Whole Sky Therapy and Stephanie Podasca, MA has various social media accounts (ie: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google Business), used to share practice information, news and event updates with other social media users. I enjoy using social media to help people become more educated, aware and engaged with their mental health. I created this this written policy to define how I conduct myself on the internet as a mental health professional, and how you can expect me to respond to interactions that occur between us through social media.
As a mental health professional, it is my role to keep our relationship completely confidential. The exceptions to this rule are; when I believe you may harm yourself or others, when the safety of a child is at stake and if you are involved in a court proceeding where a Court of Law subpoenas me to provide counseling records.
You will decide what you want to keep confidential with regard to your sessions with me. However, it is important that I remind you that social media is a public forum. Conversational interactions with me on social media open up the possibility of people inferring about our relationship or asking you about your connection to me.
I will always provide superficial responses on social media and will simply extend the offer for you to connect with me through more private methods such as email or telephone connections. You have a choice as to what you reveal about yourself online. My public engagement needs to end at the invitation to private connections. Below, I have outlined some scenarios and how I may respond.
Liking + Following
You are welcome to “like” or “follow” any of WST’s social media feeds and read or share information and graphics that I post. I will not accept friend requests from current or former clients on any social networking site (Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram…). Friending may blur the boundaries of our therapeutic relationship. If you need to contact me between sessions, the best way to do so is either by phone or email.
I have no expectation that you as a client will follow my Instagram, business Facebook feed, Google Business or LinkedIn profiles. You are welcome to use your discretion in choosing whether to follow me. Please note that I will not follow you back. I mainly follow other health professionals and local businesses on social media and I do not follow current or former clients.
I believe that casual viewing of client’s online content outside of the therapy hour can create confusion in regard to whether it’s being done as part of your treatment or to satisfy my personal curiosity. In addition, viewing your online activities without your consent and without our explicit arrangement towards a specific purpose, could potentially influence our working relationship. If there are things from your online life that you wish to share with me, please bring them into our sessions where we can view and explore them together, during the therapy hour.
Interacting
Please do not use messaging on social network sites such as Facebook, Instagram, Google Business or LinkedIn to contact me. Also, please do not use wall postings, @replies, or other means of engaging with me in public online if we already have established a client/therapist connection. These sites are not secure and I may not read them in a timely fashion. If there was an emergency, the best way to interact with me is by email or phone.
If you post on any of my profiles, it creates the possibility that these exchanges become a part of your legal medical record and will need to be documented and archived. I will delete any requests regarding your sessions that appear on any of my social media platforms.For this reason, I will not engage in dialogue or conversations online that are in publicly accessible spaces.
Use of Search Engines
I do not “google” my clients or look up information on them for any reason. It is important to me that I know you as you are in my office. If I do come across your information online, you can be assured that I will move on and avoid reading content.
Extremely rare exceptions may be made during times of crisis. If I have a reason to suspect that you are in danger and you have not been in touch with me via our usual means (coming to appointments, phone or email) there might be an instance in which using a search engine (to find you, find someone close to you, or to check on your recent status updates) becomes necessary as part of ensuring your welfare. These are very unusual situations 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 psychology practice on sites such as Google and other directories. Some of these sites include forums in which users rate their providers and add reviews. Many of these sites comb search engines for business listings and automatically add listings regardless of whether the business added itself to the site. If you should find my listing on any of these sites, please know that my listing is NOT a request for a testimonial, rating, or endorsement from you as my client.
In fact, the ACA code of ethics, OBLPCT, and WA State DOH prohibit my soliciting testimonials from clients. If you want to provide a review online, it is entirely of your own volition. If you do choose of your own volition to write something on a business review site, I hope you will keep in mind that you may be sharing personally revealing information in a public forum. I urge you to create a pseudonym that is not linked to your regular email address or friend networks for your own privacy and protection.
This policy is not meant to keep you from sharing that you are in therapy with me. That is your discretion. The policy is simply to let you know that I will maintain confidentiality by not revealing that you are my client and by not requesting testimonials.
You have a right to express yourself on any site you wish. However, due to confidentiality, I cannot respond to any review on these sites whether it is positive or negative. I urge you to take your own privacy seriously as I take my commitment to confidentiality to you. 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 may never see it.
Conclusion
Ultimately, if we are working together, I hope that you will bring your feelings and reactions 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. If you have any other question regarding topics outlined please never hesitate to contact me to have a conversation. As new technology develops and the Internet changes, there may be times when this policy needs to be updated. Any updates or changes will be posted in our office and on my website.