Process / Beginning
Contracting and boundaries
How practitioners and clients agree the terms of the work, including confidentiality and its limits, and how boundaries serve the work.
Overview
At the start of therapy, practitioner and client usually agree how they will work together. This can be called contracting, a working agreement or setting the frame. It can cover practicalities such as session length, fees and cancellations, and also how information is handled and what the relationship will and will not include.
What is usually covered
Practical terms are the most visible part: when and where sessions take place, how long they last, and what happens if a session is missed. The agreement also usually covers confidentiality and its limits, and how the work may be reviewed or ended. Some practitioners use a written agreement and some agree terms in conversation. Practice varies.
Confidentiality and its limits
The BACP’s 2026 framework asks its members to explain foreseeable limits to confidentiality, including legal disclosure obligations, in their privacy notice. It also addresses safeguarding and the legal obligations that can apply when people face immediate serious harm. Legal duties vary by jurisdiction.
Boundaries
Boundaries can concern time, place, fees and contact outside sessions. The BACP’s 2026 framework asks its members to avoid dual or multiple relationships that could cause harm and prohibits sexual relationships or sexual behaviour towards clients.
A constructed example
Constructed for learning. Not a real case.
In a first session the practitioner explains the length and frequency of sessions, how to cancel, and where notes are kept. They describe possible limits to confidentiality and ask whether the client has questions. The client asks how information is handled in supervision, and they discuss the practitioner’s arrangements.
UK and US
BACP states that its members must work to its 2026 Ethical Framework from 3 November 2026. Its requirements on agreements, confidentiality and boundaries are described above. The Professional Standards Authority describes Accredited Registers as holding registers of practitioners who are not regulated by law.
In the US, the American Psychological Association’s code addresses informed consent and confidentiality for psychologists, and the National Association of Social Workers’ Code of Ethics addresses informed consent, conflicts of interest and privacy for social workers. Each code applies to its own members and is not a statement of every profession’s rules or state law; statutory requirements vary across US states.
Limits and open questions
Agreements cannot anticipate everything, and boundaries are interpreted differently in different settings, cultures and approaches. Some agreements are set by a service and not negotiated. This entry describes professional guidance in general terms and is not advice on any person's situation.
Sources and inspection notes
Supports: Historical 2018 framework: Contracting and recording agreements (point 31), foreseeable limits to confidentiality and serious-harm exceptions, boundaries and dual relationships (points 33 to 37).
Supports: The 2026 framework applies from 3 November 2026. Sections 1.2(b), 1.3 and 3.1(d) address the working agreement, boundaries and foreseeable confidentiality limits. Sections 2.4 and 3.3 address safeguarding and legal duties.
Professional Standards Authority. Our work with Accredited Registers.
Supports: That Accredited Registers hold registers of practitioners described as not regulated by law.
Supports: Standards 3.10, 4.02 and 10.01 address informed consent and discussion of foreseeable confidentiality limits for psychologists. This is a professional code, not a summary of state law.
Supports: Standards 1.03 (Informed Consent), 1.06 (Conflicts of Interest, including dual or multiple relationships) and 1.07 (Privacy and Confidentiality, including serious, foreseeable and imminent harm exceptions) for social workers in the US; this is a professional code rather than a summary of state statutes.