The typical (painful) process
Client emails you. You email back with availability. They reply. You confirm a time. You email them a PDF of your counselling agreement. They print it, sign it, scan it, and email it back (or they don't, and you chase them). You send them your bank details for payment. They forget. You remind them. Eventually, three weeks later, you have your first session. That's a lot of admin for both of you.
What good onboarding looks like
Client finds your booking page and picks a time. You get a notification and accept with one tap. They receive a link to sign your counselling agreement online. They add their payment details. Done. You've gone from enquiry to confirmed first session without a single back-and-forth email. See how Bloom handles onboarding.
Your counselling agreement
Every client should sign an agreement before their first session. This typically covers: the nature of the therapy, session frequency and duration, fees and payment terms, cancellation policy, confidentiality and its limits, GDPR consent, and how to make a complaint. Having this signed digitally with a timestamp and audit trail is cleaner than a scanned PDF and easier to store securely.
Automate what you can
The steps that can (and should) be automated: sending the booking confirmation, sending the counselling agreement for signing, sending appointment reminders, and sending payment requests. The step that should never be automated: the therapy itself. Let software handle the admin so you can be fully present in the room.