Telehealth Policies

About Telehealth / Teletherapy

One of the very few positive outcomes of COVID is the advent and regular ability for medical and behavioral health practices to provide services over HIPAA compliant video.  Telehealth allows for greater flexibility in scheduling appointments, no travel time, etc.

Benefits:

The benefits of telehealth are:

1. The ability to expand your choice of service provider.
2. More convenient counseling options including location, time, no driving, etc.
3. Reduces the overall cost and time of therapy due to not having to drive to and from and office.
4. Ability to have real time monitoring and reduced wait time for scheduling office appointments.
5. Increased availability of services to homebound clients, those with limited mobility, and clients without convenient transportation options.

Limitations:

It is important to note that there are limitations to telehealth that can affect the quality of the session(s). These limitations include but are not limited to the following:

1. Your therapist may not be able to observe your body language or your non-verbal reactions to what you are discussing as easily as in-person sessions.
2. Due to technology limitations we may not hear all of what you are saying and may need to ask you to repeat yourself.
3. Technology might fail before or during the counseling session.
4. Although every effort is made to reduce confidentiality breaches, breaches may occur for various reasons.
5. To reduce the effect of these limitations, we may ask you to describe how you are feeling, thinking, and/or acting in more detail than we would during an in-person session.

Logistics:

When choosing to use video sessions, your therapist will call you at the scheduled time or send you the link for our secure and HIPAA compliant video platform, using either Google Meet or through our electronic record, Therapy Notes.  Your clinician will notify you prior to your first session which platform will be used, and a secure web link will be sent to you.   We will expect that you are available at the scheduled time and are prepared, focused and engaged in the session. Your therapist will be calling you from a private location where she is the only person in the room. You also need to be in a private location where you can speak openly without being overheard or interrupted by others to protect your own confidentiality. If you choose to be in a place where there are people or others can hear you, your therapist cannot be responsible for protecting your confidentiality. Every effort MUST be made on your part to protect your own confidentiality. We suggest you wear earbuds to increase confidentiality and also increase sound quality of the sessions. Please ensure that you reduce all possibilities of interruptions for the duration of our scheduled appointment. Please know that due to state laws your therapist is only able to practice in the state(s) in which they are licensed. That means wherever you reside your therapist must be licensed. You agree to inform us if your therapy location has changed or if you have relocated your domicile to a different jurisdiction.

Connection Loss:

If the connection is interrupted during a video session, your therapist will call you on the cell phone number provided on this form to troubleshoot the reason the connection was lost. Remember that the number may show up as restricted or blocked so be sure to pick it up. You may also call your therapist at 603-821-0008. If your therapist cannot reach you, she will remain available to you for 15 minutes. Should you contact your therapist and there is time left, then the session will continue. If the reason for a connection loss i.e. technology, battery dying, bad reception, etc. occurs on your part, you will still be charged for the entire session. If the loss for connection is a technology fail on the part of your therapist, you may choose to plan an alternate time to complete the remaining minutes of the session.

Recording of Sessions:

Please note that recording, screenshots, etc. of any kind of any session is not permitted and are grounds for termination of the client-therapist relationship.