Do I need to register with the ICO as a private therapist?

If you process personal data electronically as a data controller, you will normally need to pay the ICO data protection fee. For most sole practitioners this is the lowest tier. Keeping client records on a computer or in cloud software counts, so most therapists in private practice are in scope.

What insurance do I need to start private practice?

Professional indemnity insurance is the core requirement and is normally a condition of professional body membership. If you rent premises or see clients at home you may also want public liability cover. Check what your professional body requires as a minimum before comparing policies.

When do I need to register as self-employed?

You must register with HMRC for Self Assessment once your self-employed income exceeds the trading allowance threshold in a tax year. The registration deadline is 5 October following the end of the tax year in which you started. Registering early is simpler than backdating.

Starting a private therapy practice: the UK setup checklist

Most counselling and psychotherapy training prepares you thoroughly to sit with a client and barely at all to run a business. This is the practical side, in roughly the order it needs doing.

General information rather than legal or financial advice, and your professional body's requirements come first.

Before you see a client

Professional body membership. Check what your registration requires in terms of supervised hours, insurance and CPD before you start advertising.

Professional indemnity insurance. Usually a condition of membership. Get it in place before the first session, not after.

Supervision arranged. BACP doesn't set a number of hours for registered members (accredited members need 1.5 hours a month), so arrange what your caseload needs. Requirements differ by body, so check yours rather than a summary.

ICO registration. If you keep client records electronically, you are almost certainly a data controller and need to pay the data protection fee. It is inexpensive and it is a question clients and insurers do ask.

A written client contract. Fees, cancellation terms, confidentiality and its limits, how to complain, how records are kept. This prevents most of the disputes that actually arise.

A privacy notice. Separate from the contract. What data you hold, why, how long, and the client's rights. It should name the software you use to hold records.

Money and admin

Register as self-employed with HMRC. The deadline is 5 October after the tax year you started trading in. Do it early.

A separate bank account. Not legally required for a sole trader, but it makes Self Assessment enormously easier and costs nothing.

Decide your fee, and your concession policy. Including how many concession slots you can genuinely afford. Decide it now, in the abstract, rather than in the moment with a specific client in front of you.

A cancellation policy you will actually enforce. An unenforced policy is worse than none, because it invites a negotiation every time.

A way to invoice and track payment. Whatever you use, decide before your first client rather than improvising in month three.

Records

Decide how you will keep notes before you need to. Paper, encrypted documents or dedicated software. Whatever you choose, it needs to be secure, backed up, and something you can search if a client makes a subject access request.

Set a retention period and write it down. There is no single legal figure for therapy notes, and the sensible period depends on your client group. What matters is having a stated, defensible policy rather than keeping everything forever by default. We've covered this in how long to keep therapy notes.

Start CPD logging from day one. Reconstructing a year of CPD the week before renewal is miserable and mostly guesswork. See CPD hour requirements.

Getting clients

Directory listings are where most private practice referrals actually come from in the UK. Counselling Directory and Psychology Today are the usual starting points. Write the profile properly; it is doing the work of a website.

Referral relationships. Other therapists who are full, GP surgeries, local organisations. Slower to build and far more durable than advertising.

Expect it to take time. A full caseload in the first few months is unusual. Plan finances on the assumption it builds gradually.

The things people wish they had done sooner

Writing notes immediately after sessions rather than in batches at the weekend.
Charging for late cancellations from the first client rather than introducing it later.
Keeping receipts as they go instead of reconstructing a year in January.
Building in leave, and pricing with the knowledge that you do not get paid for it.

Where NoteSono fits

NoteSono covers the records and admin end: notes written from a short spoken summary after the client leaves, client records, scheduling, invoicing, card payments and CPD tracking. Notes stored in the EU, ICO registered, and no session recording.

There's a fuller walkthrough in our private practice admin guide.