Policies
Doing meaningful work together requires both of us to have our needs met. These policies are what I put in place to ensure those needs are met on my side. I encourage you to reflect on your needs as well; they matter too.
Please familiarize yourself with these policies, making sure you are comfortable with agreeing to them. Feel free to ask any questions you might have.
1. Cancellations
a. Sessions must be cancelled at least 24 hours in advance to avoid being asked to pay for your session. Exceptions to this can be made in the event of an emergency or unexpected illness outside of usual chronic illness fluctuations.
b. If a client is consistently cancelling sessions (multiple times a month, over multiple consecutive months), I may check in to assess if our work together needs to be adjusted in some way which could include pausing sessions indefinitely. This would be a conversation and collaborative decision.
2. Payment
a. Sessions must be paid for before they begin unless otherwise agreed upon.
b. I am unable to accept insurance or write receipts for re-imbursement.
c. If you are paying on a sliding-scale, I will check in quarterly to see if your rate should be adjusted but please let me know if there are changes in the meantime in the interest of making sessions as affordable as possible for you and for others.
3. Shared community
a. The world is sometimes small so it may be the case that we either already know each other or that we come across each other out of sessions. My priority is to preserve the focus of our relationship to be on your support.
b. I can be your support worker if we are acquainted with each other, but not if we have an established relationship of any kind.
c. If I am currently your support worker or I may become your support worker in the future, we cannot establish an outside-of-session connection.
d. Any social connections that could complicate our work together can be navigated together collaboratively.
4. Scope of support
a. I am unable to provide extensive support between sessions, though you can always email me whatever is on your mind and last-minute sessions may be possible depending on my availability.
b. I am not a licensed mental health practitioner and am not qualified to diagnose or treat clients. I am not qualified to provide acute crisis intervention services though I do not turn clients away for being in states of intense distress.
c. I am not a mandatory reporter which means I have no professional obligation to share any of your personal information with anyone, including police or crisis services. I will support you in whatever decisions you want to make regarding your care.
5. Privacy
a. I only see clients for virtual sessions through Signal or Jitsi. As is always the case with the internet, privacy cannot be 100% assured. I have chosen these platforms for their security and prefer Signal for that reason.
b. I keep records of some client information including: your first name, the rate you are paying for sessions, when we are scheduled to meet, and your contact information.
c. Separately, I take and keep notes regarding our sessions. They are not associated with your name.
d. All personal information related to clients is stored on a virtual, encrypted platform and are behind two layers of password protected.
e. As was mentioned previously, I am not a mandatory reporter. I will not share any information about you unless I have your explicit permission.
f. In the case I am subpoenaed to share information about you with a court, I am likely to forget everything we have discussed, including how to access my client notes.