Terms & Conditions

These Counseling Terms ("Terms") are a legally binding agreement between you and MINDCARTER PSYCHOLOGICAL SERVICES PVT. LTD (OPC) ("MINDCARTER", "we", "us"), operating the platform www.mindcarter.com. They apply when you visit our website, create an account, book a session, or use any part of our portals. By using our services you accept these Terms and our Privacy Policy. These Terms are published as an electronic record under the Information Technology Act, 2000 and do not require a physical signature.

MINDCARTER connects you with a qualified counselor for online sessions. Before you book, we show your counselor's qualifications, registration (where one applies) and the type of support offered. A title such as "psychologist" is used only if the counselor holds that qualification.

Counseling is not emergency care, medical treatment, psychiatric diagnosis or prescribing, unless your counselor is qualified to provide it and tells you so in writing. We cannot promise any particular result.

• Where your needs fall outside what your counselor can provide — for example, where psychiatric treatment or medication may be appropriate — we will tell you and, where possible, refer you onward.
• Nothing on our website is medical advice. Content on the public site is general information only and is not a substitute for a session.

• Adults (18 and over) at the time of each session.
• You must give accurate details. We may check your identity at the first session.
• Someone else may book for you, but you are the client. They cannot see your sessions, notes or records without your written permission.
• If an employer, insurer or family member pays, we tell you before your first session what, if anything, they receive. They never receive session content.

Our services are offered in India. If you access them from elsewhere, you do so on your own initiative and are responsible for compliance with your local law; our counselors practise under Indian professional regulation and may not be licensed in your jurisdiction.

Before your first session your counselor will explain, in plain language: what counseling involves, its benefits and limits; their qualifications; session format, length and fees; confidentiality and its limits; how records are kept; the risks of online counseling; and how to complain or end the service.

You then confirm your informed consent in the platform. Booking alone is not consent. You can ask questions, skip non-essential questions, and stop at any time. We keep a record of your consent and ask again if the service changes significantly.

Counselors work within their training, follow recognised professional ethics, treat every client without discrimination, and keep clear boundaries: no personal, financial or social-media relationships with clients. They use supervision, and refer you on when you need care they cannot provide.

What you share is confidential. We disclose it only:

• with your written consent;
• when there is a serious risk of harm to you or someone else;
• when a child or vulnerable person may be at risk;
• when a court or the law requires it;
• in limited form to a supervisor, referral service or emergency service, to keep you safe.

Where it is safe to do so, your counselor will talk to you first and share only what is necessary. Supervisors are bound by the same confidentiality.

Before your first session you give us an emergency contact (name and phone), who we may call only if we believe you are in danger and cannot reach you. At the start of each session your counselor confirms where you are and a number to call if the connection drops.

You: use a private space, a secure device and network, and headphones. Counselor: works from a private setting on our secure platform. Interruptions or overheard conversations can still happen. If online care is unsuitable, we will recommend in-person support.

• A booking is confirmed once it appears as scheduled in your portal and you receive a confirmation email.
• Sessions take place by video. The meeting link is provided in your portal and by email.
• Please join on time. If you are late, the session still ends at its scheduled time so the next client is not affected.

Out-of-hours process: If your counselor sees serious risk in a session, they will follow a safety plan and, if needed, contact emergency services or your emergency contact.

• We do not record or transcribe sessions unless you separately agree, in writing, for each purpose. Saying no never affects your care.
• We use AI only for administrative tasks, unless we first tell you what it does, what data it sees and who provides it.
• Your counselor reviews any AI output. AI never makes decisions about your care alone.
• We do not use your session content, notes or intake answers to train AI models.

You may not record any part of a session either, unless everyone present agrees in writing beforehand.

Fees are shown before booking. You can cancel or reschedule free of charge up to 24 hours before a session. If you cancel less than 24 hours before, or miss a session, the fee is not refunded.

If we or your counselor cancel, or a technical fault on our side prevents a session, we will reschedule it or refund you in full. Your rights under consumer law are not affected.

• All fees are in Indian Rupees (INR). Goods and Services Tax is charged where applicable, and a receipt is issued for every paid session.
• The fee for a session is the fee displayed when you book it. A later change in our fees never changes the price of a session you have already paid for.
• You can cancel or reschedule from your portal. Within 24 hours of the session you can still cancel there, but you can no longer reschedule, and the fee is not refunded.
• Refunds are approved by our team and paid back to your original payment method — usually within about 5–7 working days of approval. Your booking shows the refund status until it completes.

Counselors keep short professional records: booking, consent, session notes, safety and referral notes, and billing. You can ask to see or receive a copy. We limit access only where the law requires or where sharing would seriously harm you or someone else, and we will explain why. Retention periods are in our Privacy Policy.

You can stop at any time, and we can offer a closing session. We may pause or end the service for repeated non-attendance, safety concerns, a conflict of interest, or if we cannot offer suitable care. We will give reasonable notice and a referral, and hand over where you agree. If your counselor becomes unavailable, we will tell you promptly and arrange a replacement or referral.

You may close your account at any time by contacting us. We may also suspend or close an account where these Terms are breached or where conduct puts our counselors, staff or other clients at risk. If your account is closed, we keep your records only for the periods described in our Privacy Policy, and you can still exercise your data rights.

Write to info@mindcarter.com. We acknowledge within 3 working days and reply within 15 working days. You can also approach the relevant professional body or consumer forum. Complaints are handled confidentially and do not affect your care.

If your employer sponsors your access, additional terms apply between MINDCARTER and your employer, and your eligibility depends on your employer's roster and subscription remaining active. If your employer removes you from the roster or their subscription ends, your sponsored access stops — though your account and your records remain yours.

Your employer sees who is on their roster and whether each person has activated their account. Beyond that, they receive only anonymised group reports, with safeguards against identifying individuals. They never receive session content, and they cannot see whether or how often you personally book sessions. The exact boundary is set out in our Privacy Policy, and we will not vary it at an employer's request.

• Keep your details current — including your emergency contact, which we may need to use.
• You are responsible for keeping your password and device secure and for activity that happens under your account.
• Do not share your login. If you believe your account has been compromised, tell us immediately so we can revoke your sessions.
• We may verify your email address with a one-time code before enabling certain features.

When using our services, you agree not to:

• Impersonate anyone, or register using someone else's details.
• Abuse, threaten or harass our counselors or staff. We will end a session and may close an account for abusive conduct.
• Record, publish or circulate any part of a session, or the personal information of a counselor or another client.
• Attempt to gain unauthorised access to the portals, probe or scan our systems, or interfere with their operation — conduct of this kind is an offence under the Information Technology Act, 2000.
• Upload malicious code, or content that is unlawful, defamatory or infringes someone else's rights.
• Use our services or content to build a competing product, or to train a machine-learning model.

Be honest with your counselor. Withholding relevant information — including medication, diagnoses, or care you are receiving elsewhere — can make the work unsafe or ineffective.

Psychometric assessments are administered and interpreted by qualified practitioners using licensed instruments. Test materials, item content and scoring keys are the intellectual property of their publishers and cannot be shared with you.

Assessment reports are prepared for the specific purpose and context agreed at the outset and have a limited useful life. They should not be relied on for other purposes — for example, an organisational development report is not a clinical diagnosis, and a MINDCARTER report is not a substitute for a statutory medical or disability certification.

Video sessions may run on third-party platforms such as Google Meet, sign-in may use your Google account, and payments are processed by Razorpay. These tools have their own terms and privacy notices. We are not responsible for their availability or for failures within those services, though we will help you reschedule if a platform outage disrupts a session.

The MINDCARTER name, logo, website, portal software, written material, frameworks and programme content are owned by MINDCARTER or its licensors and are protected by Indian copyright and trade mark law. You may use them only as part of using our services.

Content you create — your journal entries, messages and the information in your profile — remains yours. You grant us a limited licence to store and process it solely to provide the services described in these Terms.

We work to keep the portals available, but we do not guarantee uninterrupted or error-free service. Access may be suspended for maintenance, updates or events outside our control. Except as expressly stated in these Terms, and to the extent permitted by law, the website and portals are provided on an "as is" and "as available" basis.

Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits any right you have as a consumer under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019, or any liability that cannot lawfully be excluded — including liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, or for fraud.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, MINDCARTER is not liable for indirect, incidental, special or consequential loss, or for loss of profit, revenue, data or business opportunity, arising out of your use of our website or services.

Subject to the paragraph above and to the consumer rights preserved in the previous section, our total aggregate liability arising out of or in connection with these Terms is limited to the total fees you paid to MINDCARTER in the three months immediately preceding the event giving rise to the claim.

You agree to indemnify MINDCARTER against claims, losses and reasonable costs arising from your breach of these Terms or your misuse of the services.

These Terms are governed by the laws of India. Subject to the paragraph below, the courts at Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala have exclusive jurisdiction over any dispute arising out of them.

If you are a consumer, nothing here affects your right to bring proceedings before a consumer forum having jurisdiction under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019. We would much rather resolve things directly — please write to us first (see Complaints), so we have a chance to put it right.

We may update these Terms as our services or the law change. The "last updated" date at the top reflects the current version. When a change is significant we will tell you by email or in the portal and ask you to confirm the updated Terms before your next booking.