Before you skim over, agree and proceed with registration, we ask that you take the time to read ALL of these terms BEFORE you agree to them.

These are important things to consider that will have a direct impact on our work together. As a potential business owner, it is your responsibility to understand and establish agreements and terms for your own business and we recommend that you start by reviewing our terms now.

We have made every effort to make our policies mutually considerate, clear, fair and in accordance with our values while still considering compliance. It is your responsibility to ensure you understand these terms prior to signing up. If you have any questions, contact us and we are happy to explain or elaborate on anything contained in this document so you have clarity and peace of mind.

Global Alignment Group Inc. (the “Company”) provides a service known as the “Private Practice Business Program” (the “Service”) to promote overall awareness and competencies in starting and effectively running a private practice business. 

Though our programs include both personal and professional development components, these services aren't intended as professional career training and aren't a continuation of any educational training institute’s program. The Private Practice Business Program doesn't grant any educational credentials or diplomas, however – certificates of completion are awarded for both the Private Practice Business Program AND the Private Practice Marketing Program.

GLOBAL ALIGNMENT AGREES TO PROVIDE YOU WITH:

• Individual One-to-One Business or Career Transition Coaching Sessions with a Global Alignment Coach.
• Note: Many of the terms referred to in this document relate to our Business Training Program and may not be directly applicable to Career Transition Coaching. In those cases you will see the following note: *Business Coaching Clients Only.

Step One: Completion of career coaching or business coaching is done via Individual One-to-One Coaching Sessions (Clients have no access to the online business training program).

The “Private Practice Marketing Program” commences after a participant:

1. Has completed the five foundational modules of the Private Practice Business Program or
2. Has completed the equivalent foundational business training in our one-to-one business program or 
3. Has provided a detailed overview of their business foundation which has been approved by Global Alignment as being ready to proceed with the marketing program.

BUSINESS/CAREER COACHING & YOUR COACHES ROLE:

• Professional Career & Business Coaching focuses primarily on identifying a goal and creating an action plan to get there. Though it follows a Roadmap, it is more organic in nature and pace, and the focus lies more in personal and professional support of the client. The Coach assumes a much more collaborative role with the client than in counselling and your coach may offer a higher level of personal disclosure and input (as appropriate), while still  assisting individuals to determine their own needs, steps and answers.
• We maintain casual but professional relationships with business and career coaching clients and adhere to our professional boundaries during our work together. That means that our complete focus and attention is on you and your goals, which isn’t the same as a friendship where both people’s needs are considered. Our experience shows that when boundaries blur, the hard-won benefits gained from the professional relationship erode. So, although we are collaborative and may share our experiences with you, the focus of our efforts remains on you, which is different than the mutually considerate nature of a friendship.
• Business and Career Coaching is not training and it does not provide access to any of our online training material. It is also not Counselling in that it does not emphasize deep emotional excavation or emotional processing. It does not require an intake assessment or family history at the beginning of our work. Coaching is largely based on personal or business goals, learning new skills and new perspectives, overcoming barriers and measuring progress via a plan and with the support of momentum.
• Our approach is considered highly collaborative, hands-on and experiential, all aimed at helping you reach your goals and to grow as an individual. You may be presented with the option to change your habits and perceptions, which can often result in emotional ups and downs, anxiety or things feeling more difficult before they feel better. If you have any concerns regarding an exercise or assignment, either during or after, (or feel emotional, intellectual or spiritual distress) please discuss them with your Coach at your first opportunity. The choice to participate in any exercise is always yours. If it is determined Counselling would be beneficial, that would mean signing up for a separate service to address these specific needs. 
• In accordance with our policies, Coaching sessions are recorded (but may not be shared with others). Clients do not have access to their personal file and may not request that it be forwarded to another professional. Coaching is not covered by extended insurance policies, but may be paid for by employers; and/or qualify as an allowable tax deduction.
• In the unlikely event that your Coach has an illness, accident or absence that prevents them from working for an extended period of time, or in the case of death, a Global Alignment team member will notify all Clients. In lieu of your pre-paid business coaching refund, you will instead receive access to the Private Practice Business Program videos and assignments at no additional cost to you for a period of 1 Year, to compensate for any Coaching you did not receive.  All files will be sealed and destroyed, in accordance with our terms. 
• Your Coach will always be the one to initiate all calls to you to begin a Coaching session.
• From time to time your Coach will provide advance notice of times they will be out of the office for vacation or training. You as the client understand that these events will occur throughout the year and will be asked to book your sessions accordingly around those times.
• Your Coach is out of the office on weekends and most holidays, and is unable to book sessions or answer emails during those times. During normal working times, it would not be uncommon for your Coach to be fully booked 10 days-2 weeks out. Please plan accordingly and be proactive when booking your sessions.

PRIVATE PRACTICE BUSINESS PROGRAM – ABOUT OUR GURUS: *BUSINESS COACHING CLIENTS ONLY

• Until recently, we offered a full “GURU team” of in-house consultants that would help our clients do projects like logos, business cards, websites, taxes, etc. We no longer offer this in-house service, but where possible, we can make recommendations to external consultants that can help with these types of projects.
• Global Alignment continues to provide the basic foundations of best practices so that our clients are educated and prepared to work with consultants in these various projects.
• When viewing our training materials, please note that any reference to a GURU team now means working with an independent consultant of your choice, or as some clients prefer, taking on the project themselves.

YOU, THE CLIENT, AGREE TO:

• Proactively read our webpage called "Coaching vs. Counselling vs. Supervision vs Business Training” which can be found under the "Services" tab of our website. This page is important in detailing the unique difference of these services and what they do and do not offer or permit.
• Read and adhere to the Company's “Privacy Policy & Terms”, which can be found on the bottom right-hand corner of our website. This page outlines the conduct, interaction and participation guidelines for our Company.
• Be accountable for your decisions and goals based on your own jurisdictional laws, regulatory/governing body requirements and code of ethics and/or standards of practice (as applicable). This applies not just to the time you are receiving coaching, but that you remain accountable for ongoing changes that may occur in your industry and review any laws, requirements or liability insurance terms that may have changed each year or as your products and services change as you run your own business.
• Obtain rulings from the appropriate authorities where applicable. Business or Career Coaching is not a substitute for legal, accounting or insurance advice, and does not replace your licensing body or any government body’s advice or ruling.  As such, do not consider this Business or Career Coaching as a replacement for these professionals. We encourage you to ensure you have the correct information around compliance for your own business versus simply following what you see others do with their business.
• Answer all emails from your Coach, our administration or any GURU team member within 3 working days (with the exception of being on holiday).  In essence, if you feel stuck, in resistance or other, the worst thing you can do is use avoidance as a problem-solving method. Please email us and work through any decision or issue you may be experiencing so you do not derail your progress or default to unhealthy avoidance tactics.
• Limit emails to your Coach to topics of administration (such as booking or rescheduling sessions) or asking for clarity regarding your assignments, unless otherwise indicated by your Instructor. All other questions, assignments, personal check in's or interactions should be brought to your coaching sessions. Questions related to business or marketing topics not yet taught will be discussed at the time you progress to those topics in the Roadmap.
• Understand that the success of coaching leverages momentum. For this reason, the maximum time between sessions should never exceed four (4) weeks. (Exclusions: sickness, extended holiday or other possible conditions proactively agreed to between the Coach and Client, in which case a 3-month coaching “pause” may be put into effect.) Otherwise, exceeding 4-weeks between sessions may result in a default of your prepaid session and having to begin coaching again under new terms.
• Be on time. Now's the time to practice being a professional. All sessions will start and end at the scheduled time, regardless of your punctuality or the absence of appropriate 24-hour phone cancellation and the fees for that session will remain the same.
• Proactively schedule your sessions, as there is often a 10 day-2 week book out time for sessions. Waiting too close to expiration to schedule sessions may mean there are no appointment times available in the time frame you hope to book.
• Complete and email your assignments to your Coach in advance of sessions so that they can be added to your file and reviewed with you. This allows your Coach to follow along and make notes as your assignments are discussed, using your coaching time in the most efficient way.  Your Coach may glance or skim over your assignments during a personal check in, but a detailed review can only be conducted during scheduled session time.
• Understand that pre-paid 1-to-1 business coaching sessions, expire twelve (12) months from the date of purchase.
• Ensure you have tested your internet signal strength, close all non-essential applications, suspend all notifications and minimize all other distractions. It is your responsibility as a client to ensure your system has been tested and is working prior to each individual or group session.  This prevents valuable session time being lost as you try to resolve technology issues. We are unfortunately not able to provide technical support or troubleshooting assistance.  Global Alignment Coaches will also ensure our systems have been tested and are ready prior to the start of sessions as well.
• Understand that technology is fallible, and will not hold Global Alignment or its team liable for human or technical issues that can occur through the use of online technology (such as audio/video quality, internet server or power outages etc.) which are out of the Company’s control. 
• Ensure there is mutual confidentiality/privacy during sessions. You should be alone in the room and away from others to ensure the session cannot be overheard. We also suggest using a headset and microphone as it blocks out background noise.  “Mutual confidentiality” means that recordings of sessions, session content or emails MAY NOT be shared with others for any reason.
• Prepare for your sessions by taking notes to ensure you retain the information and feedback you need. The Company will provide a supplemental FREE & CONFIDENTIAL recording, which will be emailed directly to you within 3 working days of your session. Under no circumstances, may this recording be shared, either in part or whole.
• Understand that you must download any recording provided by the Company within 5 days, or the file link will expire. Requests to resend audio files may incur additional administration fees. It is also understood that audio files are deleted from our library 30 days after your session.
• Be aware that “compliance” is constantly evolving. As laws, rules and guidelines change in various associations and government agencies, you as the client understand that it is your responsibility to seek your own advice with respect to compliance from the proper authorities as you set up and operate your business. We recommend you make it a habit to recheck each area of compliance annually, to ensure you remain compliant.
• Ensure that your contact information is up to date at all times. As a Business and Career Coaching client, you can update your contact information by advising your coach personally in your session so that your file can be updated.  

PROGRAM FEES, SCHEDULING & ADMINISTRATION:

• One-to-One business or career coaching is first purchased as a package consisting of 4.5 hours at a cost of $472.50 (plus tax). Each coaching session is 1.5 hours in duration and can either be conducted as one comprehensive session or broken into 2 or 3 shorter sessions (minimum of 30 minutes/session).
• After the completion of the initial package, clients may choose to continue their coaching in any of the three methods below:

1.  Pay-as-you-go for one session (1.5 hour coaching session) with no discount
2. Pay for a package of 3 sessions (4.5 hours of coaching) with a 5% package discount
3. Pay for a package of 6 sessions (9 hours of coaching) with a 10% package discount

NOTE: All payments are processed through PayPal Credit Card Payments only.

• Because we are also an international company with participants in different time zones (sometimes a full day ahead), and our billing staff work part-time, payment for additional individual sessions is required two (2) working days in advance of a scheduled session.  Late payments will incur fees of $20 per week and result in the possible cancellation of sessions. Any accounts not paid after a month will be referred to collections.
• Please keep rescheduling, cancelling or deferring of sessions to a minimum. We are a busy practice so if you need to cancel or reschedule a session, please call your Coach (604-765-2001) at least 24-hours prior to your scheduled session start. That way your appointment time can be offered to someone else. Texting, emailing or sending Facebook or Skype messages will not be accepted as notice of cancellation, and failure to cancel or reschedule within the required 24-hours' notice will mean session fees are still incurred. (If the session had not been prepaid, payment must be received within 5 working days or late fees will be applied.)
• We do understand that on rare occasion, there may be an emergency that would prevent you or your Coach from giving the required 24-hours’ notice to cancel or reschedule a session.  The standard we use to determine "emergency" is specific to any acute illness or injury, accident or situation that occurred within that 24-hour period that would be characterized as unforeseeable, unavoidable, and would prevent the ability to follow through on the scheduled session. (i.e. Power failure or car accident.) This does not include matters of negligence, overbooking, disorganization or any situation that could have been reasonably anticipated. (i.e. double booked or ongoing sickness that has been present for more than 24 hours.)
• All fees are non-transferrable and non-refundable and unused time expires 1 year after date of purchase.

CONFIDENTIALITY OF OUR PROGRAM TRAINING, MATERIAL & ASSIGNMENTS:

• A big part of our coaching philosophy concerns ethical career and business practices, having healthy business boundaries and learning about business laws, proprietary information and/or copy written materials (music, photos, video etc.)  As such, you as the client agree that you will NOT copy, share or re-teach our material or assignments as it is an infringement of our proprietary information. This means that you may not share any of our program teachings, theory, assignments etc., (in part or whole) including (but not limited to) our module teachings, roadmap, methodologies, theory, recordings, assignments or ideas/knowledge from your coach with any other party such as peers, mastermind groups or online forums etc. 
• You the client understand you may not allow others to attend, view or observe any portion of sessions (including recordings) if that person is not a coaching client or otherwise mutually agreed-upon participant (i.e. in the case of a business partnership). This applies both to the period that you are involved in coaching onward. It is understood that a breach of these terms may result in immediate disqualification from our programs and/or legal action.
• When participating in other forums or groups that involve collaboration in building a private practice, instead of sharing the content of our program, we simply ask that you refer your colleagues to us so that they may learn the “how to” of building a private practice. That way they glean the experiential benefits of participating in the complete program first hand, honouring our efforts to keep our confidential programs intact.
• NON-COMPETE: If it is your vision to teach, train or coach Mental Health or Wellness practitioners in this very specialized niche (Private Practice Business Training and/or Marketing), this non-compete clause excludes you from receiving coaching from Global Alignment. If you are unsure if this applies to you, you are required to speak with your Coach prior to registering.
• REFERRALS: As a thank you for paying it forward, any referral that results in a participant signing up for any of our programs, we’d be thrilled to offer you a free, 45-minute Coaching session credit.  
• REFERRALS - If you introduce the Company to a group/organization that asks that we host a one-time event for its mental health & wellness professional membership, we will award you a 2 ¼ hour (2 hrs 15 mins) complimentary Coaching credit as a thank you. (i.e. a webinar or speaking engagement.  Applies only if becoming a member of the organization is not a requirement.) 

CLIENT CONFIDENTIALITY:

• If you (the Client) would like to review your file for your own reasons, you may do so by scheduling a session time to review the file together. Client files are property of Global Alignment and may not be copied or transferred to another party (i.e. another business Coach, Counsellor or supervisor etc., due to the proprietary information within a file.
• We understand the nature of the work with your coach is often personal and confidential. Please know that the personal details discussed are not shared with other Global Alignment team members. Those personal life details are kept confidential and are locked away in your file. However, other team members will have access to your contact information for the purposes of their function within our business alone.
• For example, our billing coordinator will have access to your email and contact information so they may send you invoices or call you as needed. Our Guru team may need to know you are away on holiday or are working through an issue or decision with me, before you can proceed with pending projects. Our accountant may see which programs you have signed up for and which dates. You will also be added to our contact and notification list, of which you have the ability to opt out of at any time. All shared information is specific to the nature of how a business functions and unrelated to what is confidentially sealed in your personal file.
• Beyond our ability to function as a team within this business, we only release personal information about our work together with your written permission, or in the unlikely event that we are required to do so by a court order. There are some situations in which we may be legally obligated to breach your confidentiality in order to protect others from harm. 

These include: 

1. Information indicating a child/elderly/disabled person’s (including your Coach or GA team members) life or health is at risk, the appropriate agency must be informed;
2. If a Client is an imminent risk to themselves, or makes threats of violence against another person, we are required to take protective actions.

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT & SUPERVISION HOURS FOR ASSOCIATIONS: * BUSINESS COACHING CLIENTS ONLY

More and more mental health and wellness licensing bodies/associations approve Global Alignment’s Business Coaching as a means for their members to fulfill their annual requirements of: 

1. Counselling Practice hours and /or;
2. Continued Education hours and/or;
3. Counselling/Psychotherapy Supervision hours.

CONTINUED EDUCATION HOURS – Many associations verify that business coaching is a legitimate means of accumulating continued education hours. Each has their own protocol about how these hours can be accumulated, recorded and submitted. Some ask their members to keep track of and submit a summary of their continued education hours for the year, with no proof required from the provider (Global Alignment). Other associations require proof of hours earned along with specific dates incurred. 

If letters of verification are required, we ask that you track and submit your own hours and dates you incurred those hours and we will put that information on our letterhead and sign off as an official document that you can submit. We will require 1) your association's name, your full name, your association number and your summary of hours and dates all sent to us in an email request, in order to complete this request. Please allow 3 working days.  

SUPERVISION HOURS – Some counselling/psychotherapy associations count one-on-one, dyadic or group work within our business coaching as a means of incurring supervision hours. Business supervision is a legitimate component of overall clinical supervision, but it should be understood that our supervision is specific to business topics alone. It deals with the professional's emotional and intellectual challenges, skill development and entrepreneurial mindset as it relates to starting, running and marketing a private practice business. Because this service is "topic specific supervision," it is not considered "counselling or psychotherapy supervision" or "clinical supervision" and does not address issues related to participant dilemmas, treatment plans, participant ethical considerations, note taking, etc. 

Counsellors, Psychotherapists or Psychologists are required to first sign a "Business Supervision" contract and that contract must be signed off by a Supervisor and in your file PRIOR to the accumulation of any supervision hours. Supervision time may NOT be retroactively accumulated in an attempt to count hours from prior to the signed contract. The Participant is responsible for keeping accurate records of their own hours, dates and times for accumulating hours. That contract defines the roles and responsibilities of both parties.  Business supervision sessions may be recorded but may not be shared with others. Copies of Supervisee/Client files may not be obtained by the Supervisee and may not be requested to be sent to another business Instructor/coach or professional. Supervision is not counselling and those two services would never be provided to the same individual at the same time. As such, we offer a somewhat higher degree of personal disclosure for the sake of improving learning outcomes.

OTHER IMPORTANT TERMS:

• You as the Client are responsible for individually evaluating all information provided to you and making your own appropriate decisions independently. The maximum aggregate liability of any of the Company and/or Consultants (which includes Coaches and Expert Guru Consultants) howsoever arising, including but not limited to: default, breach, negligence and indemnity obligations – shall be limited to an amount equal to the coaching fees you paid.
• You as the Client understand that we DO NOT work with individuals who have pending custody or lawsuits, accident/injury insurance claims (such as ICBC, Worksafe). If while already working with us, an event occurs that results in a legal, work, accident or insurance claim of any nature, we should be informed immediately and discussed prior to your next session.
• Being a Global company, we conduct business around the world. If you are in another country or jurisdiction and a dispute should arise between the participant and Global Alignment, it should be understood that it is solely the laws of the municipality, province and country where Global Alignment Group Inc. is registered that will be utilized to resolve any and all disputes, claims or legal issues.  It is agreed that the laws of other regions, jurisdictions or countries will not apply under any circumstances. 
• The qualifications of your Coach and all of our team members are specific to the country of Canada and the province of BC. You as the participant understand that we do not make any representations about what our qualifications or designations mean in your particular jurisdiction.
• If at any time, you as a client wish to express a concern or complaint regarding our business processes or policies, social media presence or the conduct or ethics of our consulting team, or Coaches, please email Global Alignment's Owner, Cindi Williams at info@globalalignmentcoaching.com.  We will do our utmost to ensure an immediate inquiry and resolution of any issue.
• From time to time, there may be occasional policy or rate changes within our Programs. In such cases, one month's notice is given to existing participants, proactively outlining any changes.

For your convenience, this terms document will be emailed to you upon acceptance and submission of this form. Please keep it for your records.