Privacy

The law protects the relationship between a client and a psychotherapist, and information cannot be disclosed without written permission.  Exceptions to the law are:  

Suspected child abuse or dependent adult or elder abuse, for which I am required by law to report this to the appropriate authorities immediately.

If a client is threatening serious bodily harm to another person/s, I must notify the police and inform the intended victim.

If a client intends to harm himself or herself, I will make every effort to enlist their cooperation in ensuring their safety. If they do not cooperate, I will take further measures without their permission that are provided to me by law in order to ensure their safety.

If there is a court subpoena.

To a collection agency to collect payment.

To a doctor, psychiatrist, law enforcement, or other emergency staff if you are in an emergency or life-threatening situation.

I use Doxy.me as a video-therapy website. The following is from their privacy page: 

Doxy.me complies with the security and privacy requirements of the healthcare industry. Here are the following ways we maintain security:

• Patient health information (PHI) is not stored, as a result this data cannot be stolen from Doxy.me servers
• Point-to-point NIST-approved AES 128 bit encryption is used for all video & audio communication
• Full volume encryption and 256-bit AES encrypted keys used on data stored at rest 
• HIPAA and HITECH compliant servers
• OSSEC intrusion detection, file integrity monitoring, log monitoring, root check, and process monitoring 
• Signed Business Associates Agreement provided
• Annual HIPAA risk assessments conducted
• Auditing, logging, backup and disaster recovery policies and procedures in place

To comply with HIPAA you also have some responsibilities while using Doxy.me:

• Register and sign in to a free account
• Do not share your login email and password
• Keep your browser, operating system and software up to date
• Install and utilize antivirus and firewall programs

For any other privacy and security questions, contact our support team.