Privacy Policy

Confidentiality

       With the exemption of specific exceptions described below, you have the absolute right to confidentiality of your therapy. We cannot and will not tell anyone else what you have told us, or even that you are in therapy without your prior written permission. We can only release information to others if you sign a written Authorization form. There are other circumstances that require only that you provide written consent. We will always act to protect your privacy. You may direct us to share information with whomever you chose, and you can change your mind and revoke that permission at any time. You may request anyone you wish to attend a therapy session with you. You should also know that it is very helpful to consult with another mental health professional about your case. During a consultation, the identity of a client is completely anonymous, and the other mental health professional is ethically bound to keeping the information confidential.

      If you chose to communicate with us by email, messenger, WhatsApp or any application at some point in our work together, please be aware that these portals of communication are not completely confidential. All information from the electronic applications are retained in the logs of your or our internet service provider. While under normal circumstances no one looks at these logs, they are, in theory, available to be read by the system administrator of the internet service provider. Any email we receive from you and any responses that we send to you, will be kept in your treatment record.

The following are exceptions:

1. If there is evidence that you are a danger to yourself and we believe that you are likely to kill yourself unless protective measures are taken, we may be obligated to seek hospitalization for you or to contact family members or others who can help provide protection. As a U.S.A. Mental Health Professional, I am mandated to report these incidents. In California, we can assess the level of severity and determine if a 5150 hospitalization is required.
2. If we have good reason to believe that you will harm another person, we must attempt to inform that person and warn them of your intentions. We must also contact the police and ask them to protect your intended victim. As a U.S.A. Mental Health Professional, I am mandated to report these incidents. In California, we can assess the level of severity and determine if a 5150 hospitalization is required.
3. If we have good reason to believe that you are abusing or neglecting a child or vulnerable adult, or if you give us information about someone else who is doing this, we must inform the police. If you are under the age of consent (16 years old) and you tell us that you are having sex with someone, or sex with a teacher or a coach, we must also report this to the authorities. We would inform you before we took this action.
4. If you tell us of the behaviour of another named health or mental health care provider that informs us that this person has either a. engaged in sexual contact with a patient, including yourself or b. is impaired from practice in some manner by cognitive, behavioural or health problems, then we will report this to the corresponding authorities. We would inform you before taking this step. 

The next is not a legal exception to your confidentiality. However, it is a policy you should be aware of if you are in couples therapy with us.

     If you and your partner decide to have some individual sessions as part of couples therapy, what you say in those individual sessions will be considered to be part of the couples therapy, and can and probably will be discussed in our joint session. Kindly not tell us anything if you wish kept secret from your partner. We will remind you of this policy before beginning such individual sessions.

Diagnosis

If a third party such as an insurance company is paying for part of your bill, we are normally required to give a diagnosis to that third party to be paid. Diagnoses are technical terms that describe the nature of your problems and something about whether they are short-term or long-term problems. If we do use a diagnosis, we will discuss it with you. All of the diagnoses come from a book titled the DSM-V; we have a copy in our office and will be glad to let you borrow it and learn more about what it says about your diagnosis.