Terms and conditions for a massage or complementary therapist

A massage or complementary therapy practice needs terms that deal with the things that actually cause trouble: the client who did not mention the recent surgery, the empty couch on a Saturday morning, the block of sessions bought in January and demanded back in June, and the occasional client who misunderstands what the appointment is. I draft those terms around your treatments and your booking process for a fixed fee of £995, delivered in five working days.

Who this is for

Massage therapists and complementary therapists in England and Wales: Swedish, deep tissue, aromatherapy, hot stone, pregnancy and Indian head massage, reiki, reflexology-adjacent and energy work, whether you work from a clinic room, a home treatment room or travel to clients. Most of your clients are consumers, with the occasional employer booking a workplace session, and the law treats those two very differently.

What matters in a massage therapist's terms

Health screening and the right to decline treatment

Almost every complaint I see in this field starts with something the client did not disclose: recent surgery, a clotting disorder, an early pregnancy, uncontrolled blood pressure, a skin condition hiding under the oil. Your terms should require a completed health questionnaire before the first treatment, require the client to tell you about changes at every visit thereafter, and give you an express right to decline, shorten or adapt a treatment without that being a breach of contract. They should also say plainly that you hold health information in confidence and how long you keep it, because clients now ask.

Late cancellation, no-shows and deposits

An hour of couch time that nobody pays for is lost for good, so a notice period of 24 hours and a charge for late cancellation is entirely normal. It has to be drafted with care, because the Consumer Rights Act 2015 treats disproportionate default charges as unfair, and an unfair term does not bind the client. A charge that reflects the appointment you cannot refill, applied consistently and flagged at the time of booking rather than buried, is defensible. I also set out how deposits work, when they are applied to the fee, and what happens when you have to cancel.

Courses of treatment, packages and gift vouchers

Selling six sessions up front is good for cashflow and the most common source of refund arguments. The terms need to state what the package includes, whether sessions are transferable, what expiry applies and what happens to unused sessions if the client moves away or stops. The same fairness rules apply here: keeping a client's prepayment on cancellation without any matching commitment on your side is the kind of term that gets struck down. Gift vouchers need their own wording, because the person who bought it and the person who redeems it are rarely the same.

Home visits and bookings made online

If you treat clients in their own homes, or take bookings through your website, by phone or over social media, the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 apply and the client has fourteen days to cancel. Off-premises bookings of £42 or less sit outside them. Treating inside that period needs the client's express request, and where you never gave the cancellation information the period can extend by up to 12 months. In practice this is solved at the booking stage, so I draft the terms and the confirmation wording to work together.

Draping, conduct and ending a session early

This is the section most therapists are relieved to have in writing. Terms should set out what the client can expect: how they will be draped, what they will be asked to remove, that they may ask you to stop at any time, and that a chaperone can be present. They should equally state that any suggestive request, comment or behaviour ends the treatment immediately, the full fee remains payable and the booking will not be repeated. Lone working, whether in a home treatment room or on a mobile visit, is easier to manage when the boundaries were agreed before the client arrived.

What you claim, your insurance and your liability

Complementary therapy attracts outcome claims, and terms that promise relief from a named condition create a contractual problem as well as an advertising one, so I describe what you do rather than what it cures. Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 the treatment must be carried out with reasonable care and skill, you cannot limit your liability to a consumer below the price, and you cannot exclude liability for personal injury caused by negligence. The honest answer is proper insurance plus a sensible cap for business bookings. The Provision of Services Regulations 2009 require your insurance and professional body details to be available.

What it costs

Customer or supplier terms and conditions, £995. One set of terms, customer-facing or supplier-facing, drafted around your business. Five working days.

Review of your existing terms, £495. You already have terms and want to know how much of a problem they are. Returned marked up with my amendments and an explanation of the changes. Three working days.

Buying online forms the engagement on payment. The scope is what the terms and conditions drafting page describes, you accept the Terms of Service at checkout, and I email you within four working hours to get started. If you would rather ask something first, email me.

What you get

• A full set of terms drafted around your business, not a template with your name inserted
• A covering note in plain English explaining every commercial choice I made and why, so you can defend the terms in a negotiation without ringing me
• Liability, payment, termination and IP provisions set at a level that will survive a procurement review
• Consumer-facing wording drafted to be enforceable where you sell to consumers
• Guidance on how to incorporate the terms properly, which is where most businesses actually fail
• One round of amendments after you have read them

What is not included

• Negotiating your terms with individual customers
• Sector-specific regulatory compliance beyond the contract terms themselves
• Website privacy notice and cookie compliance, which I quote separately
• Terms governed by the law of another country

Questions I am often asked

Can I actually enforce a late cancellation charge against a client?

You can, if it is proportionate and the client saw it before booking. The weakness is almost never the charge itself, it is incorporation: a fee mentioned nowhere but a sign in the treatment room is hard to rely on. I include guidance on getting the terms in front of clients at the point they book, which is where most practices fall down.

I do chair massage days for employers. Do the same terms cover that?

An employer booking is a business contract and should be handled separately within the same document, with a purchase order or written confirmation, a cancellation window that reflects a whole day of your diary, and a liability cap. You can also claim interest and fixed compensation on a late invoice under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998.

My insurer gave me a consent form. Is that not enough?

A consent form records that the client agreed to the treatment and disclosed their health history. It says nothing about cancellation charges, package expiry, payment, conduct or the limits of your liability. The two documents do different jobs, and I draft terms that sit alongside your consultation and consent paperwork rather than duplicating it.

Related guidance and services

• Terms and conditions drafting, £995, the service this page describes
• Data protection agreements and privacy terms, £795
• Ask Caesar, £495 a month

This page is general guidance for businesses in England and Wales, not advice on your own circumstances. Last reviewed: September 2026. Email geoffrey@caesar.co.uk.