The world changes fast and the global body of research expands constantly and at an astronomical rate. Headroom works with practitioners who are not only passionate about what they do, but who also have a professional responsibility to continually update their knowledge and skills in order to maintain valid licenses to practice and for the end benefit of the client.

The practitioners are psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers and counsellors duly licensed by reputable professional registration bodies in their respective countries which require them to keep up to date with the relevant continuous professional development requirements, enforce their compliance with a professional Code of Conduct and Ethics and prescribe quality of care standards expected of their profession. Each is verified before being authorised to offer their services and accept client bookings on the Headroom platform.

South Africa

We list practitioners registered with  the Health Professions Council of South Africa (”HPCSA”), the South African Council for Social Services Professions (“SACSSP”) or Association for Supportive Counsellors and Holistic Practitioners (“ASCHP”).

Some healthcare service providers are also registered with the Board of Healthcare Funders (BHF). This is essential when a client wishes to claim the cost of sessions from a medical aid scheme.

As a client, you can find the registration and practice (BHF) numbers and detailed descriptions of each professional by clicking on their profile.

Should you require any support whatsoever, make use of the contact form or send us an email and we will respond as soon as possible.

Headroom operates in compliance with POPIA. Practitioners on the platform are registered with relevant professional bodies such as HPCSA, SACSSP or ASCHP. Practitioners registered with other registration bodies are accepted by Headroom if they enforce similar standards, i.e. code of conduct, code of ethics and continuous professional development requirements.

Individual employee data and session content are not shared with employers. If your procurement process requires a formal POPIA compliance statement or data-processing agreement, this can be discussed as part of onboarding.

Yes. Where reporting is part of the agreed model, Headroom can provide anonymised aggregate reporting on appropriate metrics such as uptake, service categories, credit use, themes or barriers.

Reporting is designed to help the organisation understand patterns and improve support without exposing individual users or session content.

For smaller groups, reporting may need to be limited further to protect confidentiality.

Yes. Individual session content is never shared with the employer.

Where reporting is agreed, it is limited to appropriate anonymised aggregate information, such as uptake, service categories, credit use or time periods. Nothing is shared that identifies an individual.

Headroom can also help businesses communicate confidentiality clearly, because employees need to trust the process before they will use support.

Start with Access Without Friction. You can add Headroom links to HR communications, email signatures, newsletters, intranet pages, onboarding packs, customer support pages or social media so people can find reliable support and book privately if they choose.

This does not create a funded programme or reporting relationship, but it gives people a clear route to professional support without the employer taking on the financial obligation.

For small businesses, this is often a practical first step: visible care, no programme cost, no complex setup.

The business decides how much support to fund and whether sessions are fully or partially subsidised. Employees, customers or selected beneficiaries then access support through the Headroom platform, and credits are used against eligible sessions.

Pay-as-you-go credits are useful where the business wants to fund support without committing to a full EAP-style contract or long-term programme structure.

Credits can be used for a small team, a specific group, a time-bound campaign, customer support, beneficiary support, or as a first step before a larger programme.

The world changes fast and the global body of research expands constantly and at an astronomical rate. Headroom works with practitioners who are not only passionate about what they do, but who also have a professional responsibility to continually update their knowledge and skills in order to maintain valid licenses to practice and for the end benefit of the client.

The practitioners are psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers and counsellors duly licensed by reputable professional registration bodies in their respective countries which require them to keep up to date with the relevant continuous professional development requirements, enforce their compliance with a professional Code of Conduct and Ethics and prescribe quality of care standards expected of their profession. Each is verified before being authorised to offer their services and accept client bookings on the Headroom platform.

South Africa

We list practitioners registered with  the Health Professions Council of South Africa (”HPCSA”), the South African Council for Social Services Professions (“SACSSP”) or Association for Supportive Counsellors and Holistic Practitioners (“ASCHP”).

Some healthcare service providers are also registered with the Board of Healthcare Funders (BHF). This is essential when a client wishes to claim the cost of sessions from a medical aid scheme.

As a client, you can find the registration and practice (BHF) numbers and detailed descriptions of each professional by clicking on their profile.

Yes. Headroom can support internal and public-facing communication, including staff announcements, newsletter content, responsible messaging, awareness material and guidance on confidentiality and access routes.

Clear communication matters because people are more likely to use support when they understand what is available, how it works and whether it is safe to access.

For customer-facing or responsible business programmes, communication also needs to be credible, careful and aligned with the actual support being offered.

Yes. The right starting point is an exploratory conversation. We first need to understand your business context, customer base, risks, obligations and what responsible practice should mean in your sector.

Headroom can then design practical, independently delivered support systems that can stand up to external review by customers, regulators, funders, auditors or the public.

Yes. If an employee builds a working relationship with a practitioner through a Headroom business arrangement and later leaves the company, they may continue that relationship privately at their own cost.

This matters because transitions such as retrenchment, resignation or role change can be highly stressful. Continuity of care means the person does not have to start again with someone new simply because the employment relationship has changed.

Yes. Headroom can support employees, customers, selected beneficiaries, programme participants or other groups who need access to professional support.

This can be funded directly by the organisation receiving the service, or by another funder. Headroom commonly works with models where one organisation delivers access to support, while another funder pays for the service, support pathway or programme.

This is especially relevant for responsible business programmes, CSI initiatives, customer-support pathways, public-interest programmes, beneficiary support, and sectors where wellbeing, behaviour change, risk reduction or public trust are part of the business context.

Yes. We can provide corporate references on request, where appropriate and subject to client consent.

Many of our business engagements involve sensitive employee, customer, beneficiary or responsible business support. For that reason, we do not publish all client names or programme details openly. This protects the confidentiality of our clients and the people their programmes support.

Where a prospective business client needs references as part of procurement, governance or due diligence, we can discuss what can be shared responsibly.

The research on what makes therapy work is unusually consistent on this point: the quality of the relationship between a client and their practitioner is one of the strongest predictors of whether support actually helps — and that relationship is meaningfully better when the client had a say in who they are working with.

Three peer-reviewed meta-analyses support this. The first, by Horvath and colleagues (2011), analysed 190 studies and found that therapeutic alliance quality — trust, collaboration, genuine connection — is among the most robustly replicated predictors of therapeutic outcome across therapy types and settings. The second and third, by Swift and colleagues (2009 and 2018), examined what happens specifically when clients choose their provider rather than being assigned one. Across 53 studies and over 16,000 clients, preference-matched clients were significantly more likely to complete care and showed consistently better outcomes than those who were not.

Headroom gives your employees, customers and beneficiaries an easy way to browse practitioner profiles, verified reviews and direct booking — no referral queue, no assignment. That design is grounded in this evidence.

Should they still prefer a referral, the can start with our Guidance session.

Sources: Horvath et al. (2011), Psychotherapy; Swift & Callahan (2009) and Swift et al. (2018), Journal of Clinical Psychology. All three are freely accessible via Semantic Scholar and PubMed.

No. Headroom works just as effectively for SMEs, small teams with only 1–5 people or solo-entrepreneurs.

You do not need a large headcount, annual EAP budget or formal HR department to begin. A small business can start by adding Headroom links to staff communications, funding a few pay-as-you-go credits, arranging a once-off session, or booking support for a specific workplace issue.

There are useful things a business can do to support its employees even without any budget.

If Headroom is not the right fit for your current context, we will tell you honestly in the first conversation.

Headroom's core platform is built around scheduled online sessions with practitioners chosen by the client or beneficiary. Some practitioners do offer same-day sessions for urgent matters, but Headroom as a platform is not suitable for crisis or emergency support.

Crisis support requires an appropriately clinically structured and contracted programme. Headroom can tailor this to your business needs and operate it for you.

This means Headroom can support both planned care and, where specifically agreed, immediate crisis support pathways. The exact crisis-line model, operating hours, languages, escalation process, reporting rules and confidentiality boundaries are agreed as part of the programme design.

We can provide corporate references on existing programmes by request, where appropriate and subject to client consent.

Low EAP utilisation is usually not a sign that people do not need support. It is more often a sign that the model does not feel easy, trusted, relevant or safe enough to use.

Common barriers include low awareness of the service, uncertainty about confidentiality, stigma, lack of trust, friction in the access process, poor timing, limited perceived relevance, and discomfort with being routed through a system rather than choosing support directly. Research on EAP and workplace mental health support repeatedly identifies these reasons as major barriers to use.

Headroom addresses these barriers through direct online booking, visible practitioner choice, clear confidentiality boundaries, flexible funding models and the option for people to continue privately where appropriate.

Headroom is a flexible alternative to a standard EAP, but the model is different in several important ways.

We provide employee mental health and wellbeing support, but we are not limited to a rigid per-head annual contract. Headroom is built for flexibility. Businesses can start with FREE access links, low-budget pay-as-you-go credits, a once-off training session, a webinar, a policy review, a defined project, or a more structured EAP-style arrangement.

Standard EAPs are usually designed around short-term intervention, often with a limited number of sessions and a narrower provider model. Headroom can support both short-term and longer-term needs. Employees may use Headroom for once-off guidance, short-term support, ongoing therapy, coaching, counselling or personal development, depending on their needs and the practitioner they choose.

Another important difference is practitioner choice and fit. Not every employee needs a psychologist or registered counsellor. Some people need clinical mental health support, but others may benefit more from a practitioner with a supportive, non-clinical scope of work, such as coaching, wellness counselling, personal development or practical adjustment support.

This matters for both outcomes and cost. When the support is better matched to the person's actual need, it is often more usable and, as research consistently concludes, also more effective. Where a non-clinical practitioner is appropriate, lower session rates also reduce the cost of subsidised support for the employer.

Headroom Mental Health is a South African online mental health platform that helps clients find and book qualified practitioners for therapy, counselling, coaching and self-development support. Clients can browse by practitioner type, fees, availability and areas of focus, or use our human-led matching to help find the right support before booking secure online sessions from wherever they are.

Yes. There is now a strong scientific consensus that online therapy can be as effective as in-person therapy for many common mental health concerns, including anxiety, depression, stress, trauma and relationship challenges.

Online therapy offers the same professional support, evidence-based techniques and confidentiality as traditional in-person sessions, while providing greater convenience and accessibility.

Furthermore, when the alternative is receiving no support at all, online therapy is overwhelmingly preferable to going without professional help.

Yes. Every practitioner on Headroom is qualified and registered with a recognised professional body — as a verified condition of joining the platform.

We use the word “therapist” colloquially in parts of the website because it is a familiar term for clients looking for support. Not all practitioners on Headroom provide therapy in the clinical sense. Practitioners may include psychologists, registered counsellors, social workers, psychiatrists, coaches, wellness counsellors and other support professionals, each working within their own qualification, registration and scope of practice.

Professional registration is not a formality. It means each practitioner is bound by a code of conduct, a code of ethics, and mandatory annual continuing professional development requirements — enforced by the body they are registered with.

Most of our South African practitioners are registered with the HPCSA (Health Professions Council of South Africa), SACSSP (South African Council for Social Service Professions), or ASCHP (Allied Health Professions Council of South Africa). Some practitioners and coaches on Headroom hold registration with other professional bodies that enforce similar standards and requirements.

If you would like to verify a practitioner's registration independently, each practitioner's professional body is listed on their profile.

Online therapy, counselling or coaching takes you on a journey of self-discovery and provides you with the tools and support required to live your life to your fullest potential. By identifying and dealing with emotional, psychological or social difficulties, you are able to liberate yourself from what is holding you back and focus your energy on the areas that propel you forward.

Headroom hosts a range of professionals who can support you in matters ranging from mental health care, work related challenges and medico-legal matters to personal growth and development.

Interventions include general advice, specialised support and specific therapeutic approaches.

If you have been diagnosed with a severe mental illness and/or have been advised to remain under psychological supervision or psychiatric care please consult with your assigned professional or doctor as to the appropriateness of this site in your specific circumstances. If you are a minor, your parent or guardian needs to consent to your use of Headroom.

Headroom is not appropriate for emergency situations or if you have thoughts of hurting yourself or others (please refer to the list of emergency numbers in South Africa).

Effective use of Headroom requires a device that can connect to a reliable internet connection.

The world changes fast and the global body of research expands constantly and at an astronomical rate. Headroom works with practitioners who are not only passionate about what they do, but who also have a professional responsibility to continually update their knowledge and skills in order to maintain valid licenses to practice and for the end benefit of the client.

The practitioners are psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers and counsellors duly licensed by reputable professional registration bodies in their respective countries which require them to keep up to date with the relevant continuous professional development requirements, enforce their compliance with a professional Code of Conduct and Ethics and prescribe quality of care standards expected of their profession. Each is verified before being authorised to offer their services and accept client bookings on the Headroom platform.

South Africa

We list practitioners registered with  the Health Professions Council of South Africa (”HPCSA”), the South African Council for Social Services Professions (“SACSSP”) or Association for Supportive Counsellors and Holistic Practitioners (“ASCHP”).

Some healthcare service providers are also registered with the Board of Healthcare Funders (BHF). This is essential when a client wishes to claim the cost of sessions from a medical aid scheme.

As a client, you can find the registration and practice (BHF) numbers and detailed descriptions of each professional by clicking on their profile.

Following the Covid-19 worldwide restrictions, online therapy, counselling and coaching have become mainstream and the effectiveness of this mode of receiving support is virtually undisputed. 

What makes online interventions most effective is your commitment to the process and having access to the right advice at the right time. And it also helps that online contact removes the need for travel, extra time and the often related unnecessary stress that can come with in-person appointments.

We make it easier for you to connect, so that you can focus on your attendance and improvement. We give you access to a number of professionals far beyond those within the geographical area you can easily travel to. We bring the choice of professionals to your fingertips so that you can quickly compare the available alternatives and take immediate action. No unnecessary emails or phone calls to a practice before you can settle on a suitable time - you can view the professional's availability and book sessions 24/7. 

We believe that prevention now is better than a cure later and that positive results start with early action.
We make it our mission to help you achieve the best possible results in whichever way we can.

You can access more information on the effectiveness of online interventions in our blogs. You can also Sign up to receive our free Guide to help you consider if online support is for you.

If you got to this point of our website, your concern or interest are important to you and have prompted you to seek answers.
Maybe you truly need therapy and maybe what is truly needed is counselling, coaching or just a simple regular chat about how things are going in your life and work.

If you are asking yourself this question because you are unsure of whether or not to proceed with booking a session with a professional, there are various mental health assessment scales and questionnaires available online which you could complete to gain a better understanding of your emotional and psychological state at present.

That said, there is no harm in scheduling an introductory session with a professional to commence conversation. Many people in need of support delay seeking it. The very issues that are often cited as excuses to avoid professional support are the issues that they need help for.

Some professionals offer (almost) free introductory sessions which may be beneficial in assisting you to unpack your questions and expectations and assess the most appropriate next steps for you.

In order to change your password you need to be logged in to your account. Then hover over the top right hand corner, where it says 'Hello', and select 'My Account' from the drop down list. This will take you to your Account Page, where you will find the 'Change Password' option.

Should you wish to use a different email address from the one you signed up with, you'll need to open a brand new account. Changing your email address will impact your notifications and other important communications from our side and as such we perform some basic procedures before effecting the change for you. Once you have a bookings history on the original account, this will not transfer to the new account / email address. 

If you have no upcoming client sessions scheduled in your calendar, you can cancel your subscription yourself, in your Account Menu / My Subscription. This will deactivate but not delete your account. Should you wish to delete your account permanently for any reason, kindly send us an email and we will gladly assist you with no questions asked. 

If you have upcoming client sessions, please contact us to arrange a timely and orderly handover with you before giving effect to the deletion of your account.

A no-show happens when a client does not attend a booked session and has not cancelled or rescheduled within the required notice period. Because the practitioner has reserved that time and may not be able to offer it to another client at short notice, missed sessions will still be charged. If there was a genuine emergency or technical issue, please contact Headroom as soon as possible so that the situation can be reviewed.

You can reschedule eligible sessions through your Headroom client dashboard up to 24 hours in advance. Sessions cancelled or rescheduled after this window will be treated as late cancellations and may not be refundable, depending on Headroom's booking terms and the practitioner's availability.

Practitioners are self-employed professionals whose income depends on their time. A late cancellation or no-show is a real loss for them — one that is difficult to recover at short notice. Our cancellation policy exists to keep the platform fair for everyone on it.

If you're unsure what to do, contact Headroom as soon as possible and we'll help you navigate it.

Test connection environment You are able to test your connection by selecting the ‘Test Connection’ hyperlink associated with each booked session. Selecting this hyperlink launches a test room where you are able to view your own image on the screen to confirm that the camera is operational.

The video and audio can be switched on or off by selecting the camera or microphone icon in the bottom left hand side of the screen. Note that the icons are presented with a strike through line. When the icons are black the camera and microphone are active/switched on. When the icons are red then they are inactive/switched off. In both instances a strike through line is visible.

In the right-hand corner of the test screen is an icon made up of three little dots. Clicking on this icon launches the settings for the test room. We encourage all users to familiarise themselves with the layout and settings of the video conferencing room:

Camera/microphone settings: allow you to change the source of the mic: microphone sound, camera, video image and speakers, sounds speakers. In order to test the speakers, you are able to run a sound test by clicking on ‘play test sound’.

Video quality: this allows you to select the video quality (high, low or camera off – which should only be done to save bandwidth).

Active speaker view: determines whose image is to be displayed more prominently.

Virtual room In addition to the features in the test connection environment, the virtual room also has a setting which provides feedback on the quality of the internet connection. If you are experiencing some granularity in the video images initially, allow a 1-2 minutes for the connection to stabilise.

If you regularly receive the message ‘retrying’ this is likely related to network. It is useful to also keep in mind that the video conferencing sessions are taking place in a browser. Therefore, if you are experiencing problems, one workaround is to quit the session in the browser you are currently using and reopening it in new browser. The calls can be conducted via the following browsers: Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Edge, in order of preference and quality. Chrome is the recommended browser and delivers most consistent quality video.

If you are receiving messages regarding ‘packet loss’ during a session, try one of the following:

• Reboot computer
• Move closer to your Wifi router

(Packet loss is different from your speed test or download speed. Packet loss reflects UDP data, which is the data transmitted when you stream live media.  When streaming live media, network issues often relate to an OS-level root cause. That is why, if you're having issues, rebooting can be effective).

The virtual room is available only for the booked session time and will close automatically at the scheduled end time. A countdown timer appears at the top of the screen to help both you and the client keep track of time.

It is important for you as the professional to remain aware of time throughout the session and to guide the flow of the conversation in a way that allows for a calm, natural ending. As a rule, the session should not run up to the final second with a major issue still being opened, explored, or emotionally intensified. Instead, aim to pace the session so that there is enough time to slow down, pull the main threads together, and bring the conversation to a contained and meaningful close.

You are fully within your rights to opt for an audio only session (no video element). However, in so doing, the professional is deprived of the opportunity to use your facial expressions, body language and physical demeanour to better assess and understand your psychological state.

Therefore, in order to derive the most out of the session with the professional, clients are encouraged to make use of the video element.

Clients can reschedule sessions up to 24 hours in advance of the session start time. 

For Clients: The tab 'Cancel/Reschedule Session' on the client dashboard lists the approved sessions. Simply select the associated 'reschedule' button and confirm the new date and time. An email notification will automatically be sent to the session participants and the respective dashboards will automatically be updated.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding cancelling or rescheduling sessions, please email us and we will gladly assist.

It is possible for multiple participants (in the same or different place) to convene in the same session. Whether this is desirable will be determined at the discretion of the professional.  The professional may suggest that individual sessions are conducted with multiple parties separately to understand the individual perspectives. In order to access the Headroom virtual rooms every participant will need to be registered as a user of the Headroom platform (either as a Client or a Professional).

Our video rooms can accommodate up to 200 participants at once. Should you wish to make use of our facilities for group sessions, please contact us to make appropriate arrangements. 

If two participants will be joining from different locations:

• Both participants must have their own registered Headroom profile.
• The client who booked and paid for the session will receive the session link.
• That client should share the link with the other participant.
• Both individuals must log in to their accounts and use the shared link to join the session.

This ensures the session remains secure and confidential.

In order to create an account you are required to provide a First and Last Name which will be visible to professionals with whom you book sessions. You are entirely within your rights to provide an alias for this purpose.  Your Client Profile on Headroom is visible only to you, the owner of the profile.

On your client registration form we also ask for your Billing Name and Billing Address. These details are required for the purposes of the professional raising an invoice to the client and the client submitting a medical aid claim, just like in the physical therapy rooms.  If you wish to claim from your medical aid, you will need to provide your correct details.

Public webinars are an excellent way to gain valuable insights and resources very affordably. However, ensuring that these sessions remain a safe and comfortable space requires careful attention to privacy, confidentiality, and discretion. As a platform, we prioritize these values to protect attendees while fostering a supportive environment for learning and sharing.

How We Ensure Privacy, Confidentiality, and Discretion

As presenters, we take deliberate measures to anonymize our webinars and safeguard participant identities:

1. Anonymized Participation: The Zoom meeting settings are configured to hide attendees' names, photos, or live videos unless they voluntarily choose to enable them.

2. Secure Platforms: We use secure platforms with encrypted connections to ensure that all communication remains protected from unauthorized access.

3. Moderated Sharing: Any contributions made via chat or Q&A are moderated and anonymized before being shared with the larger group.

4. No Recordings Without Consent: Sessions are not recorded or distributed unless explicit consent is provided by all parties involved.

How Attendees Can Anonymize Themselves

Attendees can take the following steps to further ensure their anonymity while participating in webinars:

1. Use a Pseudonym: When joining the webinar, replace your real name with an alias or initials.

2. Turn Off Video and Audio: Keep your camera and microphone off unless you are comfortable sharing.

3. Disable Profile Photos: Remove or replace profile photos with neutral images to avoid identification.

4. Adjust Background Settings: If video is enabled, use a virtual background to obscure your environment.

How to Remain Undisturbed During Webinars

To fully focus on the webinar, consider these strategies to minimize interruptions:

1. Inform Family or Colleagues: Let those around you know that you are attending a private session and need uninterrupted time.

2. Choose a Quiet Location: Find a space where you can participate without distractions or background noise.

3. Use Headphones: Wearing headphones ensures privacy and reduces the chance of others overhearing sensitive content.

4. Silence Notifications: Turn off notifications on your devices to avoid interruptions during the session.

5. Schedule Strategically: Plan your attendance during a time when you are least likely to be disturbed.

Tips on Exercising Discretion

Discretion is a shared responsibility that ensures everyone’s experience remains positive and secure. Here’s how attendees can practice discretion:

1. Respect Confidentiality: Avoid sharing or discussing the names, identities, or contributions of other attendees outside the webinar.

2. Avoid Recording: Do not take screenshots, record audio, or save chat messages without explicit permission.

3. Be Mindful in Discussions: If sharing webinar insights with others, do so in a way that does not disclose specific details or identities.

4. Practice Empathy: Recognize that others may share vulnerable or sensitive information and treat it with care and respect.

5. Follow Post-Session Guidelines: If the platform provides confidentiality agreements or guidelines, adhere to them strictly.

Conclusion

Privacy, confidentiality, and discretion are the cornerstones of any successful mental health webinar and/or therapy group. Together, we can foster an atmosphere of trust and empowerment, allowing everyone to benefit fully from the experience.

Headroom

We publish user experiences to help people make informed choices. 
As a policy, we do not remove user experiences simply because they are negative or disputed.

We may edit, pause, or remove one if it:

• is not linked to a verified booking on Headroom

• includes harassment, threats, hate speech, or abusive language

• includes identifying or private information about any person

• includes excessive session detail that risks confidentiality

• is spam, promotional, or appears manipulated

If a user experience is disputed, we may temporarily pause public display while we verify the booking and assess the content against our policy. This pause is not a finding in favour of or against either party.

Clients

We encourage everyone to share their experiences - both the inspiring ones and the constructive ones. 

To keep them fair, keep your comments focused on your personal experience (what felt helpful or unhelpful), avoid mentioning names, identifying details, or detailed session content. 

If you have a serious concern about care or safety, please do not hesitate to contact us on admin@staging.headroom.co.za. We will ensure your continued support and, where appropriate, help you find a different professional and a more suitable match.

A no-show happens when a client does not attend a booked session and has not cancelled or rescheduled within the required notice period. Because the practitioner has reserved that time and may not be able to offer it to another client at short notice, missed sessions will still be charged. If there was a genuine emergency or technical issue, please contact Headroom as soon as possible so that the situation can be reviewed.

You can reschedule eligible sessions through your Headroom client dashboard up to 24 hours in advance. Sessions cancelled or rescheduled after this window will be treated as late cancellations and may not be refundable, depending on Headroom's booking terms and the practitioner's availability.

Practitioners are self-employed professionals whose income depends on their time. A late cancellation or no-show is a real loss for them — one that is difficult to recover at short notice. Our cancellation policy exists to keep the platform fair for everyone on it.

If you're unsure what to do, contact Headroom as soon as possible and we'll help you navigate it.

It can take time to find the right fit — this doesn't mean you have done anything wrong, or that support won't work for you.

Headroom is designed to reduce this risk from the start. The Guidance Session exists to help you find the right practitioner before you commit, and the Discounted First Session means your first real contact carries less pressure and cost. Both exist precisely because we know the fit matters. The majority of people who use them go on to stay with their chosen practitioner.

If it still doesn't feel right, you can choose another practitioner on Headroom, or book a Guidance Session at any point in your journey to help you think through your options before booking again.

No. A Guidance Session is not a therapy session. It is a practical, non-clinical and non-diagnostic 30-minute session designed to help you clarify what kind of support you may need and which Headroom practitioners may be suitable for you. The counsellor will help you think through your needs, preferences, goals and practical constraints, such as budget or availability. You can book ongoing therapy, counselling, coaching or another type of support after the Guidance Session.

At Headroom, we understand that the cost of mental health support can be a concern. While we do not currently offer free counselling or therapy, we do offer several ways to help you access support more affordably and make the most of the sessions you book.

1. Start with a Guidance Session
If you are unsure who to book with, what kind of support you need, or how to choose the right practitioner, we recommend starting with our low-cost 30-min Guidance Session.

A Guidance Session helps you clarify what you are looking for, understand your options, and identify the type of practitioner who may be best suited to your needs, preferences, goals, and budget. This can help you avoid booking multiple sessions with practitioners who may not be the right fit.

You can learn more and book it here: https://headroom.co.za/find-the-right-therapist-for-you/

2. Use Discounted Matching Sessions
Headroom enables you to book one Discounted Matching Session per practitioner, with selected practitioners who offer this option. These are lower-cost introductory sessions that give you an opportunity to meet with a practitioner before committing to ongoing support.

You get a feel for the practitioner’s approach, you can ask questions, explain what you are looking for, and assess whether the connection feels right. This is important because a good fit can make your support more effective and help you use your money more wisely.

Instead of guessing from a profile alone, a Discounted Matching Session is a good way to make an informed choice quickly and inexpensively.

3. Consider bulk booking for a 10% discount
Some practitioners on Headroom offer a 10% discount when you book five or more sessions with them. This can make ongoing support more affordable.

A bulk booking can also help you commit to working more consistently towards your goals. Mental health and self-development support is most effective when it is not approached as a once-off conversation, but as a process where you return regularly, reflect on what is changing, and keep building on the work between sessions.

Once you have found a practitioner who feels like a good fit, check on their profile whether they offer a discount for booking several sessions in advance.

4. Consider 30-minute sessions instead of 60-minute sessions
If 60-minute sessions are too expensive, you can check if your practitioner offers 30-minute sessions or discuss with them in your session if this would be possible and suitable for your needs.

To make shorter sessions more effective, you can also do more self-work between sessions. That may include asking your practitioner for homework, reflection exercises, reading, journaling prompts, practical coping tools, or specific actions to work on before your next session.

This approach can help you stay engaged in your own progress while reducing the cost of each appointment.

5. Browse Headroom’s Knowledge Hub
Headroom has a growing library of free articles and resources that you can read in your own time: https://headroom.co.za/blog/.

These can help you better understand what you may be experiencing, learn practical coping tools, and prepare more clearly for your sessions. Reading before or between sessions may also help you get more value from paid support, because you will arrive with clearer questions, better language for what you are feeling, and a stronger sense of what you would like to work on with your practitioner.

Our blogs are not a replacement for professional support, but they can be a useful free resource for learning, reflection, self-work between sessions or inspiration for further research.

In summary
To get the best value from Headroom, start by choosing the right support carefully, use discounted matching sessions where available, consider bulk booking once you have found a good fit, speak to your practitioner about shorter sessions and between-session self-work, and make use of Headroom’s free resources to support your progress.

Following the Covid-19 worldwide restrictions, online therapy, counselling and coaching have become mainstream and the effectiveness of this mode of receiving support is virtually undisputed. 

What makes online interventions most effective is your commitment to the process and having access to the right advice at the right time. And it also helps that online contact removes the need for travel, extra time and the often related unnecessary stress that can come with in-person appointments.

We make it easier for you to connect, so that you can focus on your attendance and improvement. We give you access to a number of professionals far beyond those within the geographical area you can easily travel to. We bring the choice of professionals to your fingertips so that you can quickly compare the available alternatives and take immediate action. No unnecessary emails or phone calls to a practice before you can settle on a suitable time - you can view the professional's availability and book sessions 24/7. 

We believe that prevention now is better than a cure later and that positive results start with early action.
We make it our mission to help you achieve the best possible results in whichever way we can.

You can access more information on the effectiveness of online interventions in our blogs. You can also Sign up to receive our free Guide to help you consider if online support is for you.

If you got to this point of our website, your concern or interest are important to you and have prompted you to seek answers.
Maybe you truly need therapy and maybe what is truly needed is counselling, coaching or just a simple regular chat about how things are going in your life and work.

If you are asking yourself this question because you are unsure of whether or not to proceed with booking a session with a professional, there are various mental health assessment scales and questionnaires available online which you could complete to gain a better understanding of your emotional and psychological state at present.

That said, there is no harm in scheduling an introductory session with a professional to commence conversation. Many people in need of support delay seeking it. The very issues that are often cited as excuses to avoid professional support are the issues that they need help for.

Some professionals offer (almost) free introductory sessions which may be beneficial in assisting you to unpack your questions and expectations and assess the most appropriate next steps for you.

It is possible for multiple participants (in the same or different place) to convene in the same session. Whether this is desirable will be determined at the discretion of the professional.  The professional may suggest that individual sessions are conducted with multiple parties separately to understand the individual perspectives. In order to access the Headroom virtual rooms every participant will need to be registered as a user of the Headroom platform (either as a Client or a Professional).

Our video rooms can accommodate up to 200 participants at once. Should you wish to make use of our facilities for group sessions, please contact us to make appropriate arrangements. 

To the extent that your medical aid scheme covers online therapy, counselling and coaching, it is possible to have the session with a practitioner via Headroom and thereafter to submit the related invoice as a medical aid claim. In this regard we suggest that that you refer to your specific medical aid scheme’s rules and guidelines with regards to telehealth or telemedicine for mental health. Each of the schemes have specific guidance.

If you wish to claim from your medical aid, please ensure that:
- the practitioner you are booking with is medical aids approved and their profile shows that they have a "BHF number";
- mention this in your session, so the practitioner can issue you with a medical aid compliant invoice without delay.

Headroom supports the medical aid claims administration of practitioner' practices. For details, please inquire by contacting us.

This would be a breach of our terms and conditions.

Headroom also may not disclose a practitioner's personal contact information to you outside the platform’s normal booking process.

Practitioners value their privacy and their ability to decide when and how they engage with their work. For this reason, follow-up discussions, resources, and “homework” should be dealt with during the session itself.

If you wish to share information with your practitioner before the next appointment, you can do so in the notes attached to your booking.

You can also leave a "User Experience" on any of your past sessions via your Dashboard / Past Sessions and mark it "private". The practitioner will receive this directly in their email.

Our pricing is currently shown in South African Rand (ZAR). 
We work with clients worldwide and accept all types of credit cards. Whichever currency you wish to pay in, your bank will translate the amounts accordingly. 

Choose a Psychologist if you need assessment or treatment for a mental health condition.

Choose a Counsellor or a Social Worker for personal challenges, relationships or life transitions.

Choose an Occupational Therapist for work capacity or daily functioning related challenges.

Or start with a low-cost Guidance Session, where we help you unpack your needs and preferences and recommend practitioners most suitable for you.

You can complete a free client registration and book an online session in a few minutes. Once registered, you can browse available practitioners, compare profiles and book directly through the platform.

Most practitioners have appointments available within a few days, while some may have same-day or next-day availability.

Headroom gives you access to hundreds of verified mental health professionals, helping you find available support without lengthy waiting lists.

Online sessions on Headroom typically cost between R250/$15 and R1300/$75 per session, depending on the practitioner, their scope of work and session duration.

Some practitioners offer introductory sessions from R60/$4.

Same-day sessions are typically priced at a premium.

No client subscription plan is required. Headroom operates on a pay-as-you-go basis, giving you full control over how much and when you spend.

Headroom only uses reputable payment gateways able to process international payments in line with the global standards.  
We use 3D Secure - a MasterCard and Visa initiative to reduce online credit card transaction fraud.

When a purchase is made online, the cardholder is redirected the cardholder’s bank's authentication page. Here the cardholder is required to key in his/her authentication details (e.g. a one-time PIN). The Issuing Bank validates this code. If the response is 'not OK' then the transaction is ‘Declined’ up front by Headroom's payment gateway. It should be noted that not all Issuing Banks require their cardholders to register for this service.

If you are experiencing this issue, pls contact your bank and ensure that your card is enabled to make international online payments and for 3D secure authentication. You will only have to do this once.

There is no upfront cost for registering on Headroom. It is only upon booking a session that you will be prompted to make payment. Session rates are determined by the respective professional. The rate per session is dependent on the length of time of the session, the levels of qualification and the experience of the professional. A professional may offer reduced rates for recurrent sessions.

As an alternative to ad hoc sessions we are working on a subscription model to make long term therapy more affordable for you.

In the interim, please look for discounted packages for multiple sessions when selecting the session type during booking.  Many professionals also offer deeply discounted matching sessions which are always worth it to establish a good fit and may give the parties an opportunity to negotiate special rates.

Our pricing is currently shown in South African Rand (ZAR). 
We work with clients worldwide and accept all types of credit cards. Whichever currency you wish to pay in, your bank will translate the amounts accordingly. 

It is possible to book multiple sessions with one or more professionals, AS LONG AS you are not booking with any of them for the first time. 
First time bookings require some additional compliance steps which our system can't handle concurrently. 
If you are for example trying to book Discounted Matching Sessions with 2-3 professionals for the first time, to see who will be the best fit, please make these bookings in separate transactions. 

You can book multiple sessions with the same professional by selecting "recurring" A virtual room is only reserved when a session has been approved (which requires payment to be made). As such the system has been designed to proceed to checkout after booking a session. Should you wish to book additional sessions, simply return to your dashboard (by selecting ‘My Dashboard’ in the personalised drop down box or click on the "back" button in the browser), select the Book New Session tab on your client dashboard and book another session.

Your booked sessions will accumulate in your cart allowing a single checkout.

You can reschedule eligible sessions through your Headroom client dashboard up to 24 hours in advance. Sessions cancelled or rescheduled after this window will be treated as late cancellations and may not be refundable, depending on Headroom's booking terms and the practitioner's availability.

Practitioners are self-employed professionals whose income depends on their time. A late cancellation or no-show is a real loss for them — one that is difficult to recover at short notice. Our cancellation policy exists to keep the platform fair for everyone on it.

If you're unsure what to do, contact Headroom as soon as possible and we'll help you navigate it.

This would be a breach of our terms and conditions.

Headroom also may not disclose a practitioner's personal contact information to you outside the platform’s normal booking process.

Practitioners value their privacy and their ability to decide when and how they engage with their work. For this reason, follow-up discussions, resources, and “homework” should be dealt with during the session itself.

If you wish to share information with your practitioner before the next appointment, you can do so in the notes attached to your booking.

You can also leave a "User Experience" on any of your past sessions via your Dashboard / Past Sessions and mark it "private". The practitioner will receive this directly in their email.

Should you require any support whatsoever, make use of the contact form or send us an email and we will respond as soon as possible.

Headroom

We publish user experiences to help people make informed choices. 
As a policy, we do not remove user experiences simply because they are negative or disputed.

We may edit, pause, or remove one if it:

• is not linked to a verified booking on Headroom

• includes harassment, threats, hate speech, or abusive language

• includes identifying or private information about any person

• includes excessive session detail that risks confidentiality

• is spam, promotional, or appears manipulated

If a user experience is disputed, we may temporarily pause public display while we verify the booking and assess the content against our policy. This pause is not a finding in favour of or against either party.

Clients

We encourage everyone to share their experiences - both the inspiring ones and the constructive ones. 

To keep them fair, keep your comments focused on your personal experience (what felt helpful or unhelpful), avoid mentioning names, identifying details, or detailed session content. 

If you have a serious concern about care or safety, please do not hesitate to contact us on admin@staging.headroom.co.za. We will ensure your continued support and, where appropriate, help you find a different professional and a more suitable match.

The world changes fast and the global body of research expands constantly and at an astronomical rate. Headroom works with practitioners who are not only passionate about what they do, but who also have a professional responsibility to continually update their knowledge and skills in order to maintain valid licenses to practice and for the end benefit of the client.

The practitioners are psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers and counsellors duly licensed by reputable professional registration bodies in their respective countries which require them to keep up to date with the relevant continuous professional development requirements, enforce their compliance with a professional Code of Conduct and Ethics and prescribe quality of care standards expected of their profession. Each is verified before being authorised to offer their services and accept client bookings on the Headroom platform.

South Africa

We list practitioners registered with  the Health Professions Council of South Africa (”HPCSA”), the South African Council for Social Services Professions (“SACSSP”) or Association for Supportive Counsellors and Holistic Practitioners (“ASCHP”).

Some healthcare service providers are also registered with the Board of Healthcare Funders (BHF). This is essential when a client wishes to claim the cost of sessions from a medical aid scheme.

As a client, you can find the registration and practice (BHF) numbers and detailed descriptions of each professional by clicking on their profile.

Public webinars are an excellent way to gain valuable insights and resources very affordably. However, ensuring that these sessions remain a safe and comfortable space requires careful attention to privacy, confidentiality, and discretion. As a platform, we prioritize these values to protect attendees while fostering a supportive environment for learning and sharing.

How We Ensure Privacy, Confidentiality, and Discretion

As presenters, we take deliberate measures to anonymize our webinars and safeguard participant identities:

1. Anonymized Participation: The Zoom meeting settings are configured to hide attendees' names, photos, or live videos unless they voluntarily choose to enable them.

2. Secure Platforms: We use secure platforms with encrypted connections to ensure that all communication remains protected from unauthorized access.

3. Moderated Sharing: Any contributions made via chat or Q&A are moderated and anonymized before being shared with the larger group.

4. No Recordings Without Consent: Sessions are not recorded or distributed unless explicit consent is provided by all parties involved.

How Attendees Can Anonymize Themselves

Attendees can take the following steps to further ensure their anonymity while participating in webinars:

1. Use a Pseudonym: When joining the webinar, replace your real name with an alias or initials.

2. Turn Off Video and Audio: Keep your camera and microphone off unless you are comfortable sharing.

3. Disable Profile Photos: Remove or replace profile photos with neutral images to avoid identification.

4. Adjust Background Settings: If video is enabled, use a virtual background to obscure your environment.

How to Remain Undisturbed During Webinars

To fully focus on the webinar, consider these strategies to minimize interruptions:

1. Inform Family or Colleagues: Let those around you know that you are attending a private session and need uninterrupted time.

2. Choose a Quiet Location: Find a space where you can participate without distractions or background noise.

3. Use Headphones: Wearing headphones ensures privacy and reduces the chance of others overhearing sensitive content.

4. Silence Notifications: Turn off notifications on your devices to avoid interruptions during the session.

5. Schedule Strategically: Plan your attendance during a time when you are least likely to be disturbed.

Tips on Exercising Discretion

Discretion is a shared responsibility that ensures everyone’s experience remains positive and secure. Here’s how attendees can practice discretion:

1. Respect Confidentiality: Avoid sharing or discussing the names, identities, or contributions of other attendees outside the webinar.

2. Avoid Recording: Do not take screenshots, record audio, or save chat messages without explicit permission.

3. Be Mindful in Discussions: If sharing webinar insights with others, do so in a way that does not disclose specific details or identities.

4. Practice Empathy: Recognize that others may share vulnerable or sensitive information and treat it with care and respect.

5. Follow Post-Session Guidelines: If the platform provides confidentiality agreements or guidelines, adhere to them strictly.

Conclusion

Privacy, confidentiality, and discretion are the cornerstones of any successful mental health webinar and/or therapy group. Together, we can foster an atmosphere of trust and empowerment, allowing everyone to benefit fully from the experience.

A directory lists you and you wait for clients to find you. Headroom runs the administrative and operational side of your practice too: responding to queries, conversion of leads to paying clients, warm referrals through Guidance Sessions, compliant informed consent, secure payment collection, rescheduling, cancellations, refunds, medical aid-compliant invoicing, testimonials collection and a real human-operated support desk for you and your clients.

Registration with a recognised South African (HPCSA, SACSSP, ASCHP) or international professional body that enforces similar standards, including a Code of Ethics, Code of Conduct, minimum continued professional development (CPD) and enables us to verify your active membership in line with the scope of work you set up on Headroom. This verification is conducted during onboarding.

In order to change your password you need to be logged in to your account. Then hover over the top right hand corner, where it says 'Hello', and select 'My Account' from the drop down list. This will take you to your Account Page, where you will find the 'Change Password' option.

Should you wish to use a different email address from the one you signed up with, you'll need to open a brand new account. Changing your email address will impact your notifications and other important communications from our side and as such we perform some basic procedures before effecting the change for you. Once you have a bookings history on the original account, this will not transfer to the new account / email address. 

If you have no upcoming client sessions scheduled in your calendar, you can cancel your subscription yourself, in your Account Menu / My Subscription. This will deactivate but not delete your account. Should you wish to delete your account permanently for any reason, kindly send us an email and we will gladly assist you with no questions asked. 

If you have upcoming client sessions, please contact us to arrange a timely and orderly handover with you before giving effect to the deletion of your account.

There can be several causes of this, which are listed below. If you notice this early (i.e. before or after the 1st failed deduction attempt by the bank), you can generally troubleshoot these quite easily yourself, as suggested. 

1. Your card is no longer valid - Go to your account menu / My Subscription / Update Details / upload your new card details. 

2. Insufficient Funds - Transfer funds into your account and check if the subscription payment is successful in the next 24-48h, when the payments provider attempts to charge your account again.

3. You Cancelled / Paused Your Subscription 
If you cancel your subscription via a banking app or other channels  outside of the Headroom platform, your subscription will trigger a notice period and deactivation on our platform. This may result in disappointment / loss of clients and administrative fees in reinstating your account. 

If you are troubleshooting these issues only AFTER the 2nd or 3rd FAILED attempts by the bank to deduct your subscription, please note that this will most likely not automatically trigger a successful deduction. Please email us on admin@staging.headroom.co.za to assist you manually.  

Headroom reserves the right to charge an administrative fee to assist with the resolution of online payment issues not caused by us. 

Client continuity of care is a basic code-of-conduct requirement in the professional practice of mental health. We therefore rely on your utmost professionalism to handle any intended exit from the platform as responsibly, transparently, and collaboratively as possible with Headroom.

Why are Headroom subscriptions set up on recurring billing?
Each subscription plan includes recurring billing because it signals the intended duration and stability of your commitment to practising through Headroom. As long as your subscription remains active, Headroom can make your profile available for bookings with confidence that your practice remains stable and that client bookings will be honoured.

What happens if I intentionally cancel my subscription or do not renew it?
Ending your subscription is not treated as a simple consumer cancellation (think news or streaming).
Because Headroom operates in a professional mental health environment,
any exit from the platform must be managed carefully to protect legal,
compliance, administrative, access-control, and client
continuity-of-care interests.
If you cancel your subscription or fail to make a renewal payment, Headroom will treat this as a signal to begin winding down your active responsibilities in relation to Headroom’s clients and platform.

What is the notice period for?
A notice period applies before the expiry of your subscription. During that time, your account remains active for existing bookings only, but no new client bookings will be assigned to you. This allows time for an orderly handover, client communication where necessary, and proper continuity-of-care arrangements.

What if I cancel too close to renewal for proper notice to be given?
If cancellation occurs too close to the renewal date for Headroom to manage the transition responsibly, and insufficient notice results, you will be liable for a further subscription fee equivalent to your most recent subscription plan for one full additional term. Headroom also reserves the right to recover any reasonable costs arising from the disruption.

Client continuity of care is a basic code-of-conduct requirement in the professional practice of mental health. We therefore rely on your utmost professionalism to handle any intended exit from the platform timeously and as responsibly, transparently, and collaboratively as possible with Headroom.

Why are Headroom subscriptions set up on recurring billing?
Each subscription plan includes recurring billing because it signals the intended duration and stability of your commitment to practising through Headroom. As long as your subscription remains active, Headroom can make your profile available for bookings with confidence that your practice remains stable and that client bookings will be honoured.

What happens if I intentionally cancel my subscription or it expires without renewal?
Ending your subscription is not treated as a simple consumer cancellation (think news or streaming services).
Because Headroom operates in a professional mental health environment, any exit from the platform must be managed carefully to protect the legal, compliance, administrative, access-control, and client continuity-of-care interests.
If you cancel your subscription or fail to make a renewal payment, Headroom will treat this as a signal to begin winding down your active responsibilities in relation to Headroom’s clients and platform. A reactivation of a professional’s profile that expired due to their failure to maintain it will attract administrative charges.

What is the notice period for?
A notice period applies before the expiry of your subscription. During that time, your account remains active for existing bookings only, but no new client bookings will be assigned to you. This allows time for an orderly handover, client communication where necessary, and proper continuity-of-care arrangements.

What if I cancel too close to renewal for proper notice to be given?
If cancellation occurs too close to the renewal date for Headroom to manage the transition responsibly, and insufficient notice results, you will be liable for a further subscription fee equivalent to your most recent subscription plan for one full additional term. Headroom also reserves the right to recover any reasonable costs arising from the disruption.

What if I cancel immediately after subscribing, to stop any recurring charges from taking place in the future?
Please do not do this unless you no longer wish to work with Headroom. A cancellation triggers a set of operational steps, the reversal of which will trigger an administrative charge. If you are on the annual plan, we will send you a notification to alert you to your subscription expiring soon, with sufficient notice for you to ensure a timely renewal.

When does a profile get deactivated?
Deactivation can be automatic or instruction-driven. 
If you cancel or do not renew your subscription and once the notice period linked to your active subscription plan has expired, your account will be deactivated automatically. If you ask us to deactivate your account for reasons such as studies, sabbatical, maternity leave, prolonged travel, or a decision to pause or stop practising through the platform or work in private practice at all, we will deactivate your account as per your instruction. 

What happens when my account is deactivated?
Your profile will no longer be bookable by clients. You will also lose access to your dashboard and will not be able to join meetings linked to that account. Where any outstanding administrative actions remain necessary in respect of particular client cases, such as medical aid invoices or similar documentation, Headroom will contact you to arrange an orderly handover.

Can I return to Headroom later and have my previous profile reactivated?
Yes. You may return at any time. In most cases, your previous profile can be restored with its historical data, including past session count, shared user experiences, and client or platform records associated with that account.

Is there a fee to reactivate my previous profile?
Yes. A reactivation fee of R799 applies, in addition to the subscription plan you select going forward. Or you may open a brand new account at no additional cost beyond your selected subscription plan. A new account will not include any history from your previous profile.

Many clients overcome real hesitation, past disappointments or other significant barriers just to make a booking. A no-show from a trusted professional can be discouraging, and may stop a client from trying again, so practitioners are expected to honour session bookings reliably and log in on time. If illness, a personal emergency or unusual circumstances mean you won’t be able to attend a session, let us know as soon as possible so we can contact the client on your behalf and arrange a reschedule. Reschedules and cancellations initiated by the practitioner attract an additional administrative fee, viewable on your practitioner dashboard.

Sessions booked through Headroom need to be conducted on the platform. This isn’t a minor administrative rule: Headroom invests materially in marketing, client acquisition and client retention to bring you each booking, and the platform’s attendance records are what drive your payouts, invoicing and compliance documentation. If a session happens off-platform, those records are incomplete, which can affect your payout and leaves both you and the client with less protection if a dispute or complaint arises — including under POPIA and standard consumer protection requirements. Taking a client off the platform may also leave you liable for related costs. If you’re planning to bring an existing client base onto Headroom, talk to us first — we can set this up transparently, so that client list is recognised as yours, including if you ever decide to leave the platform.

Test connection environment You are able to test your connection by selecting the ‘Test Connection’ hyperlink associated with each booked session. Selecting this hyperlink launches a test room where you are able to view your own image on the screen to confirm that the camera is operational.

The video and audio can be switched on or off by selecting the camera or microphone icon in the bottom left hand side of the screen. Note that the icons are presented with a strike through line. When the icons are black the camera and microphone are active/switched on. When the icons are red then they are inactive/switched off. In both instances a strike through line is visible.

In the right-hand corner of the test screen is an icon made up of three little dots. Clicking on this icon launches the settings for the test room. We encourage all users to familiarise themselves with the layout and settings of the video conferencing room:

Camera/microphone settings: allow you to change the source of the mic: microphone sound, camera, video image and speakers, sounds speakers. In order to test the speakers, you are able to run a sound test by clicking on ‘play test sound’.

Video quality: this allows you to select the video quality (high, low or camera off – which should only be done to save bandwidth).

Active speaker view: determines whose image is to be displayed more prominently.

Virtual room In addition to the features in the test connection environment, the virtual room also has a setting which provides feedback on the quality of the internet connection. If you are experiencing some granularity in the video images initially, allow a 1-2 minutes for the connection to stabilise.

If you regularly receive the message ‘retrying’ this is likely related to network. It is useful to also keep in mind that the video conferencing sessions are taking place in a browser. Therefore, if you are experiencing problems, one workaround is to quit the session in the browser you are currently using and reopening it in new browser. The calls can be conducted via the following browsers: Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Edge, in order of preference and quality. Chrome is the recommended browser and delivers most consistent quality video.

If you are receiving messages regarding ‘packet loss’ during a session, try one of the following:

• Reboot computer
• Move closer to your Wifi router

(Packet loss is different from your speed test or download speed. Packet loss reflects UDP data, which is the data transmitted when you stream live media.  When streaming live media, network issues often relate to an OS-level root cause. That is why, if you're having issues, rebooting can be effective).

The virtual room is available only for the booked session time and will close automatically at the scheduled end time. A countdown timer appears at the top of the screen to help both you and the client keep track of time.

It is important for you as the professional to remain aware of time throughout the session and to guide the flow of the conversation in a way that allows for a calm, natural ending. As a rule, the session should not run up to the final second with a major issue still being opened, explored, or emotionally intensified. Instead, aim to pace the session so that there is enough time to slow down, pull the main threads together, and bring the conversation to a contained and meaningful close.

It is possible for multiple participants (in the same or different place) to convene in the same session. Whether this is desirable will be determined at the discretion of the professional.  The professional may suggest that individual sessions are conducted with multiple parties separately to understand the individual perspectives. In order to access the Headroom virtual rooms every participant will need to be registered as a user of the Headroom platform (either as a Client or a Professional).

Our video rooms can accommodate up to 200 participants at once. Should you wish to make use of our facilities for group sessions, please contact us to make appropriate arrangements. 

If two participants will be joining from different locations:

• Both participants must have their own registered Headroom profile.
• The client who booked and paid for the session will receive the session link.
• That client should share the link with the other participant.
• Both individuals must log in to their accounts and use the shared link to join the session.

This ensures the session remains secure and confidential.

Public webinars are an excellent way to gain valuable insights and resources very affordably. However, ensuring that these sessions remain a safe and comfortable space requires careful attention to privacy, confidentiality, and discretion. As a platform, we prioritize these values to protect attendees while fostering a supportive environment for learning and sharing.

How We Ensure Privacy, Confidentiality, and Discretion

As presenters, we take deliberate measures to anonymize our webinars and safeguard participant identities:

1. Anonymized Participation: The Zoom meeting settings are configured to hide attendees' names, photos, or live videos unless they voluntarily choose to enable them.

2. Secure Platforms: We use secure platforms with encrypted connections to ensure that all communication remains protected from unauthorized access.

3. Moderated Sharing: Any contributions made via chat or Q&A are moderated and anonymized before being shared with the larger group.

4. No Recordings Without Consent: Sessions are not recorded or distributed unless explicit consent is provided by all parties involved.

How Attendees Can Anonymize Themselves

Attendees can take the following steps to further ensure their anonymity while participating in webinars:

1. Use a Pseudonym: When joining the webinar, replace your real name with an alias or initials.

2. Turn Off Video and Audio: Keep your camera and microphone off unless you are comfortable sharing.

3. Disable Profile Photos: Remove or replace profile photos with neutral images to avoid identification.

4. Adjust Background Settings: If video is enabled, use a virtual background to obscure your environment.

How to Remain Undisturbed During Webinars

To fully focus on the webinar, consider these strategies to minimize interruptions:

1. Inform Family or Colleagues: Let those around you know that you are attending a private session and need uninterrupted time.

2. Choose a Quiet Location: Find a space where you can participate without distractions or background noise.

3. Use Headphones: Wearing headphones ensures privacy and reduces the chance of others overhearing sensitive content.

4. Silence Notifications: Turn off notifications on your devices to avoid interruptions during the session.

5. Schedule Strategically: Plan your attendance during a time when you are least likely to be disturbed.

Tips on Exercising Discretion

Discretion is a shared responsibility that ensures everyone’s experience remains positive and secure. Here’s how attendees can practice discretion:

1. Respect Confidentiality: Avoid sharing or discussing the names, identities, or contributions of other attendees outside the webinar.

2. Avoid Recording: Do not take screenshots, record audio, or save chat messages without explicit permission.

3. Be Mindful in Discussions: If sharing webinar insights with others, do so in a way that does not disclose specific details or identities.

4. Practice Empathy: Recognize that others may share vulnerable or sensitive information and treat it with care and respect.

5. Follow Post-Session Guidelines: If the platform provides confidentiality agreements or guidelines, adhere to them strictly.

Conclusion

Privacy, confidentiality, and discretion are the cornerstones of any successful mental health webinar and/or therapy group. Together, we can foster an atmosphere of trust and empowerment, allowing everyone to benefit fully from the experience.

Headroom

We publish user experiences to help people make informed choices. 
As a policy, we do not remove user experiences simply because they are negative or disputed.

We may edit, pause, or remove one if it:

• is not linked to a verified booking on Headroom

• includes harassment, threats, hate speech, or abusive language

• includes identifying or private information about any person

• includes excessive session detail that risks confidentiality

• is spam, promotional, or appears manipulated

If a user experience is disputed, we may temporarily pause public display while we verify the booking and assess the content against our policy. This pause is not a finding in favour of or against either party.

Clients

We encourage everyone to share their experiences - both the inspiring ones and the constructive ones. 

To keep them fair, keep your comments focused on your personal experience (what felt helpful or unhelpful), avoid mentioning names, identifying details, or detailed session content. 

If you have a serious concern about care or safety, please do not hesitate to contact us on admin@staging.headroom.co.za. We will ensure your continued support and, where appropriate, help you find a different professional and a more suitable match.

Never cancel a Headroom session that appears in your connected calendar, before or after the session has taken place. This would delete the audit trail of the booking (as our system is synchronised with your online calendar) and we won't be able to pay you out.

Professionals are expected to be reliable in honoring session bookings and punctual in logging in. 

Please submit your request to cancel or reschedule to us no later than 24h before the session.
In emergencies, please let us know as soon as possible.

Headroom administration fees will apply for any cancellations or rescheduling of sessions by the professional. For details, please refer to the last question in these FAQs on additional fees.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding cancelling or rescheduling sessions, please email us and we will gladly assist.

Headroom

We publish user experiences to help clients make informed choices. We do not remove user experiences simply because they are negative or disputed.

We may edit, pause, or remove one if it:

• is not linked to a verified booking on Headroom

• includes harassment, threats, hate speech, or abusive language

• includes identifying or private information about any person

• includes excessive session detail that risks confidentiality

• is spam, promotional, or appears manipulated

If a user experience is disputed, we may temporarily pause public display while we verify the booking and assess the content against our policy. This pause is not a finding in favour of or against either party.

Professionals

Our system allows you to respond to user experiences on your profile left by your clients. 

When responding, please be aware of the basic principles of confidentiality - avoid mentioning session details or any identifying information. 

If you dispute anything contained in the client's post, or if you believe that it breaches our policy or is not linked to a valid Headroom booking, please contact us at admin@staging.headroom.co.za. Please provide us with the session details, explanation of what you disagree with, and you may suggest minor edits (for example removing identifying details or reframing wording) that would make the post acceptable to you. We will consider this input as part of our policy-based assessment.

A confirmed session needs to be paid for in full at the time of booking.

Punctuality and session attendance:

• If you are not punctual in terms of attendance of a session,  the lost time will not be substituted.
• If you fail to sign in for a scheduled session for whatever reason, an admin fee of R250 may be charged to you to cover the transaction and platform related fees incurred by Headroom.

Technical glitches:

• If the session is compromised for any reason due to technical issues on our platform, please immediately contact us for assistance. In the event that the issue cannot be resolved, the participants will have the choice to reschedule the session or request a full refund.

A client can, via their account dashboard / Upcoming Sessions tab:

• Reschedule a session up to 24 hours in advance.
  
• Cancel a session up to 24 hours in advance. Headroom will issue a voucher to the client which can be credited against the cost of a
  future session. A cancelled session may be refunded at the client's request, net of transaction fees. 

If you have any questions or concerns regarding refunds, please email us and we will gladly assist.

A directory lists you and you wait for clients to find you. Headroom runs the administrative and operational side of your practice too: responding to queries, conversion of leads to paying clients, warm referrals through Guidance Sessions, compliant informed consent, secure payment collection, rescheduling, cancellations, refunds, medical aid-compliant invoicing, testimonials collection and a real human-operated support desk for you and your clients.

Yes. Your profile lets you list the specific approaches, client populations and areas of focus you work in. Clients filter by this when searching, and Guidance Session and corporate referral routing use the same information to match you with people already looking for what you offer. Specialising builds a visible track record over time, helping you compete on fit rather than price.

Yes. Headroom can run as a fully separate online arm of your practice or be integrated with your existing setup, managed through the same calendar and dashboard. You are also welcome to run your entire practice bookings and administration through Headroom – this can free you up for valuable time with clients and building additional referral networks for your practice.

If you’re planning to bring an existing client base onto Headroom, talk to us first — we can set this up transparently, so that client list is recognised as yours, including if you ever decide to leave the platform.

It is possible for multiple participants (in the same or different place) to convene in the same session. Whether this is desirable will be determined at the discretion of the professional.  The professional may suggest that individual sessions are conducted with multiple parties separately to understand the individual perspectives. In order to access the Headroom virtual rooms every participant will need to be registered as a user of the Headroom platform (either as a Client or a Professional).

Our video rooms can accommodate up to 200 participants at once. Should you wish to make use of our facilities for group sessions, please contact us to make appropriate arrangements. 

Many clients overcome real hesitation, past disappointments or other significant barriers just to make a booking. A no-show from a trusted professional can be discouraging, and may stop a client from trying again, so practitioners are expected to honour session bookings reliably and log in on time. If illness, a personal emergency or unusual circumstances mean you won’t be able to attend a session, let us know as soon as possible so we can contact the client on your behalf and arrange a reschedule. Reschedules and cancellations initiated by the practitioner attract an additional administrative fee, viewable on your practitioner dashboard.

Yes, automatically, on both plans. You don’t need a separate billing system for medical aid clients. After the session, you simply insert the tariff codes as applicable and issue the invoice with one click. The client claims from their medical aid.

Clients pay upfront through a secure payment gateway before every session. You receive a monthly payout with an itemised invoice. Because payments are collected at booking, there are no late payments and no bad debt.

One of the key goals of Headroom's work is to keep coaching, counselling and therapy financially affordable.

We put a lot of thinking and effort into automation of systems and processes, so we can keep our own services as cost-efficient as possible. 

In instances where excessive and/manual involvement of our team is required to rectify situations caused by a professional's negligence, breach of our terms and conditions, or other causes within the professional's control, Headroom reserves the right to charge full activity-driven fees, including but not limited to the following:

• Session "No-show"/ Session conducted off the Headroom platform: ZAR 250,- / USD 16,-
• Rescheduling by the professional, >24h before session: ZAR 250,- / USD 16,-
• Rescheduling by the professional, <24h before session: ZAR 350,- / USD 22,-
• Headroom Client rerouted to a professional's private practice: full cost of client acquisition and retention, min. ZAR 2500,- / USD 160,-
• Account Reactivation once allowed to expire: ZAR 799,- / USD 50,-
• Other: ZAR 950,- / USD 60,- per hour

A confirmed session needs to be paid for in full at the time of booking.

Punctuality and session attendance:

• If you are not punctual in terms of attendance of a session,  the lost time will not be substituted.
• If you fail to sign in for a scheduled session for whatever reason, an admin fee of R250 may be charged to you to cover the transaction and platform related fees incurred by Headroom.

Technical glitches:

• If the session is compromised for any reason due to technical issues on our platform, please immediately contact us for assistance. In the event that the issue cannot be resolved, the participants will have the choice to reschedule the session or request a full refund.

A client can, via their account dashboard / Upcoming Sessions tab:

• Reschedule a session up to 24 hours in advance.
  
• Cancel a session up to 24 hours in advance. Headroom will issue a voucher to the client which can be credited against the cost of a
  future session. A cancelled session may be refunded at the client's request, net of transaction fees. 

If you have any questions or concerns regarding refunds, please email us and we will gladly assist.

Should you require any support whatsoever, make use of the contact form or send us an email and we will respond as soon as possible.

Headroom

We publish user experiences to help people make informed choices. 
As a policy, we do not remove user experiences simply because they are negative or disputed.

We may edit, pause, or remove one if it:

• is not linked to a verified booking on Headroom

• includes harassment, threats, hate speech, or abusive language

• includes identifying or private information about any person

• includes excessive session detail that risks confidentiality

• is spam, promotional, or appears manipulated

If a user experience is disputed, we may temporarily pause public display while we verify the booking and assess the content against our policy. This pause is not a finding in favour of or against either party.

Clients

We encourage everyone to share their experiences - both the inspiring ones and the constructive ones. 

To keep them fair, keep your comments focused on your personal experience (what felt helpful or unhelpful), avoid mentioning names, identifying details, or detailed session content. 

If you have a serious concern about care or safety, please do not hesitate to contact us on admin@staging.headroom.co.za. We will ensure your continued support and, where appropriate, help you find a different professional and a more suitable match.

Headroom

We publish user experiences to help clients make informed choices. We do not remove user experiences simply because they are negative or disputed.

We may edit, pause, or remove one if it:

• is not linked to a verified booking on Headroom

• includes harassment, threats, hate speech, or abusive language

• includes identifying or private information about any person

• includes excessive session detail that risks confidentiality

• is spam, promotional, or appears manipulated

If a user experience is disputed, we may temporarily pause public display while we verify the booking and assess the content against our policy. This pause is not a finding in favour of or against either party.

Professionals

Our system allows you to respond to user experiences on your profile left by your clients. 

When responding, please be aware of the basic principles of confidentiality - avoid mentioning session details or any identifying information. 

If you dispute anything contained in the client's post, or if you believe that it breaches our policy or is not linked to a valid Headroom booking, please contact us at admin@staging.headroom.co.za. Please provide us with the session details, explanation of what you disagree with, and you may suggest minor edits (for example removing identifying details or reframing wording) that would make the post acceptable to you. We will consider this input as part of our policy-based assessment.

Generally not. Headroom may not disclose a client’s personal contact information to you outside the platform’s normal booking process.

Clients value their privacy and their ability to decide when and how they engage. Many local and international clients deliberately choose Headroom as an independent online platform to keep contact strictly limited to their session times. 

For this reason, follow-up discussions, resources, and “homework” should be dealt with during the session itself. If a client wishes to share information with you before the next appointment, they will do so in the notes attached to their booking.

If a client has personally shared their contact details with you during a session and contact outside of your sessions is unavoidable, limited contact may be appropriate. However, we strongly advise professionals to keep communication within scheduled sessions to avoid any misunderstandings.

Sessions booked through Headroom need to be conducted on the platform. This isn’t a minor administrative rule: Headroom invests materially in marketing, client acquisition and client retention to bring you each booking, and the platform’s attendance records are what drive your payouts, invoicing and compliance documentation. If a session happens off-platform, those records are incomplete, which can affect your payout and leaves both you and the client with less protection if a dispute or complaint arises — including under POPIA and standard consumer protection requirements. Taking a client off the platform may also leave you liable for related costs. If you’re planning to bring an existing client base onto Headroom, talk to us first — we can set this up transparently, so that client list is recognised as yours, including if you ever decide to leave the platform.

Registration with a recognised South African (HPCSA, SACSSP, ASCHP) or international professional body that enforces similar standards, including a Code of Ethics, Code of Conduct, minimum continued professional development (CPD) and enables us to verify your active membership in line with the scope of work you set up on Headroom. This verification is conducted during onboarding.

Public webinars are an excellent way to gain valuable insights and resources very affordably. However, ensuring that these sessions remain a safe and comfortable space requires careful attention to privacy, confidentiality, and discretion. As a platform, we prioritize these values to protect attendees while fostering a supportive environment for learning and sharing.

How We Ensure Privacy, Confidentiality, and Discretion

As presenters, we take deliberate measures to anonymize our webinars and safeguard participant identities:

1. Anonymized Participation: The Zoom meeting settings are configured to hide attendees' names, photos, or live videos unless they voluntarily choose to enable them.

2. Secure Platforms: We use secure platforms with encrypted connections to ensure that all communication remains protected from unauthorized access.

3. Moderated Sharing: Any contributions made via chat or Q&A are moderated and anonymized before being shared with the larger group.

4. No Recordings Without Consent: Sessions are not recorded or distributed unless explicit consent is provided by all parties involved.

How Attendees Can Anonymize Themselves

Attendees can take the following steps to further ensure their anonymity while participating in webinars:

1. Use a Pseudonym: When joining the webinar, replace your real name with an alias or initials.

2. Turn Off Video and Audio: Keep your camera and microphone off unless you are comfortable sharing.

3. Disable Profile Photos: Remove or replace profile photos with neutral images to avoid identification.

4. Adjust Background Settings: If video is enabled, use a virtual background to obscure your environment.

How to Remain Undisturbed During Webinars

To fully focus on the webinar, consider these strategies to minimize interruptions:

1. Inform Family or Colleagues: Let those around you know that you are attending a private session and need uninterrupted time.

2. Choose a Quiet Location: Find a space where you can participate without distractions or background noise.

3. Use Headphones: Wearing headphones ensures privacy and reduces the chance of others overhearing sensitive content.

4. Silence Notifications: Turn off notifications on your devices to avoid interruptions during the session.

5. Schedule Strategically: Plan your attendance during a time when you are least likely to be disturbed.

Tips on Exercising Discretion

Discretion is a shared responsibility that ensures everyone’s experience remains positive and secure. Here’s how attendees can practice discretion:

1. Respect Confidentiality: Avoid sharing or discussing the names, identities, or contributions of other attendees outside the webinar.

2. Avoid Recording: Do not take screenshots, record audio, or save chat messages without explicit permission.

3. Be Mindful in Discussions: If sharing webinar insights with others, do so in a way that does not disclose specific details or identities.

4. Practice Empathy: Recognize that others may share vulnerable or sensitive information and treat it with care and respect.

5. Follow Post-Session Guidelines: If the platform provides confidentiality agreements or guidelines, adhere to them strictly.

Conclusion

Privacy, confidentiality, and discretion are the cornerstones of any successful mental health webinar and/or therapy group. Together, we can foster an atmosphere of trust and empowerment, allowing everyone to benefit fully from the experience.

Each of the professional industry bodies with whom the Headroom's therapists, counsellors and coaches are registered issues a Code of Conduct and/or Ethics. These Codes prescribe a set of norms, standards, rules and responsibilities associated with proper and ethical conduct that every professional member must follow.

Follow the links below to view the Codes:

• • • HPCSA Guidelines for Good Practice in the Health Care Professions 
    • HPCSA Guidelines for Telemedicine in South Africa
    • South African Professional Conduct Guidelines in South Africa (PsySSA)
    • Policy Guidelines for Course of Conduct, Code of Ethics and the Rules for Social Workers (SACSSP) 
    • Association for Supportive Counsellors and Holistic Practitioners (ASCHP) Code of Ethics
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