In our ever-changing technological society, there are several ways we could potentially communicate and/or follow each other electronically. It is of utmost importance to us that we maintain your confidentiality, respect your boundaries, and ascertain that your relationship with your therapist remains therapeutic and professional. Therefore, we’ve developed the following policies:
Cell phones: It is important for you to know that cell phones may not be completely secure and confidential.
However, we realize that most people have and utilize a cell phone. Your therapist may also use a cell phone to contact you. If this is a problem, please feel free to discuss this with your therapist.
Text Messaging and Email: Both text messaging and emailing are not secure means of communication and may compromise your confidentiality. However, we realize that many people prefer to text and/or email because it is a quick way to convey information. If you choose to utilize texting or email, please discuss this with your therapist. However, please know that it is our policy to utilize these means of communication strictly for appointment confirmations (nothing that anyone could infer as therapy). Please do not bring up any therapeutic content via text or email to prevent compromising your confidentiality. If you do, please know that your therapist will not respond.
You also need to know that we are required to keep a summary or a copy of all emails and texts as part of your clinical record that address anything related to therapy.
Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, Etc: It is our policy not to accept requests from any current or former client on social networking sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, etc. because it may compromise your confidentiality. The Center for Living Balance has a business Facebook page, Instagram account, and is on LinkedIn. You are welcome to follow us on any of these pages. However, please do so only if you are comfortable with the general public being aware of the fact that your name is attached to The Center for Living Balance. Please refrain from making contact with us using social media messaging systems such as Facebook Messenger or Twitter Direct Message. These methods have insufficient security, and we do not watch them closely. We would not want to miss an important message from you.
Google, Bing, etc.: It is our policy not to search for our clients on Google or any other search engine. We respect your privacy and make it a policy to allow you to share information about yourself to your therapist as you feel appropriate. If there is content on the Internet that you would like to share with your therapist for therapeutic reasons, please print this material out and bring it to your session.
Blog: We may post therapeutic content on our blog. If you have an interest in following our blog, you are welcome to. However, please do so only if you are comfortable with the general public being aware of the fact that your name is attached to The Center for Living Balance.
In summary, technology is constantly changing, and there are implications to all of the above that we may not realize at this time. Please feel free to ask questions, and know that we are open to any feelings or thoughts you have about these and other modalities of communication.