Fees & payment
What it costs, written down plainly
Money is one of the things people find hardest to ask about, so it is set out here in full before you ever have to raise it. Every figure, what it includes, what it does not, and what happens if you need to cancel.
There is no charge for the first conversation. Nothing is deducted, held or taken on account before you have spoken to someone and decided for yourself that this is worth doing.
First conversation
Free
A 15-minute call, with no obligation to book anything afterwards.
Individual session
£70
50 minutes, paid on the day by card, PayPal or transfer.
Cancellation notice
48 hours
Move or cancel free of charge with more notice than this.
Minimum commitment
None
No packages you must buy up front. You stop when it is right to stop.
The figures
Session fees
Fees are per session unless the table says otherwise. Couples and family sessions are charged once, not per person in the room.
Family Restore Ltd bills in pounds sterling. Figures shown in euros or US dollars are an approximate guide only — the amount that leaves your account is set by your own bank or card issuer on the day, at their rate, and may include their own charges.
Fees are shown in pounds sterling, the billing currency.
| Service | Session length | Fee |
|---|---|---|
| Introductory callA short conversation by phone or video before you commit to anything, so you can hear how we work and we can hear what you need. | 15 minutesone-off | FreeNo charge, no obligation, and no pressure to book at the end of it. |
| Individual therapy and counsellingOne-to-one work with anxiety, low mood, stress, self-worth, loss and life transitions.About individual therapy and counselling | 50 minutesper session | £70 |
| Couples and relationship therapyBoth partners in the room. The longer session exists because two people need time to be heard properly.About couples and relationship therapy | 80 minutesper session | £110Charged per couple, not per person. |
| Family therapyParents, children, step-families and wider household members, working on the patterns between people rather than one person's behaviour.About family therapy | 90 minutesper session | £130Charged per family, however many of you attend. |
| Life coachingForward-facing work on direction, confidence, boundaries and follow-through. Coaching is not therapy and is not a treatment.About life coaching | 60 minutesper session | £90 |
| Block of six individual sessionsFor anyone who already knows they want a defined piece of work rather than an open-ended arrangement. | 6 × 50 minutesper block | £390Works out at £65 a session instead of £70. Paid in advance; unused sessions are refunded. |
| Concessionary individual sessionA limited number of reduced-fee places for people on a low income, in full-time education, or receiving means-tested benefits. | 50 minutesper session | from £45By enquiry only. Places are genuinely limited and are not always available. |
Two people, one fee
Couples and family sessions are longer for a reason. Eighty or ninety minutes is roughly what it takes for more than one person to say something difficult, be heard, and get somewhere with it before the session ends. A 50-minute couples session tends to finish at the point the conversation has only just started.
Included
What you are actually paying for
The hour in the room is the visible part. Several other things sit inside the same fee, and it is fair that you know what they are.
The full session, kept to time
Sessions start and finish when they are meant to. That predictability is part of the work, not an administrative detail.
Preparation and review
Time spent between sessions thinking about where the work has got to, and planning the next one, is included in the session fee.
Practical contact between sessions
Brief emails or calls to arrange, move or confirm an appointment are never charged for.
Secure record-keeping
Concise clinical notes are kept and stored securely, as UK professional practice requires. You have a right of access to them under UK GDPR.
Independent clinical supervision
All clinical work is reviewed in regular independent supervision. Your material is discussed without identifying you. This is a standard safeguard across UK practice and its cost sits inside the fee.
An itemised invoice
Issued for every paid session, whether or not you ask for one.
Charged separately, and only ever by agreement
- Reports, letters and forms
- Written work for an employer, solicitor, school, insurer or court is quoted separately and agreed in writing before any of it is started. Nothing is written about you without your consent.
- Attendance at meetings or hearings
- Case conferences, mediation and court attendance are charged at an hourly rate agreed in advance, including travel and waiting time.
- Extended contact between sessions
- Sustained email or telephone support between appointments is not part of the fee. If you need more contact than the sessions allow, we will talk about it openly rather than let it accumulate.
Payment
Three ways to pay
Whichever you choose, you will always know the amount in advance. Nothing is taken automatically and no card details are held on file.
Paid on the day
Debit or credit card
A secure payment link is sent by email before or immediately after the session. Cards are processed by the practice's payment provider; card numbers are never seen, handled or stored by the practice.
Paid on the day
PayPal
Accepted for single sessions and for the six-session block. Please send payments in pounds sterling — a currency conversion applied by PayPal is not something the practice controls or can refund.
Within 3 working days
Bank transfer
Preferred for blocks of sessions and for anyone who would rather not have a therapy practice appear on a card statement. Account details are given directly by the practice — never taken from a website, an email signature or a text message.
Paying by bank transfer — how to get our account details
Bank details are confirmed to you directly by the practice before your first payment. If you would rather have them now, telephone 07395 854051 and ask. Please use your own surname as the payment reference.
Account details — to be confirmed
- Account name
- [Account name]
- Sort code
- [Sort code]
- Account number
- [Account number]
Payments are received by Family Restore Ltd, registered at 3 Regina Road, Chelmsford, Essex.
If our details ever appear to change
We will never email or text you to say our bank account has changed. If you receive a message that claims we have, treat it as fraudulent, do not send anything, and telephone 07395 854051 to check. Payment-redirection fraud works precisely because the message looks routine.
Invoices
An itemised invoice for every paid session
You do not have to ask for one, and you do not have to explain why you want it.
Every paid session generates an invoice showing the date, the length of the appointment, the service, the amount and how it was paid. It carries the practice name and address, and a sequential invoice number, which is what a finance department or an insurer will normally ask for.
An invoice never describes what was discussed. It records that a session of a given length took place. If an employer or an insurer asks for more than that, they are asking for clinical information, and that only ever leaves this practice with your specific written consent — and usually not at all.
Invoices are sent by email as a PDF within one working day. Paper copies can be posted if email is not safe or convenient for you, which is worth saying if you share a mailbox with someone.
Cancellations
48 hours' notice
Give more notice than this and there is no charge. Give less and the session is payable. Here is the whole policy, and the reason it exists.
More than 48 hours' notice
Move or cancel the appointment at no charge. Tell us by phone, text or email — whichever is easiest. You do not have to give a reason.
Less than 48 hours' notice
The full session fee is payable. At that point the hour has been held for you for some time and can rarely be offered to anyone else.
Missed sessions
A session you do not attend and do not cancel is charged in full. If it happens, we will ask about it rather than ignore it — a missed session is often information about the work, not carelessness.
Arriving late
The session still finishes at the scheduled time, so the appointment after yours is not pushed back. The full fee applies.
Serious and unforeseen events
Sudden illness, a bereavement, a child taken ill, an accident. Tell us and the charge will be looked at sensibly. The policy exists to protect the time, not to catch people out.
If the practice cancels
You are never charged. The session is rearranged at a time that suits you, or refunded in full if it was paid for in advance.
A cancellation policy is not a penalty. It is the only way a single practitioner can hold a specific hour open for one person each week and still keep the practice viable — and holding that hour open is most of what makes therapy work.
If short-notice cancellations start to become a pattern, we will raise it with you kindly and directly. Avoidance is a normal part of difficult work; it is usually more useful to talk about it than to treat it as an administrative matter. And if the appointment time itself is the problem, say so — a different slot is far better than a slow drift away.
Insurance & employers
Can you use private health insurance or an employer scheme?
Sometimes. It depends on your insurer, your policy and the practitioner's registration — so please ask before you book rather than after.
Most UK private medical insurers will only reimburse sessions with a practitioner they have formally recognised, and recognition usually depends on registration with a particular professional body. Some policies additionally require a GP referral, or an assessment by a psychiatrist, before they will authorise any sessions at all. Policies also differ in how many sessions they fund in a year and whether an excess applies.
It is also common for insurers to fund treatment for a diagnosed condition in one named person, and not to fund couples work, family work or coaching. That is not a judgement about whether those things help; it reflects how a medical insurance policy is written.
Ask us directly whether we are recognised by your insurer. You will get a straight answer. We would rather tell you before the first session that a claim is unlikely to be accepted than let you find out from a rejection letter.
Employee Assistance Programmes work differently again. An EAP usually allocates a set number of sessions and arranges them through its own network of practitioners, so the place to start is your EAP provider, not us. Where an employer instead reimburses you for sessions you have already paid for, our itemised invoices contain what a finance team normally needs.
Six questions worth asking your insurer first
- Does my policy cover talking therapy, and how many sessions per policy year?
- Does the practitioner need to be registered with you specifically, and with which professional body?
- Do you require a GP referral or a psychiatric assessment before you will authorise sessions?
- Will you pay the practice directly, or do I pay and claim the money back?
- Is there an excess, and does the first session count towards it?
- Do you cover couples, family or coaching work, or only individual treatment?
Concessions
If the standard fee puts this out of reach
A small number of reduced-fee places are kept back on purpose. They are allocated by conversation, not by paperwork.
Reduced-fee sessions start at £45 for a 50-minute individual appointment. There are only ever a few of them, and they are often already taken — so this is a genuine offer with a genuine limit, not a discount that everyone gets if they ask.
They are intended for people who recognise themselves here:
- You are receiving means-tested benefits such as Universal Credit or Pension Credit.
- You are a student in full-time education, or an unpaid full-time carer.
- Your household income would make the standard fee the difference between coming and not coming.
You will not be asked for bank statements or a benefits letter. We will ask you to be straight with us, and we will take you at your word. Concessionary places are reviewed from time to time, and if your circumstances improve we will have a friendly conversation about moving to the standard fee so the place can go to someone else.
If nothing is free, we will tell you plainly rather than leave you waiting on a list. In England you can refer yourself directly to NHS Talking Therapies without going through your GP, and there are charitable and low-cost counselling services across Essex that are worth approaching. Ask us and we will point you towards what we know.
Questions
Questions people ask about money
If yours is not here, ask it on the free introductory call. No question about cost is awkward or unreasonable.
Is the first 15-minute call really free?
Yes. There is no charge and no obligation to book afterwards. It exists so you can find out how we work, ask anything you want, and decide without having paid for the privilege.
If it becomes clear during that call that another kind of support would serve you better, we will say so and point you towards it.
When do I pay?
Single sessions are paid on the day, by card, PayPal or bank transfer. A payment link is sent by email if you would like one.
The six-session block is paid in advance. Sessions you do not use are refunded in full.
Do I have to commit to a set number of sessions?
No. There is no minimum commitment and no package you have to buy up front. Sessions continue only for as long as they are useful to you.
Some people come for four sessions, some for a year. We review how it is going regularly and openly, and ending is something we plan together rather than something that just happens.
Is the six-session block refundable?
Yes. If you stop after three sessions, the three you did not attend are refunded at the block rate. The block is a small discount for planning ahead, not a lock-in.
Sessions cancelled at short notice are charged under the cancellation policy in the usual way and are drawn from the block.
Will the fee go up while I am in therapy?
Fees are reviewed periodically. If they change, existing clients are told at least one month in advance, in writing, and the reason is explained.
A fee increase is never applied retrospectively, and it is never applied to a block you have already paid for.
Can I pay with private health insurance?
It depends on your insurer and on the practitioner's registration. Most UK insurers will only reimburse sessions with practitioners they have formally recognised, and many require registration with a particular professional body first.
Ask us before you book and we will tell you plainly whether we can invoice your insurer. We will not encourage you to start on the assumption that a claim will be accepted.
What if my employer pays through an EAP?
Employee Assistance Programmes usually allocate a fixed number of sessions and arrange them through their own provider network, rather than with a private practice directly. Start with your EAP provider.
If your employer will instead reimburse you for sessions you have paid for, our itemised invoices carry everything a finance department normally asks for. An invoice states the date, the session length and the amount — it does not describe what was discussed.
What if I genuinely cannot afford this?
Say so. A small number of reduced-fee places are held for people on a low income, and they are allocated by conversation rather than by asking you to prove your circumstances on paper.
If none are free, we will tell you honestly rather than keep you waiting. In England you can also refer yourself directly to NHS Talking Therapies without going through a GP, and there are local charities and low-cost counselling services in Essex worth approaching.
Ask for a figure
Get a written estimate for your situation
The table above is the published rate. This gives you the actual number for the work you have in mind, with the terms beside it.
Nothing is calculated automatically, because an honest figure depends on the format, how often you would meet, and whether an insurer or a concession is involved. A person reads what you send and writes back within one working day.
Asking for an estimate is not a booking, does not put you on a list, and does not commit you to anything at all.
Still deciding? Start with the free call
Fifteen minutes, no charge, no obligation. You can ask about cost, availability, how we work, or anything else you need to know before committing to a first session. We reply within one working day.