Email and Texting Policy
HIPAA regulations and the professional Code of Ethics for both the Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and Licensed Professional Counselor all require that therapists keep your Protected Health Information private and secure. Email is a very convenient way to handle administrative issues like scheduling or receipt requests, but is not 100% secure. Some of the potential risks you might encounter if we email include:
- Misdelivery of email or texts to an unintended addressee.
- Email accounts and phones can be hacked, giving a 3rd party access to email content.
- Email providers (e.g. Gmail, Yahoo, work email providers) can keep a copy of each email on their servers where it might be accessible to employees, etc.
- Phone carriers are not always reliable and can delay intended messages.
For these reasons, the therapist will not use email to discuss clinical issues (e.g. the important things discussed in session
If you are comfortable in doing so, you use email to handle small administrative matters like scheduling and billing. However, keep in mind that the 24business hour cancelation policy still applies. If you need to change your appointment, please do not use email if it is within the 24 business hour period as it may not be received in enough time and the cancelation fee could apply.
If you are not comfortable with these risks, administrative and any other issues can be handled via phone calls.
Texting will only be used for scheduling questions or conflicts. If you do not receive a reply within 2 hours during business hours, it is your responsibility to call and discuss the issue.
Please indicate your preference about email below and sign.