Social media is always chaining, and below is my social media policy and how Richer Life Counseling will act on the internet and as a mental health professional business.
Friending
I do not accept friend or contact request from current or former clients on any social networking sites (Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.). I believe that adding a client as friend or contact on these sites can compromise confidentiality and our respective privacy. It may also blur the boundaries of our therapeutic relationship.
Liking
I keep a Facebook Page for my professional practice to allow people to share my blog post and practice updates with other Facebook users.
You are welcome to view my Facebook Page and read or share article posted there. If you like the page confidently can be comprised. Facebook publicly shares all people who like the page, while clients and non-clients can be public views as people who liked the page to make sure confidentiality do not like the page.
All commits posted on the page are filtered so that no personal information about your treatment will be shared on the Facebook Page.
Following
I publish a blog on my website and post on Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Youtube, and other social media sites. I have no expectation that you as a client will want to follow any of my social media accounts. However, if you do follow and have an easily recognizable name on these sites and I happen to notice that you are following me on there, we may briefly discuss it and its potential impact on our working relationship
My primary concern is your privacy. If you share this concern, there are more private ways to follow me on social media (such as an RSS Feed or Locked Twitter list) that would eliminate you having to public link to my contact. You are welcome to use your discretion in choosing to follow me on social media.
Note that I will not follow you back. I do not follow any current or former clients on blogs, Twitter, Instagram, etc. I do this because I believe that casual viewing of client’s online content outside of therapy hour can create confusion about whether it is being done as part of your treatment or personal curiosity. Also viewing your online active without your consent or our explicated arraignments towards a specific purpose could potentially have a negative influence in our working relationship. If there are things from your online life that you want to share with me, please bring them into our session where we can view and explore them together.
As part of my private practice marketing, I use social media to teach, inspire, inform, and entertain. In doing this, I will time to time, will share personal information about my life. This is done so to be as authentic as possible. While any information I share will be done in a professional manner the sharing to teach, inspire, inform, and entertain. If you view any material and feel that it is relevant to your life, you can share in session. However, a conversation about myself, or what I share in social media will not be discussed in therapy.
Interacting
Please do not message me on social networking sights. These sites are not secure, and I may not read these messages in a timely fashion. Do not use Wall posting, @replies, or other means of engaging with me online if we have already established a client/therapist relationship. Engaging with me this way could compromise your confidentiality, and it also create the possible that these exchanges become part of your legal medical record and will need to be documented and archive in your chart.
Search Engines
It is NOT a regular part of my practice to search for clients on Google or Facebook or other search engines. Extremely rare exceptions may be made during times of crisis. If I have reason to suspect that you are in danger and you have not been in touch with me via our usual means (coming to appointment, phone, or email) there might be an instance in which using a search engine to find you become necessary as part of ensuring your welfare. These are an unusual situation, and if I ever resort to such means, I will fully document it and discuss it with you when we next meet.
Business Review Sites
You may find my practice on a site such as Yelp, Yahoo Local, Bing, or other places that list business. Some of these sites include forums in which users rate their providers and add reviews. Many of these site comb search engines for business listings and automatically add listing regardless of where the business has added itself to the site. If you find my listing on these sites, please know that my listing is NOT a request for a testimonial or endorsement.
Of course, you have a right to express yourself on any site you wish. But due to confidentiality, I cannot respond to any review on any of these sites whether it is positive or negative. I urge you to take your privacy as seriously as I take my commitment to confidentiality. You should also be aware that if you are using these sites to communicate indirectly with me about your feelings about our work, there is a good possibility that I will never see it.
If we are working together, I hope that you will bring your feelings and reaction to our work directly into the therapy process. This can be an important part of therapy even if you decide that we are not a good fit. None of this is meant to keep you from sharing that you are in therapy with me whenever and with whoever you like. Confidentiality means that I cannot tell people that you are my client and my ethical code prohibits me from requesting testimonials. But you are more than welcome to tell anyone you wish that I’m your therapist or how you feel about the treatment I provided to you in any forum of your choosing.
Location-Based Service
If you used location-based service on your mobile phone, you might wish to be aware of the privacy issues relating to using this service. If you have a GPS tracking, enable on your device it is possible that other may surmise that you area therapy client due to regular check-ins at my office on a weekly basis. Please be aware of the risk if you intentionally “check in” from my office.
Email, Cell phones, and other non-private commination
No form of client communication is 100 percent guaranteed to be private. Conversations can be overheard, e-mails can be sent to the wrong recipients and phone conversations can be listened to by others. But in today’s age of e-mail, Facebook, Twitter, and other social media, psychotherapists have to be more aware than ever of the ethical pitfalls they can fall into by using these types of communication.
Although they add convenience and expedite communication, it is very important to be aware that computers and e-mail and cell phone communication can be accessed relatively easily by unauthorized people and hence can compromise the privacy and confidentiality of such communication. E-mails, in particular, are vulnerable to such unauthorized access because servers have unlimited and direct access to all e-mails that go through them. Although I am exploring various encryption software programs to protect your privacy, my e- mails and data on my computers may not be encrypted, it is always a possibility that faxes can be sent erroneously to the wrong address, and computers, including laptops, may be stolen. My computers are equipped with a firewall, virus protection, and passwords, and I also password-protect and back up all confidential information from my computers (stored off-site) on a regular basis.
If you need to cancel or change an appointment time; a telephone call or SMS (text) may get the message to me promptly. Please notify me if you decide to avoid or limit, in any way, the use of e-mails, cell phones SMS (text), faxes, or storage of confidential information on computers. If you communicate confidential or private information via SMS (text) or e-mail, I will assume that you have made an informed decision, will view it as your agreement to take the risk that such communication may be intercepted, and I will honor your desire to communicate on such matters via e-mail. Please do not use e-mail or faxes for emergencies. Due to computer or network problems, e-mails may not be deliverable, and I may not check my e-mails or faxes daily.
If you choose to communicate with me by e-mail, be aware that all e-mails are retained in the logs of your and my Internet service providers. While it is unlikely that someone will be looking at these logs, they are, in theory, available to be read by the system administrator(s) of the Internet service provider. You should also know that any e-mail I receive from you and any responses that I send to you become a part of your legal record and may be revealed in cases where your records are summoned by a legal entity.
Only use email from your personal email accounts and personal computer, using other computers or email accounts such as a work account is accessible by your employers and is not confidential.
Thank you for taking the time to review my social media policy. If you have questions or concerns about any of these policies, please bring them to my attention during the next session.
Thanks to Keely Kolmes, Psy.D, and Lisa Johnson LMFT for help in developing my social media policy.