Terms of Engagement

• 1. Who you are contracting with
• 2. What the service is
• 3. What it is not
• 4. Urgent and emergency care
• 5. How an engagement is formed
• 6. Fees and payment
• 7. How the work is delivered
• 8. What is asked of you
• 9. Confidentiality and its limits
• 10. Records and your data
• 11. Materials and ownership
• 12. Recording sessions
• 13. Ending an engagement
• 14. Responsibility and liability
• 15. Complaints
• 16. General

1. Who you are contracting with

BeingVITAL.Me is a trading brand of The WardWise, operated by Russ Maher as a sole trader in the United Kingdom. Your contract is with him personally. There are no employees or associates, and the work is not subcontracted.

2. What the service is

BeingVITAL provides wellbeing coaching, education and structured self-observation. In practice that means:

• a structured conversation about your history, current demands, patterns and priorities;
• helping you notice and record what appears to support or cost you, through the Client Compass;
• building a Personal Blueprint — a living record of what helps you, what costs you, and how you return;
• education and practical suggestions about routine, rhythm, recovery and daily structure; and
• helping you form clearer, better questions to take to your own clinicians.

Russ's clinical career is described on this site and in the engagement documents as professional background. It informs how he pays attention. It is not the service being offered.

3. What it is not

This section matters more than any other, so it is stated plainly.

• No outcome is promised or guaranteed. Nobody honest can promise one.
• Nothing discussed is a reason to stop, start or change prescribed medication. Those decisions rest with the clinician who prescribed it.
• Where you share previous reports or correspondence, they are placed in date order only — not read for clinical meaning, not interpreted, and not used to form any view about your health.
• BeingVITAL does not sell supplements, tests or products, and does not receive commission from anyone who does.

Supplements, laboratory testing, medical appointments, travel and third-party services are separate from the fee unless your engagement document expressly includes them.

4. Urgent and emergency care

BeingVITAL is not an urgent or emergency service, and correspondence is not monitored continuously. Between-session access is not an on-call or monitoring arrangement.

Contact your GP or call NHS 111 the same day if you notice chest pain or pressure, sudden or severe breathlessness, sudden weakness or difficulty speaking, unexplained weight loss, unexplained bleeding, a new or changing lump, severe or rapidly worsening pain, or any symptom that is new, escalating quickly, or frightening you. Call 999 in an emergency.

If you are struggling to cope, or having thoughts of harming yourself, you deserve proper support and it is available now: speak to your GP, call 111 and choose the mental health option, or call Samaritans free on 116 123, at any hour.

Telling Russ does not replace getting proper care, and nothing in the BeingVITAL process should ever delay it.

5. How an engagement is formed

1. Application. A short enquiry through the website. General information only.
2. Clarity Conversation. Up to 45 minutes, no charge, to establish fit and direction. Not a free assessment or problem-solving session.
3. Initial Consultation. 90 minutes, £295, where the substantive work begins. Preceded by a separate signed health-data consent and a written engagement confirmation.
4. Private programme. If both sides choose to continue, a written engagement agreement records the pathway, fee, dates, rhythm and access before anything begins.

No contract exists until the relevant written engagement document has been agreed by both of you. An enquiry commits you to nothing, and neither does a Clarity Conversation.

Russ works with a limited number of private clients at a time and may decline an engagement, including where the work is not an appropriate fit. Where he does, he says so directly.

6. Fees and payment

• Current fees are set out on the website and confirmed in your engagement document. The document governs if the two ever differ.
• The Initial Consultation is payable in advance.
• Programme fees are payable as set out in your engagement agreement — in full, or by instalments where agreed.
• Instalments reflect an agreed total fee for a whole programme, not a subscription that can be stopped at will. Section 6 of the Cancellation & Refunds policy explains what happens if you end early.
• Fees are inclusive of any tax properly chargeable at the time.
• Where an instalment is missed, Russ will contact you before taking any other step. Sessions may be paused while it is resolved.

7. How the work is delivered

Sessions are normally held by video call, or by telephone where you prefer. Your engagement agreement records the session rhythm, duration, between-session access and the normal response boundary.

Between-session contact is for continuity, not availability. Messages are read during working hours and answered within the boundary recorded in your agreement — normally within one working day. It is not a monitoring service.

Please be ready at the agreed time and in a setting where you can speak freely. If you are more than 15 minutes late without notice, the session may be treated as used.

8. What is asked of you

• Engage with the agreed rhythm as far as your circumstances reasonably allow, and say early if they change.
• Give information that is accurate to the best of your knowledge. What you choose to withhold is your right; what you choose to give should be true.
• Tell Russ promptly if your health, medication, treatment or clinical advice changes during an engagement. It may change what is appropriate to work on.
• Continue with any care your own clinician has advised, and do not alter it on the strength of anything discussed here.
• Raise concerns as they arise rather than at the end, so the work can be adjusted while it still matters.
• Treat Russ with the same courtesy you would expect. Abusive conduct ends an engagement immediately.

9. Confidentiality and its limits

What you discuss is treated as confidential and is not shared. Russ is the only person who routinely sees your information.

There are a small number of exceptions, and they are named here rather than buried:

• where you ask for information to be shared, or agree to it;
• where there is a serious and immediate risk to your life or someone else's;
• where there is a safeguarding concern about a child or an adult at risk;
• where disclosure is required by law, such as a court order.

Where any of these arise, Russ will tell you what he is doing and why, unless telling you would itself increase risk.

10. Records and your data

How your information is collected, used, shared and kept — including health-related information — is set out in the Privacy Notice. Health-related data is processed only with your separate signed explicit consent, which you can withdraw at any time.

You can ask what is held about you, ask for it to be corrected or deleted, and complain to the Information Commissioner's Office if you are not satisfied.

11. Materials and ownership

Yours. Your Personal Blueprint, your Client Compass entries and your own notes are yours. You keep them when the engagement ends. That is the point of them.

His. The BeingVITAL method, frameworks, templates, written materials and the site content remain Russ's intellectual property. You are given a personal, non-transferable licence to use them for your own purposes. Please do not reproduce, publish, resell or teach them as your own.

12. Recording sessions

Neither side records a session without the other's agreement, given in advance. If you would find a recording useful, ask — it is often a reasonable request and will usually be agreed. A recording made for your own use stays for your own use.

13. Ending an engagement

You may end an engagement at any time by writing to apply@beingvital.me. Your statutory cancellation rights and the financial settlement are covered in the Cancellation & Refunds policy.

Russ may end an engagement where:

• the work is no longer an appropriate fit, including where something clearly needs clinical care rather than coaching;
• continuing would not be in your interests; or
• conduct toward him is abusive, or fees remain unpaid after reasonable contact.

Except in the case of abusive conduct, the unused portion is refunded fairly, the reason is explained directly, and you are pointed toward what would help instead.

14. Responsibility and liability

Russ will provide the service with reasonable care and skill, as the Consumer Rights Act 2015 requires.

You remain responsible for your own decisions and actions, and for seeking appropriately qualified medical advice for diagnosis, treatment, medication and urgent concerns. BeingVITAL supports informed choice; it does not make choices for you.

Except as stated below, Russ's total liability arising out of any engagement is limited to the total fees you have paid for that engagement.

Neither side is responsible for failure caused by something genuinely outside their reasonable control. Where that happens, appointments are rescheduled or refunded rather than lost.

15. Complaints

If you are unhappy with any part of the service, tell Russ directly at hello@beingvital.me. Complaints are acknowledged within 5 working days and answered substantively within 20 working days.

Raising a concern will never affect how you are treated. This does not affect your statutory rights, or your right to complain about data handling to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk or 0303 123 1113.

16. General

Which document wins

If there is ever a conflict, the order is: (1) your signed engagement agreement or engagement confirmation; (2) the signed Explicit Consent to Process Health-Related Data; (3) these Terms of Engagement; (4) the Cancellation & Refunds policy; (5) the Privacy Notice; (6) anything else on the website.

Changes

These terms may be updated. The version that applies to you is the one in force when your engagement was agreed. Material changes affecting current clients are notified directly, not left to be noticed on a page.

Other

If any part of these terms is found unenforceable, the rest continues to apply. Delay in enforcing a term does not waive it. These terms are between you and Russ Maher, and no third party may enforce them.

These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales, and the courts of England and Wales have jurisdiction. If you live in Scotland or Northern Ireland, you may also bring proceedings in your own country.

Related documents: Cancellation & Refunds · Privacy Notice · Scope & Important Information.