Your guide to working with WebcamTherapy

WebcamTherapy is for qualified counsellors and psychotherapists who are on the register of one of these professional bodies:

• British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP)
• National Counselling & Psychotherapy Society (NCPS)
• UK Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP)

You need to be able to offer sessions by video from a private, quiet space, and have the professional indemnity insurance and supervision your professional body requires. If you offer EMDR, you will be asked about your EMDR training.

1. Go to Apply to join and create your account with your name, email and a password, then confirm your email address.
2. Set up two-step sign-in (an authenticator app or text message codes). This is required for every account because you will handle sensitive client information.
3. Tell us your professional body and registration number exactly as they appear on the public register.
4. Start building your profile while we check your registration (see step 5). Nothing is public yet.

A member of our team looks up your entry on your professional body's public register by hand and checks that your name and registration number match and that your registration is current. We record who checked it and when.

If something does not match, we will contact you to sort it out. Your profile cannot appear in the directory until your registration has been approved.

We re-check every registration every 90 days. If we cannot confirm it, you have 14 days to resolve it before your profile is hidden. Please tell us straight away if your registration status changes.

Once your registration is approved, a Fees and terms page appears in your dashboard. It shows exactly how each payment is split at your price: what the client pays, the WebcamTherapy fee, and what you receive.

Read the therapist terms and conditions on the same page, tick to confirm, and select Accept and continue. You need to do this before you can set up payouts or go live. If we update the terms, we will ask you to review and accept the new version.

We pay you through Stripe. From your dashboard choose Set up payouts and Stripe will guide you through creating an account in your name, confirming your identity and adding the bank account you want to be paid into. This usually takes about ten minutes.

After each completed session we pay your share to your Stripe account, and Stripe pays it out to your bank on its usual schedule. You can see every session and payment on your Earnings page, and open your Stripe dashboard from there.

Your profile is what clients read before choosing you, so make it warm, clear and specific. In My profile you can set:

• a professional photo (face clearly visible, plain background, good light);
• your display name and a short title, for example "Integrative counsellor";
• your bio: who you work with, how you work, and what a first session is like;
• how you work online, so clients know what to expect from video sessions;
• the therapies you offer and the issues you work with;
• your session length and price, and the languages you work in;
• your cancellation policy, if you have anything to add to ours.

Write in plain language and avoid promising results. Clients can buy single sessions or bundles of 1, 4, 6.

In Availability, add your weekly working hours for each day, block out holidays and time off, and add extra one-off slots when you want to. All times are UK time and adjust automatically for the clocks changing.

Clients can only book times at least 12 hours ahead, and we leave 10 minutes between sessions so you have a break. Bookings are made from your real availability, so the same slot can never be booked twice.

Your dashboard shows a checklist. Your profile appears in the directory automatically once all of these are done:

• registration checked and approved;
• fees reviewed and terms accepted;
• payouts set up with Stripe;
• profile photo and bio added;
• weekly hours added.

When a client books, you get an email and the session appears on your dashboard and in Sessions. Both of you get reminders by email and text before the session.

The room opens 10 minutes before the start. Select Join, allow your camera and microphone, check your preview, and join. Video runs in the browser with no downloads, and calls are encrypted and never recorded. You can mute, turn your camera off and change devices during the call.

Private notes: a notes panel in the session room saves notes that only you can see.

EMDR: if you offer EMDR, the session room has bilateral stimulation tools. Start, pause and stop a moving dot on the client's screen and adjust its speed while you watch and talk with your client. Agree with each client in advance whether online EMDR is suitable for them.

When both of you have joined and the session ends, it is marked as completed and your payment is sent. If a client does not join, the session is held for our team to review.

Clients can cancel free of charge up to 24 hours before a session, and the session goes back into their account. If they cancel later, the session is used.

If you need to cancel, do it from the session as early as you can: the client's session is always returned to them. Either of you can move a session to another free time.

You can message clients securely through your account. Clients never see your email or phone number and you never see theirs, so please keep contact on the platform.

Follow your professional body's ethical framework, including on confidentiality, record keeping, supervision and safeguarding. If you believe a client is at immediate risk, follow your usual safeguarding procedures and contact emergency services where needed. You can report any message that worries you to our team.

Remind clients that WebcamTherapy is not an emergency service: in a crisis they should call 999, NHS 111 or Samaritans on 116 123.

If you have a question about your account, payouts or the platform, email support@webcamtherapy.co.uk. For video problems, first refresh the page, check camera and microphone permissions in the browser's address bar, and close other apps that might be using your camera.