Frequently Asked Questions

We only work with people that we trust and have the relevant level of qualification and experience. All of our clinicians are fully qualified and trained professionals. In addition, our therapists are licensed, accredited and associated with professional organisations including:

• GMC - General Medical Council
• BMC - British Medical Council
• BACP - British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy
• BABCP – British Association of Behavioural & Cognitive Psychotherapy
• BPS – British Psychological Society
• UKCP – UK Council for Psychotherapy
• UKRC – UK Register of Counsellors
• RCPsych – Royal College of Psychiatrists
• HCPC – Health Professions Council
• BAP – British Association for Psychopharmacology
• BPC – British Psychoanalytic Council

We have been registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) since July 2020. The CQC is the independent regulator of health and adult social care in England. It is responsible for making sure that all health and social care services provide people safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led care.

Many of our enquiries start with a call from a concerned partner, family member or friend. We’ve dealt with every situation and are always happy to help.

However, we will need to speak to clients over the age of 18 before booking them an appointment. If the person who requires treatment is unwilling to address their problem, we may be unable to help them. In this instance, we may attempt to help by advising you on how to look after yourself and anyone else affected.

This depends on the service you require, and how you are seeking support.

If you are using private medical insurance then you may need a referral letter from your GP to be sure that your bills are covered. Our team are very experienced in processing these kinds of claims, so just call and we'll let you know what you need to do.

If you have a pre-existing condition, we are always keen to liaise with your previous treatment providers as well as details of any ongoing prescriptions or treatments.

There are no guarantees with psychotherapy or psychiatry. We work in this field because we have seen people achieve tremendous gains form this kind of work. That doesn't mean that we can guarantee that every person will be helped, but if what you need is something that we can help with then we will use the best available treatments to do our utmost to help.

Our phone lines are open between 09:00 and 19:00 Monday to Friday, and 09:00 to 14:00 on Saturdays. You can contact us via email to request a call back outside of those hours, and we will call you back when we reopen.

Appointments to see our clinicians are offered in line with availability, and many can offer evening and weekend appointments.

When you call us, you will speak with a fully trained assistant psychologist who will listen to your issues and discuss your situation. Based on this discussion, we may recommend a clinician for treatments or assessments.

The difference between the disciplines is the background and training, and the different approaches that they use. Psychotherapists use a number of talking therapies, as do psychologists although psychologists have a degree in psychology and often use psychometric assessments to support their approach. Psychiatrists are fully trained medical doctors who have specialised in mental health and are able to prescribe medication.

You can book an in-person appointment at one of our clinics across the UK. Please note that we may not have availability at your chosen clinic. We often have better availability with specialist clinicians for online appointments, so please check with us when enquiring.

Please send post to Head Office, PO Box 166, Shaftesbury, SP7 7BE.

We offer safe, effective and evidence-based care for people with a wide range of issues, from talking therapy and psychiatric assessments to support for neurodevelopmental conditions, including ADHD and autism.

Please head to the relevant page for more information:

Adult services
Child and adolescent services

At this time, we can only offer appointments to people living in England, Scotland and Wales. If you are not in one of these locations at the time of your appointment, we may need to cancel the booking, which could incur any applicable cancellation charges.

All of the conversations and appointments that you have with Clinical Partners are confidential. The exception to this is if you pose a danger to yourself or others. At this point the relevant parties will be informed.

Yes, we accept all major credit cards but do not accept cash or cheques.

Some of our clinicians are recognised providers to some of the major medical insurers, but not all are covered by all of them. If you call our team and let us know what you need, we'll be happy to let you know what can be covered.

If our team need to prescribe medication for you then you will be informed of the cost in advance. Some medications are very expensive, and so we may recommend that you contact the NHS as soon as you can to access these more cost effectively.

When you call, one of our trained clinical advisors will support you to arrange your initial appointment. Once you have attended your initial appointment, your therapist will arrange the next session with you.

The duration of each session depends on the appointment type.

Child & adolescent services

• Psychiatric assessments: two hours
• Initial talking therapy appointments: 90 minutes
• Subsequent talking therapy appointments: 50 minutes
• ADHD assessments: two hours
• Autism (ASD) assessments:
  • ADI appointment: up to three hours
  • ADOS appointment: up to 90 minutes
  • Feedback appointment: 30 minutes

Adult services

• Psychiatric assessments: one hour
• Initial talking therapy appointment:s 90 minutes
• Subsequent talking therapy appointment(s): 50 minutes
• ADHD assessments: two hours
• Autism (ASD) assessments
  • ADI appointments: up to three hours
  • ADOS appointments: up to 90 minutes
  • Feedback appointment: 30 minutes

At Clinical Partners we offer a wide number of services offering clinical assessments through to long-term treatment. The number of sessions depends on your personal situation and presenting issues. At the initial session your therapist will discuss your treatment plan. It is usual to start off with six sessions and then be reviewed at this point. For short-term treatments like CBT the number of sessions can range between 6 and 20 but most often between 6 and 10 sessions. For other forms of treatment approaches the number of sessions may be more.

Mental health services always seem to be pretty expensive, because they almost always involve focussed one to one time with someone with a high degree of training. We do our best to keep our fees as low as we can, so that you can afford the help you want.

We truly understand the importance of finding the right therapist for you as it will have a positive impact on your treatment – for this reason we will always try to recommend a specialist who we feel compliments your situation and needs. However, this is such a subjective area and it is possible that you may not feel comfortable with a certain therapist. To ensure that we find the right therapist for you we will contact you following your initial appointment to check how the session went and if you feel comfortable to move forward with this therapist. If at this point you don't we will recommend another therapist for you. Indeed, at any point during your treatment you if would prefer to see another therapist please do call us and we can discuss the situation with you and find another professional.

Please contact us as soon as possible to let us know if you would like to cancel an appointment. Cancellations with less than 48 but more than 24 hours’ notice are usually charged at half price.

Regrettably, cancellations with less than 24 hours’ notice before the appointment or non-attended appointments without any prior notice are charged at the full price.

Please see our full list of fees for more information.

Yes absolutely – we want you to feel well informed about what you are doing, and ideally to have made your own decisions about what help you get – that's our job.

You can choose an approach that you feel best suits you personally. We are always happy to offer our advice or answer any queries you may have. We have also provided a brief description of the different therapeutic modalities to help you. Read more about our different types of therapy

Yes you can request to see a particular therapist. We are happy to answer any queries you may have about a therapist and we are able to advise and recommend a therapist we believe will be most suited to your needs.

We want you to be in the driving seat when it comes to making decisions about what help we provide for you. Our job is to help you in the way that you want to be helped. Some people just want to be told who to see and when, some people want to explore all the options and make their own decision. There is no right and wrong, and we are here to provide whatever you need.

If you find it difficult to understand your treatment or care needed or if you find it hard speak up, there are independent people who can act as a spokesperson for you.

They make sure you're heard and your wellbeing is protected: they are called advocates.

Advocacy in all its forms seeks to ensure that people, particularly those who are most vulnerable in society, are able to:

• Have their voice heard on issues that are important to them
• Defend and safeguard their rights
• Have their views and wishes genuinely considered when decisions are being made about their lives

For example, they can help you:

• understand the care and treatment process
• talk about how you feel about your care
• make decisions
• challenge decisions about your care and treatment if you do not agree with them
• stand up for your rights

They can write letters for you and attend meetings with you.

Advocates will support you during:

• assessments
• care and treatment planning

Advocates are independent of Clinical Partners.

Contact social services at your local council and ask about advocacy services. Find your local social services.

POhWER is a charity that helps people to be involved in decisions being made about their care. POhWER works in more than 100 local authority areas, across England, delivering the full range of statutory and non-statutory advocacy services. Call POhWER's support centre on 0300 456 2370 for advice.

The Advocacy People is an independent charity that offers advocacy support. You can email them using [email protected], or call them on 0330 440 9000.

VoiceAbility gives advocacy support. Call 01223 555800 for advice or find the phone number for your local VoiceAbility service.

Contact the charity Age UK to see if they have advocates in your area. Contact Age UK online or call 0800 055 6112.

These links are being provided as a convenience and for informational purposes only; they do not constitute an endorsement or an approval by Clinical Partners of any services or opinions of the corporation or organisation listed. Clinical Partners bears no responsibility for the accuracy, legality or content of the external site or for that of subsequent links. Contact the external site for answers to questions regarding its content.

If you are unhappy with any aspect of our service, the first step is to communicate to the person you have been dealing with what you were unhappy with and the outcome you would like. This will then be looked into with the aim of reaching a resolution. 

If you have difficulty communicating in writing, you can complain by telephone or request assistance from us via email. We are here to help.

When we receive your complaint, we will speak to the staff and clinician involved and find out what has gone wrong. Then we will work with you to see how it can be resolved. The vast majority of complaints are resolved in this way.

A complaint can be made by anyone who is negatively affected by our service. If you are complaining on someone else’s behalf, we will first need to check with them that they are happy for us to respond to you. Please be assured that raising your concerns will not harm or prejudice the care you, or the person you care for, is given.

Except in exceptional circumstances, we should receive complaints no more than six months after the date of the action or event concerning the complaint.

We will acknowledge receipt of your complaint within three working days of receiving it. Except in exceptional circumstances, you will receive a full written response to your complaint within 20 working days or we will keep you updated on our progress.

Your complaint will only be shared with relevant staff members to ensure we can properly investigate and respond. We will then use any issues and learning that arise from this as part of our governance arrangements.

If you need to speak to us about anything related to a complaint or to request a copy of our complaints policy, please use the following details:

Email: [email protected]

Telephone: 0203 326 9160

Post: Clinical Partners Limited Unit 6, Chaldicott Barns, Tokes Lane, Semley Shaftesbury, Dorset SP7 9AW

We will do all we reasonably can to resolve your complaint to your satisfaction. If you are not happy with our response for any reason, then we will have it reviewed by our Medical Director. They will look at how we have responded and if they feel that we have not been fair and transparent then they may amend the response.

We subscribe to the Independent Healthcare Sector Complaints Adjudication Service (ISCAS). If you are still unhappy with our response after it has been reviewed internally then we will refer your complaint to them for independent resolution.

During your assessment, certain details are occasionally misheard or misrecorded by your clinician, who will have taken notes by hand. This usually won't affect the outcome of your assessment, but it’s normal to have concerns. If you spot any mistakes, please let us know immediately so we can correct them.

To submit any errors, simply send an email to [email protected], using the following headings:

• Page number (the page under which the error occurs)
• Section heading (the section under which the error occurs)
• Error (please try to be as clear as possible when explaining the error)

Occasionally, what might look like an error could be a difference of opinion between yourself and your clinician. If this is the case, we may not amend your report. However, upon request we can provide you with a clear explanation of our reasoning.

Occaisonally, dsagreements occur between patient and clinician. Sometimes it's because a formal diagnosis couldn't be made. Or it could be because the clinician diagnoses you for something that you weren't expecting.

There are many different reasons that you may not agree with your clinician's conclusion. If you feel that the doctor hasn't fully understood your situation, it's important to share your concerns with us. You can do this by emailing [email protected] and explaining why you disagree with the conclusion. We will review this with your clinician and respond to you within seven working days.

Your report usually includes clear recommendations to help you make positive next steps. This could include starting medication, therapy, or both. Ultimately, the decision to take that next step is yours. You may choose to pursue further treatment through Clinical Partners, or you might prefer to go through the NHS.

If you are satisfied that your report is accurate, please send a confirmation email stating that you are happy with your report to [email protected]. Once we have this, we can share your report with your GP or any other professional involved in your care, provided you have given us prior consent.

Please be aware that we will only ever share clinical information with your consent, which you can view in the Privacy Settings area of the portal under ‘Consent to share information with my GP’. If you have not provided us with this consent and would like to do so, please email the line “I consent to Clinical Partners sharing my report information” to [email protected].

If we need to communicate with your GP and other professionals involved in your care to confirm your diagnosis and treatment, this will be limited to a copy of your report and will contain any information for ongoing treatment recommendations.

You can receive your prescription through Clinical Partners or your NHS GP.

Clinical Partners prescriptions
Please call us on 0203 326 9160 or email [email protected] where a team member will be happy to help. If you have already received a prescription from one of our psychiatrists, please check when this will need to be renewed. Please give us at least seven working days’ notice to allow us to prepare your new prescription.

NHS prescriptions
For NHS prescriptions, please check your report to see if your GP will need to perform any physical checks before starting pharmacological treatment.

Local prescribing guidelines sometimes prevent NHS GPs from prescribing the medications we recommend. If this happens, please email [email protected] or call us on 0203 326 9160.

The first step is to find a therapist with the right skills and specialism that you are comfortable with. If you would like us to help you find an appropriate therapist, please call us on 0203 326 9160 or email [email protected] where a member of our team will be happy to help.