Cancellations & Payment
CANCELLATIONS In order to best serve all of my clients, I ask that you please cancel or reschedule 48 hours in advance. You will be responsible for the entire fee if cancellation occurs within less than 24 hours either by direct communication with me or via my client portal. This is necessary because I, too, am making a time commitment and your appointment time is held exclusively for you. I will make an effort to accommodate you in the event of an emergency, and will offer rescheduling options based on my availability. If you are late for a session, you may lose some of that session time - this is based upon my own availability and discretion. In the event that you are sick or are unable to physically attend for another reason, I may be able to offer a phone or video telehealth session or reschedule for an in-person session at a later time, based on your needs and my availability.
If sessions are cancelled with less than 24 hours notice or if you do give notice and do not attend your appointment (for reasons other than true emergencies), you will be charged your full session fee. Please note that insurance does not cover missed sessions, so you will be billed my full fee, as per my contract with individual insurers.
PAYMENT Payment is accepted in cash and credit/debit card via the secure client portal, and is due at the time of your session. I am also able to accept most HSA and FSA cards; please notify me if this is your preferred method of payment.
THERAPIST ABSENCE OR CANCELATIONS If I am traveling to attend a conference or if I have another professional obligation that makes me unable to attend our scheduled session, I will provide a minimum of two week’s notice. If I become ill or have an urgent situation requiring my immediate attention, I will provide as much notice as possible based on the specific circumstances.
Confidentiality & Privacy
PRIVACY Your privacy is extremely important to me, and I make every effort to protect your personal data and information. Often, my clients ask me to communicate with other professional medical or behavioral health providers in order to coordinate care. In these instances, I will ask you to sign a release form/consent to disclose health information. I will not share any of your personal information without your written consent, except in the following circumstances:
If I suspect that a person may be the victim of child abuse, elder abuse, or dependent adult abuse
If I believe the client intends to harm themselves, or is making credible threats of bodily harm to another individual. In these cases, I will work with the client as best possible to ensure their safety but may also have the obligation to take further action
If mandated by a court of law
LAWSUITS & DISPUTES If you are involved in a lawsuit, I may disclose health information in response to a court or administrative order, but only if efforts have been made to tell you about the request or to obtain an order protecting the information requested.
Communication
TELEPHONE ACCESSIBILITY If you need to contact me between sessions, please leave a message on my voice mail. I am often not immediately available, however, I will attempt to return your call within 24-48 hours. Texting is often preferable in the event you will be late for a session or to notify me of a scheduling issue. If a true emergency situation arises, please do not wait for my response and instead call 911 or visit your local emergency room.
SOCIAL MEDIA AND TELECOMMUNICATION Due to the importance of your confidentiality and the importance of minimizing dual relationships, I do not accept friend or contact requests from current or former clients on any social networking site (Facebook, LinkedIn, etc). I believe that adding clients as friends or contacts on these sites can compromise your confidentiality and our respective privacy. It may also blur the boundaries of our therapeutic relationship. If you have questions about this, please bring them up when we meet and we can talk more about it.
ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATION While I use encrypted email and text messaging systems to better protect your confidentiality and privacy, I cannot absolutely ensure the confidentiality of any form of communication through electronic media, including text messages and email. My strong preference is to use email and messaging only for purposes of scheduling, billing and other administrative issues. While I may try to return messages in a timely manner, I cannot guarantee immediate response and request that you do not use these methods of communication to discuss therapeutic content and/or request assistance for emergencies.
VIDEO TELEHEALTH I utilize a secure, encrypted video service for all telemental health and video conferencing in order to protect client privacy and confidentiality. In order to better protect your security, I do not use FaceTime, Skype, or other proprietary video apps for purposes of communication with clients.
APPOINTMENT REMINDERS In order to avoid inadvertently missed appointments, I send appointment reminders 24 hours before your session by either SMS text or email. In the event that you choose not to receive appointment reminders, you may either notify me or switch off this feature yourself in the client portal.