Therapy Consent & Policies
An encrypted therapy consent and policies form — confidentiality limits, cancellation policy, fees, contact preferences and signed acknowledgment, all secured end-to-end.
Most of a therapy agreement is administration — fees, notice periods, how to reach you. One clause is not, and it is the reason the document has to be signed before the first session rather than filed after it: the one that says what you will have to disclose, and when.
The clause that matters is the one about limits
Confidentiality in therapy is close to absolute and not quite absolute, and the gap between those two is where the damage happens. A client who learns about mandatory reporting at the moment it is triggered experiences it as a betrayal of the relationship. A client who agreed to it in writing at the outset experiences the same event as a boundary they already knew about. Nothing else in the document changes the therapeutic work as much as getting this one right.
What Swiss practice expects you to disclose
- Mandatory reporting of child abuse (Art. 22 KKG)
- Situations involving imminent risk to life, where a duty of care applies
- The possibility that a court may order records to be disclosed
- Any additional obligation your cantonal association imposes — check rather than assume, these differ
What the agreement covers
- Acknowledgment of confidentiality and its legal limits
- Understanding of the cancellation and lateness policy
- Agreement to fees and payment terms
- Preferred contact method and emergency contact
- Consent to therapy and data processing
- Digital signature
Encrypted by default
A signed therapy agreement is a legal and clinical document containing sensitive personal data. End-to-end encryption ensures only your practice can read it — not email servers, not the platform.
Why the verbal version fails when you need it
Professional guidelines from cantonal psychological associations and the Föderation der Schweizer Psychologinnen und Psychologen (FSP) require therapists to inform clients about confidentiality limits and obtain consent at the start of treatment. A conversation satisfies the requirement to inform; it does not evidence it. The difference becomes concrete in exactly two situations — a dispute over a late-cancellation fee, and a complaint about a disclosure — and in both, an unsigned agreement leaves two competing recollections of the same conversation.
The clinical argument is the stronger one, though. A client who knows from session one what is confidential, what is not, what happens if they cancel late, and who to call at two in the morning is better placed to do the work. Ambiguity about the frame costs more than it saves.
Retention, and what the document becomes
A signed agreement is both a contractual record and personal data: it carries the client's name, contact preferences and their acknowledgment of sensitive terms, which makes it special-category data under GDPR Article 9 and sensitive personal data under the nFADP. It should be stored securely, accessible only to the therapist, and retained for at least ten years after the end of treatment. End-to-end encryption handles the storage question by architecture — the signed form is encrypted in the client's browser and your practice holds the only key.
Before the first session
Use this template
Copy it into your dashboard — the confidentiality, cancellation and consent sections are already structured.
Replace every placeholder
Your actual notice period, fee schedule and out-of-hours procedure. A generic policy is unenforceable and, on the reporting clause, actively misleading.
Send it with the appointment confirmation
Signed before the first session, not during it — a client reading the limits of confidentiality in the room has no real opportunity to decline them.
Questions therapists ask
How specific do the confidentiality limits need to be?
Specific enough that the client could recognise the situation if it arose. "Confidentiality may be limited by law" tells them nothing. Naming child protection reporting, imminent risk to life, and court-ordered disclosure gives them something they can actually consent to.
Can I use this for online therapy clients?
Yes, with an addition. Note the telehealth nature of the sessions and reference your telehealth consent form, which is a separate template — both should be signed before the first online session.
Is the signed agreement encrypted?
Yes. It is encrypted in the client's browser before submission, and only your practice holds the Vault key that opens it.
See our use case for therapy and mental health practices, the child and adolescent intake template for work with minors, and our guide to informed consent in the digital age.