Join

A sponsor can be anyone who has experience of you as a practitioner or therapist. They may be a regular client, another therapist in the same or different modality, a teacher, or a supervisor. If you offer more than one therapy you do not have to provide a sponsor for each one. You are responsible for obtaining permission from your sponsors to be approached, and to provide their personal details.

When you apply to join the Directory we will contact your sponsors by phone or email and ask them whether they would be happy to recommend you to friends, family etc. Once they have confirmed this, they will not be contacted again and their details will not be retained; we will simply record that your sponsors were contacted and endorsed you.

Membership of the Directory is monthly there are two levels of membership. Premium ensures that you will be one of the first names returned in any search that identifies you. Standard members are returned in search too but after Premium members. Other than this distinction, search results are shown in a random order. Membership for the month is currently £4.99 for standard and £10.99 for Premium

No. All Forest Wellbeing does is to check that registered practitioners hold valid insurance for the services that they are listed for, and that their sponsors are happy to recommend them. We do not check qualifications nor professional registrations, or perform any kind of check on competence. There is a disclaimer on the website that explains this to potential clients.

The Directory is specifically for practitioners, but if you are in the wellbeing industry we would love to have you as an advertiser or sponsor. This may be suitable for spas, locations with therapy rooms for hire, retreat venues, gyms or fitness clubs, or accommodation amongst many others. Please contact us to discuss options.

If you are listed for services in which you are qualified, you can add into your pen picture that you are training in another. You cannot be listed to provide a service unless you are qualified and insured to provide it as a chargeable service to members of the public. Once you have achieved that you can join the Directory or update your listing to include the new modality.

If you are no longer qualified to be on the Directory or want to be removed, you can approach us via the contact page and ask for your listing to be removed. We do not monitor practitioners to ensure they are still qualified to appear.

If you have a valid complaint against a listed practitioner, we recommend you raise it with them in the first instance and try to resolve the issue. If that is not successful then you can contact us with details of your complaint. We will investigate it and, if appropriate, remove the practitioner concerned from the directory either temporarily or permanently. If you think the listing is inaccurate, again you should initially raise this with the practitioner concerned. Only if you are unable to resolve the matter with them should you bring it to Forest Wellbeing. If your own listing is wrong or needs to be amended, you can contact us with the correct details and ask for it to be updated.

Holistic and complementary practitioners are not generally permitted to make statements about a treating or curing any condition. The Forest Wellbeing Directory lists practitioners as being able to help with or alleviate the symptoms of conditions and clearly states that holistic and complementary therapies are not a substitute for medical advice. We advise you to ensure your clients and potential clients understand the difference between helping with symptoms and helping with their condition. If you are a member of a professional body, they may have guidelines on what you can and cannot say and you should refer to those. We are happy to talk to any practitioner who is concerned about conflict between the Directory and guidance from professional organisations. The Advertising Standards Authority will contact anyone whose advertising they feel is misleading, and seek to work with them to make necessary changes. It is understood that unless wellbeing practitioners are able to say what they can do, they are not able to attract clients.

Yes, absolutely. We want the Directory to be as comprehensive and varied as possible so if you do something we don’t currently have listed, we would be delighted to have you assuming you meet the criteria for joining.

No. Obviously we hope that all listed practitioners will generate business through the Directory, and we will be doing our best to make that possible. This is the first Directory of its kind in the region so there is little data to draw on. We believe that being able to search on condition as well as therapy or service will make this particular Directory attractive to potential clients and we aim to enlist support and interest from organisations such as the NHS. We also encourage members of the Directory to publicise it as much as they can amongst their potential client base. Ultimately however, we are not able to make any statement about the amount of business it’s likely to generate either in general or for any particular practitioner.

We are always happy to hear from people who share our passion for wellbeing and for the Forest of Dean. Please contact us to talk about how you would like to be involved.

We are always happy to hear from people who share our passion for wellbeing and for the Forest of Dean. Please contact us on the contact page to reach out.