Table 1.

Focus group questions.

Questions*	Allotted time (MINS)
1. What is your understanding of informed consent in the clinical context of counseling and psychotherapy? Follow-up question: What does informed consent mean to you as a Counselor & Psychotherapist? Follow-up question: What does informed consent mean to you as a client?	10
2. What are your experiences of informed consent as a therapist? Follow-up question: What are your experiences of informed consent in therapy as a client?	10
3. When do clients have capacity to provide informed consent and when do they not? Follow-up question: Can children in therapy give informed consent? Follow-up question: Is the building of capacity to give informed consent a goal in therapy?	10
4. What – if anything – should a therapist disclose to clients about how therapy works to equip them to make a decision about therapy? Follow-up question: What information is ethically relevant for therapists to disclose to the client? Follow-up question: Should therapists describe such factors as the importance of the therapeutic alliance, therapist empathy etc.? Follow-up question: Should clients be informed as to the effectiveness or evidence-base for psychotherapy or different versions of psychotherapy?	10
5. How do you think informed consent should be obtained? Follow-up question: Is consent a one-time thing or is it an ongoing process? Or can it be both of these things? Follow-up question: How can therapists ensure that the client consents to what is disclosed?	10
6. Does anyone have anything they would like to add to the discussion? Follow-up question: How have you found discussing this subject? Follow-up question: What, if anything, has challenged you today? Follow-up question: Have any of your views changed?	5

^*Follow-up questions were used, as necessary, to help prompt discussion.