoring and review process.

This is decided collaboratively between yourself and the counsellor.

​Therefore, if the counsellor and you conclude that one session is sufficient, you may actually discontinue after just one session.

This also means that, if the prognosis for successful outcome is poor after several sessions, the counsellor will advise that the counselling may need to discontinue as the current treatment would unlikely be helpful for you.

Does that mean that some problems cannot be solved?

We firmly believe, based on research, that there must be a therapeutic fit between counsellor and client for counselling & psychotherapy to be successful.

We will work with you to determine the goals of counselling.

At times, the goals of counselling may not be achieved due to various reasons, such as an improperly defined goal, ill-timing or lack of fit between client and counsellor.

In such cases, the counsellor will also work with you to explore the options that are available to you.

I have heard of counselling, guidance and psychotherapy. What is the difference?

Our service takes the liberty to use the terms 'counselling' and 'psychotherapy' interchangeably, although our preference is to use 'counselling' because of its greater inclusiveness.

In some parts of the world, counselling services are also referred to as 'guidance counselling'.

There are varying definitions of the terms above.

They all describe the process of a trained professional supporting a client, usually through a communicative process of change.

Within those terms, you may also find ‘sub-specializations’ of counselling, guidance and psychotherapy.

Our experience has led us to conclude that the difference between those terms are largely academic.

What matters for us is that clients require help, and counsellors and psychotherapists must be able to find a way to help which is ethical, research-informed and a fit for our clients circumstances.

Our philosophy is to provide treatment that is collaborative, goal-directed and does not do harm.

With that in mind, we will be the first to recommend counselling when we assess that it will help, and the first to stop counselling when we find that it is not helping the client.

Is counselling confidential?

During the process of counselling, you may be asked questions that require you to reveal information about your worries and concerns.

Such content is limited to only what is necessary and has therapeutic value to you.

Our treatment philosophy of maintaining a collaborative relationship means that you can also choose not to share any information that you are uncomfortable with sharing.​

Your counselling is bound by the Personal Data & Protection Act (Guidelines for Social Services). Like any other profession, counsellors and psychotherapists are also bound by professional ethics to maintain your confidentiality.

Counselling must be a confidential process in order for it to achieve its therapeutic objectives. ​

At the same time, counsellors are also bound by professional ethics to protect clients from harm.

At the beginning of your counselling journey, you will thus be requested to share the contact information of someone whom you trust, as an 'emergency contact person'.

To this end, when counsellors find that clients or the people around them are in an emergency or in a potentially harmful situation, counsellors may be required to break confidentiality for that piece of information, in order to inform relevant public services and the 'emergency contact person' to keep clients safe.

This concept is called the 'limits of confidentiality'.

By engaging our counselling services, you are deemed to have consented to the limits of counselling confidentiality.

You will also be informed about this confidentiality agreement at the beginning of your counselling journey, and will be requested to give your consent in writing.

What counselling modalities do you use?

Our counselling intervention philosophy has been shaped by a diverse range of psychotherapy approaches, from humanistic to systemic to cognitive-behavioural schools.

Our stronger influences include the rich traditions of family therapy and cognitive-behavioural interventions, multicultural counselling and Single Session Therapy by Moshe Talmon.

​Significantly, we are informed by the Client-Directed Outcome-Informed treatment, of Barry Duncan and Scott Miller, both of whom have devised PCOMS and Feedback Informed Treatment respectively.

This means that the counselling approach is integrative and will be tailored to you.

There are also numerous other influences by psychotherapy theories and master therapists that are too many to mention here.

Importantly, we strive to keep abreast of the latest in psychotherapy research and knowledge.

You are most welcome to enquire with us if your preferred psychotherapy approach can be offered or integrated.