Online Counselling Appointment Guide for Clients

This guide helps you to prepare for your first online assessment or counselling session. The guidance covers some technical and practical aspects but also highlights some of the ways in which online counselling differs from face-to-face.

This guide explains how to protect your confidentiality during and after your online counselling sessions.

Your counsellor will discuss this with you in your first session. They will also explain Hope Park’s policy on confidentiality and on managing risk, donations, cancellations, record keeping and research.

The guide is divided into two parts:

Before your session
Attending your Online Appointment via Microsoft Teams

Before Your Session

Think about preparing your space. It is important that you are able to speak freely and confidentially so please ensure that you have:

A quiet space where you will not be disturbed. You may wish to also switch off notifications on your devices and talk to the people you share your space with to make sure you are not interrupted.
Make sure you are not in a spot where your phone signal or internet connection is weak or variable.
A comfortable place to sit and a good position for your equipment. It is best if your computer is on a steady surface, such as a table, or you have a stand to hold your smart phone/tablet to ensure that the camera image is steady.
For your comfort, think about having a glass of water and/or tissues nearby. It may also be worth having access to your diary for arranging future appointments and noting holidays.

Attending your Online Appointment via Microsoft Teams

Prior to your appointment, you should receive an email with a Microsoft Teams Meeting invitation for the time of your appointment. This will come directly from your Counsellor.

The email will offer you to accept the session. If accepted, this will be added to your email calendar. Depending on your email provider, the email may automatically disappear from your inbox when you press accept and will only be accessible via your email calendar.

If you don’t receive this email, please do check your junk email folder. If this has not been received, please contact counselling@hopepark.org.uk and let us know.

On the day and time of your session, navigate to your email calendar and open the invite and select ‘Join Microsoft Teams Meeting’. Join the meeting as a guest if you do not have Office 365 or Teams already on your device.
Please note that if you already have Microsoft Teams on your device and this is linked to another email account, this may block you from joining via the invited email account.
If this asks you for an ID number and passcode, you should find this in the email invitation. You may also be asked to type in your name to join the meeting.
Allow your mic, camera and calls and press 'Join Now'.
When you join the meeting, you will now be placed in a virtual waiting room to await your session. Your counsellor will admit you at the agreed start time.
If you accidently exit the session, you can return by pressing ‘Re-join’ or go back to your calendar and use the link to join the meeting, as you did before.

We recommend practising how to join a meeting beforehand. If you experience any difficulties, please contact counselling@hopepark.org.uk. We have admin staff on hand between 9am – 5pm Monday through Thursday and from 9am – 1pm on Friday who can assist you.