Insurance for psychotherapists – why it matters
Helping people with their problems can be rewarding, but you’re giving advice and guidance about sensitive aspects of people's lives. If a client feels your advice led to their condition deteriorating, or to a poor decision, they could hold you responsible. You also need to think about the data you keep about your business and your clients and what you’d do if it was compromised. Hiscox can help you to guard against the unexpected with a policy designed around the needs and risks of your business.
Why psychotherapists need insurance
Dissatisfied clients
The most experienced professionals can get things wrong sometimes, but even if you know you’re not at fault, defending a claim from a dissatisfied client will be expensive. Someone could feel the advice you gave resulted in them losing their job, or a couple you were counselling might blame you for their marriage breaking down. Whatever the nature of the claim, we’ll help you to defend or settle it.
Accidents and injury
As a self-employed professional, your business could be held responsible for accidents, and they don’t have to relate directly to treatment, a patient could simply slip in your reception area. Equally, a car accident while travelling between appointments could see you being held accountable for damage to the other party’s car. If you find yourself in a legal tight spot, we’ll be there to help cover the cost so you can get back to doing what you do best.
Data breaches
You handle a lot of highly sensitive data about your patients and they trust you to keep it safe. It takes seconds to accidentally share a file with the wrong person and a lot of money to put it right. Then there’s the threat of being targeted by a cybercriminal. However it happens, once the information is in the wrong hands the consequences are likely to be serious. We’re here to protect you, covering the costs and providing expert advice on handling it too.
If you’re not sure what you need, tell us a little more about your psychotherapy business. We’ll help you to build your quote and explore any other insurance needs.
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Key types of insurance for psychotherapists
Public liability insurance
Public liability insurance for psychotherapists helps to protect you if anyone brings a claim against you either because they’ve been injured, or because their property was damaged and they blame you or your business. Something as simple as knocking over an expensive sculpture when you’re putting your coat on in a client’s home could result in a costly claim against you, so it’s best to cover yourself just in case.
Cyber and data insurance
Cyber and data insurance is there to protect you if your business suffers a data breach, whether that’s through being hacked by a cybercriminal or a mistake by you or an employee. A cyber criminal could impersonate your business and commit financial fraud, or they might threaten to release sensitive data as part of an extortion hack. We'll cover the costs associated with the incident, and our team of experts will be there to help you through it.
Professional treatment liability insurance
Professional treatment liability insurance is specifically designed to cover people who provide treatment to others. It protects you if the advice or treatment you give to your psychotherapy patients makes them ill in any way, and also covers you if you accidentally share information about someone without their permission. If you find yourself facing a claim of negligence or being blamed for offering the wrong advice, we’ll be there to help cover the cost.
These are just some of the types of business insurance for psychotherapists that we can offer. We can provide other specific types of cover and build them into a policy that’s tailored to the exact needs of your business.
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