Terms & Conditions
Terms & Conditions
These Terms and Conditions govern the services of intimacycounseling.co.nz internet site(s) and their associated services (the ‘Terms and Conditions’) which it provides in conjunction with other partners.
4. Intimacy Counselling’s Responsibilities
5. Personal Data and Information
8. Complaints, Refunds and Cancellations
15. Intellectual Property Rights
1. Intimacy Counselling
1.1 Intimacy Counselling is a limited company incorporated in New Zealand, company number 3324771, which conducts face to face, online, and internet based counselling services. The registered office is in Auckland, New Zealand. You may contact us via our website.
2. Services
2.1 These Terms and Conditions are legally binding between you and us. They govern your access to the intimacycounseling.co.nz (or such Intimacy Counselling) and the services we provide. Your access to Intimacy Counselling services and Intimacy Counselling Website(s) are subject to compliance with these Terms and Conditions.
3. Your Obligations
3.1 You agree, represent and confirm that the following are true and will be true each time that you use Intimacy Counselling services and each time you enter Intimacy Counselling Website:
3.2 You have (or any person designated by you) has, all requisite power, authority and approvals to enter into or perform your obligations (and/or the obligations of the person on whose behalf you are acting) under these Terms and Conditions;
3.3 In accepting these Terms and Conditions you are not relying upon, any statements, representations, promises, or undertakings by Intimacy Counselling whatsoever that are not contained herein;
3.4 You will not use Intimacy Counselling services or Intimacy Counselling Website(s) for any purpose which is unlawful, abusive, libellous, obscene or threatening.
3.5 Whilst all information submitted by you to the Intimacy Counselling Website, including your credit card details, you accept the risk that data transmitted electronically via Intimacy Counselling service(s) or the Intimacy Counselling Website may be intercepted before reaching Intimacy Counselling (or when transmitted by Intimacy Counselling to you). Intimacy Counselling takes no responsibility, but all care, for breaches. In order to avoid interception of email it is strongly suggested that you 1) never send/receive personal emails from a work computer and 2) that you always double check the To: address box prior to clicking the send button. It is strongly recommended that you password protect all correspondence with Intimacy Counselling. Intimacy Counselling can assure computers and email used for supplying therapy are password protected. Encryption can be used if this is available on your system. You assume full risk and responsibilities therefore and for the protection of any computer system you use from viruses and other potentially destructive programs.
3.6 You are responsible for ensuring that all information that is provided to Intimacy Counselling in your enquiry for advice or therapy is complete and accurate; including details of any previous or ongoing medical conditions and mental health issues. Any advice, comment or information may be dependent upon that.
3.7 Intimacy Counselling takes no liability for any advice, comment or information that it gives to you.
3.8 You are responsible for providing all information that you feel may be relevant to your therapist and to update the therapist should your circumstances significantly change.
3.9 You understand that you will be evaluated for the appropriateness of this type of advice or therapy and if Intimacy Counselling believes you would be better served elsewhere, a recommendation will be made to you.
3.10 You are responsible for notifying your doctor that you are seeking therapy advice.
3.11 We recommend you get a full medical check with any sexual issues you may have before therapy.
3.12 You accept full responsibility for monitoring any Intimacy Counselling Account(s) you may have. You agree to notify us immediately if you are aware of any credit card fraud, loss, theft, or unauthorised use of any of your password(s) or account numbers.
4. Intimacy Counselling’s Responsibilities
4.1. Intimacy Counselling will use best endeavours to ensure that all advice, comments, information and therapy will be provided with appropriate skill, care and sensitivity though Intimacy Counselling cannot be held responsible for any action taken by you directly or indirectly on the basis of what it provides.
4.2. All Intimacy Counselling advisors responding to you via Intimacy Counselling Website(s) are trained.
4.3. Though all reasonable care shall be taken by Intimacy Counselling to ensure that the text of sessions is kept confidential, Intimacy Counselling shall not be liable for any direct, indirect, consequential, special or other damage resulting from third parties interception of online sessions.
4.4 Intimacy Counselling reserves the right at its sole discretion to terminate the provision of therapy at any time if ongoing treatment is considered inappropriate for any reason.
4.5 Intimacy Counselling, its staff and therapists will use best endeavours to ensure that their computer systems are protected from viruses and other potentially destructive programs.
4.6 Intimacy Counselling will store all advice and therapy correspondence on its computers.
5. Personal Data and Information
5.1 Intimacy Counselling shall treat all information between you and Intimacy Counselling therapists as confidential except as provided for in its Privacy Policy that can be accessed on our website, and subject to the qualifications on security of data transmitted electronically as provided for in 3.5 above.
5.2 Clients are not to be discussed with anyone not employed by Intimacy Counselling in any way that can identify them as an individual. For the purposes of this Privacy Policy, personal information is any information about an identifiable individual.
5.3 All Intimacy Counselling staff may use or disclose information without your consent or authorization in the following circumstances:
1. Child Abuse: If a staff member has reason to believe that a child has been, or may be, abused, neglected, or sexually abused, they must make a report of such.
2. Adult Abuse: If a staff member has reason to believe that an elderly or disabled person is in a state of abuse, neglect, or exploitation, they must immediately report such.
3. Health Oversight: If a complaint is filed against your therapist with their respective state licensing board, they have the authority to subpoena confidential mental health information from Intimacy Counselling.
4. Judicial or Administrative Proceedings: If you are involved in a court proceeding and a request is made for information about your diagnosis and treatment and the records thereof, such information is privileged under state law and it will not be released by Intimacy Counselling, without written authorization from you or your personal or legally appointed representative, or a court order. The privilege does not apply when you are being evaluated for a third party or where the evaluation is court ordered. You will be informed in advance if this is the case.
5. Serious Threat to Health or Safety: If a staff member determines that there is a probability of imminent physical injury by you to yourself or others, or there is a probability of immediate mental or emotional injury to you, they may disclose relevant confidential mental health information to medical or law enforcement personnel.
6. Abuse or Sexual Exploitation by Therapist: To report client abuse or sexual exploitation by a previous therapist to the appropriate licensing board.
6. Assignment
6.1 Intimacy Counselling’s rights and obligations as under these Terms and Conditions may be assigned without your prior consent.
6.2 Your rights and obligations under these Terms and Conditions are deemed to be personal to you and are not capable of being assigned to anyone.
7. Fees
7.1 You shall pay fees (and other relevant charges) for Intimacy Counselling services and any other services directly to Intimacy Counselling.
7.2 Fees are normally charged by credit card, online, cash, or bank deposit; however, Intimacy Counselling shall not be obliged to provide any written therapy until the appropriate Fees have been received.
7.3 Clients are liable for debt collection costs.
8. Complaints, Refunds and Cancellations
8.1 If you feel that the advice, comments, information and/or therapy received is not of a sufficient standard or for any other reason you believe has been defective or failed to reach you, you may claim a refund by writing to Intimacy Counselling, or via our website, stating clearly reason(s) for the complaint. Intimacy Counselling’s liability in this regard shall be limited to the actual cost of the fees paid by you to Intimacy Counselling by the time of the complaint and at its sole discretion. This does not affect your rights under any applicable Consumer Protection Acts or rights. If you have a complaint against one of our therapists, please contact us as above and this will be taken very seriously. You may choose to refer such a complaint to the professional organisation to which we have membership.
8.2 Because of the nature of the payment system used on the Intimacy Counselling Website(s), you accept that it is not possible for you to cancel any service you have embarked upon with Intimacy Counselling; however this does not affect your right to claim a refund.
8.3 In the event that you are unable to attend an Intimacy Counselling real-time service session (i.e. chat, telephone or face-to-face) you will only be entitled to a refund of the fee if written (including by text or e-mail) has been received by Intimacy Counselling up to 48 business hours before any such appointment.
8.4 Intimacy Counselling reserves the right to terminate the provision of therapy at any time if ongoing treatment is considered inappropriate for any reason. If so, Intimacy Counselling will give a refund for any paid session that has not been provided.
8.5 Intimacy Counselling tries to be flexible with changing the time of sessions. However, repeated cancellations may result in charges for sessions.
9. Liability and Indemnity
9.1 Neither Intimacy Counselling, or its associated companies (either in existence now or that might exist in the future), partners, agents, licensors, or delegates, or our or their directors, officers or employees (‘Relevant People’) will be liable for any losses, costs, liabilities or expenses (including, without limitation, loss of profit) (together ‘Losses’) incurred by you in connection with these Terms and Conditions (including, without limitation, any loss which may arise directly or indirectly from your inability to access either Intimacy Counselling services or Intimacy Counselling Website(s) for any reason or for the failure of a transmission of information to you including, but not limited to, those that receive email.
9.2 The content provided and or sourced by Intimacy Counselling, and provided to you or others on this site, via e-mail, courses, or any other medium, including, but not limited to that which is quotes, data and other information, is sourced from third parties for your personal information only, and is not intended for any other purpose. Content provided and or sourced by Intimacy Counselling is not appropriate for the purposes of making any decisions with regard to your sexual health or your relationship(s). Any decisions taken by you whether or not based on any information, advice or comment made by Intimacy Counselling is entirely yours. Online advice and therapy is not intended nor implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice nor is it an alternative to face-to-face therapy. The appropriateness and effectiveness of advice is based on open and honest communication between client and therapist. Working online in a purely text based environment means neither individual can hear verbal tone or read facial expressions and body language. Consequently, misunderstandings are more likely and it is essential that both client and therapist commit to clear communication, a high level of clarification and the client can make no reliance on any advice, comment or information provided by Intimacy Counselling therefore. Nor is it not possible for Intimacy Counselling to guarantee security and confidentiality of information when working via e-mail, though every effort will be made to do so (see Privacy Policy).
9.3 Whilst Intimacy Counselling will endeavour to ensure the accuracy or timeliness of any information supplied, Intimacy Counselling makes no guarantees in relation to these factors and you should manage your use of Intimacy Counselling service(s) and Intimacy Counselling Website accordingly.
9.4 Neither Intimacy Counselling nor its third party service or content providers shall be liable for any errors, inaccuracies or delays in content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. Intimacy Counselling disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, as to the accuracy or timeliness of any of the content provided, or as to the fitness of the information for any purpose, regardless of the medium used to supply content.
9.5 Intimacy Counselling does not guarantee the accuracy of or endorse the views or opinions given by, or found in any third party content. Intimacy Counselling may point to or refer to other Internet sites that it feels may be of interest to you; however Intimacy Counselling does not endorse or take responsibility for the content on such other sites. Intimacy Counselling may provide content from other internet sites, and other third-party information sources including, but not limited to, printed material. However, Intimacy Counselling does not endorse or take responsibility for the content sourced from third-party internet sites, third-party printed material or any information sourced from third parties of any kind.
9.6 You agree to indemnify Intimacy Counselling, its associated companies, agents and delegates and its and their directors, officers, counsellors, and employees (each an ‘Indemnified Person’) against Losses incurred by us or in connection with these Terms and Conditions. This indemnity does not apply to any Relevant Person in so far as Losses result directly from the proven negligence, wilful default or fraud by such Indemnified Person.
9.7 Insurance cover for Intimacy Counselling if only provided for face to face clients within their Jurisdictional Limits, which for this policy is New Zealand only.
9. 8 Intimacy Counselling does not guarantee the accuracy of or endorse the views or opinions given by its associated companies, agents, therapists and delegates and its and their directors, officers and employees (each an ‘Indemnified Person’)
9.9 In the event of any inconsistency between this Clause and any other Clause provisions of this Clause shall prevail.
10. Subscription services
10.1 Intimacy Counselling may terminate any subscription to any of Intimacy Counselling services with no notice, at any time, but will inform the subscriber of the cancellation at that time.
10.2 A fair usage policy applies to any ‘unlimited’ or other subscription model that may be offered by Intimacy Counselling from time to time. The fair usage policy may, at Intimacy Counselling’s discretion, be applied to users that ask more than the equivalent of 20 questions in any 30-day period. Intimacy Counselling may entirely at its own discretion choose to terminate the subscription of any user consistently using the service more than this amount.
11. Termination
11.1 Intimacy Counselling may terminate any agreement to which these Terms and Conditions apply by giving written notice (which may be by text message or e-mail); such termination shall take effect immediately or after such periods as specified in the notice.
11.2 Intimacy Counselling may at any time close an account, cease to offer any or all Intimacy Counselling services or stop you from gaining access to Intimacy Counselling Website(s) (and thereby any Intimacy Counselling service offered there) for any reason at its sole discretion and without notice.
12. Notices
12.1 All notices or other communications (‘Communications’) may be given orally unless required to be given in writing. References to writing include electronic mail. Notice shall be deemed to be given where an electronic mail has been sent to a party at the electronic mail address or phone number that is entered under the registration form and updated from time to time.
13. Right to decline service
13.1 Intimacy Counselling may from time to time decline to provide any or all of its services, either on a permanent basis, or in a single instance or instances in such cases as it sees fit solely at its own discretion and without warning or explanation. This will apply to, but will not be limited to, those requests that we believe to be inappropriate, outside the scope of our services, defamatory, illegal, offensive or in any way anti-social.
14. Amendment
14.1 Intimacy Counselling may amend these Terms and Conditions, at any time by posting such amendments to Terms and Conditions on Intimacy Counselling Website.
15. Intellectual Property Rights
15.1 You acknowledge that (other than information provided by you) the Intellectual Property Rights in and to Intimacy Counselling and any rights to information, documentation, images and other material of whatsoever nature displayed on Intimacy Counselling’s Website and/or emailed as part of an advice or therapy session are the property of Intimacy Counselling and you shall assert no right, title or interest in or to any such materials.
15.2 Intimacy Counselling is for personal, business and non-commercial use. You may not modify, copy, distribute, transmit, display, perform, reproduce, publish, licence, create derivative works from, transfer or sell any information obtained from Intimacy Counselling Website and/or information emailed as part of an advice, courses, or therapy session. You may only download content to your personal computer for viewing purposes and print out pages of this Website for your personal use. Republication or redistribution of Intimacy Counselling content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Intimacy Counselling.
15.3 Intimacy Counselling and Intimacy Counselling logo are trademarks, or trademarks for which registration has been applied for, of Intimacy Counselling (a trading name of Intimacy Counselling Ltd).
16. Governing Law
16.1 These Terms and Conditions are governed by New Zealand Law and you and Intimacy Counselling (a trading name of Intimacy Counselling Ltd) submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the New Zealand Courts for all matters arising in connection with those Terms and Conditions. Intimacy Counselling controls its business from within the country of New Zealand. It can, however, be accessed from other places around the world. Although these places may have different laws from those of New Zealand, by accessing and using any of Intimacy Counselling services you agree that the laws of New Zealand, without regard to rules relating to conflict of laws, will apply to all matters relating to your use of any and all Intimacy Counselling Website(s) and services. You and Intimacy Counselling also agree to submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the New Zealand courts, with respect to such matters. Users of Intimacy Counselling services and sites, accessing from places outside of New Zealand, acknowledge that they do so voluntarily and are responsible for complying with their local laws.
Copyright © Intimacy Counseling (a trading name of INTIMACY COUNSELLING LIMITED) 2011. All rights reserved.
17. COMPLAINTS PROCEDURE
Intimacy Counselling welcomes all feedback of their services, whether positive or negative. Please make direct contact with Intimacy Counselling if there is any feedback you would like to provide.
All the therapists working for Intimacy Counselling service comply with a strict code of ethics. To view these ethics please see the Code of Ethics page.
1. If you have any complaint about the professional conduct of your therapist, in the first instance, please contact Intimacy Counselling by email, putting ‘complaint’ in the subject box. Please provide as much information as possible. Your complaint will immediately be passed to our Clinical Director. You will then receive a formal written acknowledgment of your complaint. The Clinical Director will liaise directly with the therapist involved and investigate your complaint. Depending on the nature of your complaint, you may be contacted to discuss the matter. You will receive a written response within 4 weeks of Intimacy Counselling receiving your complaint in writing. All complaints must be received within 6 months of them having arisen.
2. If your concern is not resolved following this first stage, you can appeal in writing stating the reasons for your dissatisfaction. The Clinical Director of Intimacy Counselling will assess how to proceed with your appeal and may want to contact you again to discuss your dissatisfaction. The Clinical Director of Intimacy Counselling will inform you of the outcome of the appeal within 8 weeks of receiving your appeal in writing.
3. If you continue to be dissatisfied, a further appeal in writing will be forwarded to Intimacy Counselling’s designated external adjudicator who will not have been previously involved in the matter. They will assess your outstanding concerns and the investigation to date. You will receive a copy of the outcome of this investigation. NB. appeals must be received in writing and within 4 weeks of receiving previous correspondence.