Electronic Communication: 

 

In order to maintain clarity regarding our use of electronic modes of communication during your treatment, we have prepared the following policy.  This is because the use of various types of electronic communications is common in our society, and many individuals believe this is the preferred method of communication with others, whether their relationships are social or professional.  Many of these common modes of communication, however, put your privacy at risk and can be inconsistent with the law and with the standards of our profession.  Consequently, this policy has been prepared to assure the security and confidentiality of your treatment and to assure that it is consistent with ethics and the law. 

 

Email/Texting Communication:  

 

We use email communication and text messaging only with your permission and only for administrative purposes unless we have made another agreement.  That means that email exchanges with our office should be limited to things like setting and changing appointments, billing matters and other related issues.  Please do not email us about clinical matters because email is not a secure way to contact us.  Email should not be used to contact a clinician for emergencies as there may be a delay in reading your message.  The recipient of any CFPA email should check the email and attachments for the presence of viruses.  CFPA accepts no liability for any damage caused by any virus transmitted in company email.  Permission is granted to forward any CFPA email unless otherwise stated in the body of the message.  If you need to discuss a clinical matter, please feel free to call your psychologist or wait to discuss it during your therapy session.  The telephone or face-to-face context simply is much more secure as a mode of communication.  Texting may be used on a very limited basis and only related to setting and changing appointments.

 

Social Media: 

 

We do not communicate with, or contact, any of our clients through social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook.  In addition, if any of our staff discover that they have accidentally established an online relationship with you, we will cancel that relationship.  This is because these types of casual social contacts can create significant security risks for you.  We may participate on various social networks, but not in a professional capacity.  If you have an online presence, there is a possibility that you may encounter CFPA staff by accident.  If that occurs, please discuss it with your psychologist.  We believe that any communication with clients online has a high potential to compromise the professional relationship.  In addition, please do not try to contact any staff in this way as we will not respond and will terminate any online contact, no matter how accidental.

 

Websites:  

 

CFPA has a website that you are free to access.  We use it for professional reasons to provide information to others about the practice.  You are welcome to access and review the information that we have on our website and, if you have questions about it, it should discuss this during your sessions.

 

Web Searches: 

 

 We will not use web searches to gather information about you without your permission.  We believe that this violates your privacy rights; however, we understand that you might choose to gather information about us in this way.  In this day and age there is an incredible amount of information available about individuals on the internet, much of which may actually be known to that person and some of which may be inaccurate or unknown.  If you encounter any information about any CFPA staff through web searches, or in any other fashion for that matter, please discuss this with your psychologist so that we can deal with it and its potential impact on your treatment.  Recently it has become fashionable for clients to review their health care provider on various websites. Unfortunately, mental health professionals cannot respond to such comments and related errors because of confidentiality restrictions.  If you encounter such reviews of CFPA staff, please share it so we can discuss it and its potential impact on your treatment.  Please do not rate our work with you while we are in treatment together on any of these websites.  This is because it has a significant potential to damage our ability to work together.

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