Social Media Policy

Healing Voices Psychotherapy Social Media Policy

Healing Voices Psychotherapy uses social media as a tool to help people stay informed and engaged. In an effort to be completely transparent with you, we have created a social media policy so you understand how Healing Voices Psychotherapy uses social media in our private practice, and how it could impact you and your relationship with your therapist. If you have any questions about our social media policy, we encourage you to bring them up when you meet your therapist. Social media is constantly changing, and there may be times when we need to update this policy. If we do, we will post the policy online and inform you of the changes at your session. The basis for this policy is to truly protect your relationship and your confidentiality with your therapist in session.  Let's talk about confidentiality for a moment. You are the person who can decide what you want to keep confidential. Our therapists must keep their relationship with you completely confidential, except in cases where you might harm yourself or others (see informed consent for details). Thus, if you post on our page, you are opening up the possibility of people inferring your therapeutic relationship or asking you about your connection to our clinic. You get to decide what you tell people. You have the choice as to what you reveal about yourself online. Our therapists, however, will not reveal their connection to you

The following explains how Healing Voices Psychotherapy handles different social media options:

  • FRIENDING To respect your privacy and confidentiality, our therapists and staff do not accept friend requests from current or former clients on their personal social media pages or any social networking sites.

  • FANNING You may "like" our Facebook business page. However, the information on our Facebook page is often also on our website. If you "like" our page, you are choosing to reveal that you are connected to the clinic in some way. Our business page exists to be a forum for information and inspiration. We will not engage in conversations with you on that page. However, if you find it helpful, then that is great, and we appreciate it!

  • FOLLOWING Healing Voices Psychotherapy publishes blogs on our website, and we post psychology news on Instagram and other social media platforms. We have no expectation that clients will want to follow our blogs or social media streams. You are welcome to use your own discretion when choosing whether to follow us. Please note that our therapists and staff will not follow you back. We mainly follow other health professionals on various social media platforms. We do not follow current or former clients on blogs or social media. If there are things from your online life that you wish to share with your therapist, please bring them into your sessions where you and your therapist can view and explore them together during the therapy clinical hour.

  • INTERACTING Please do not use messaging on Social Networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn to contact the clinic or your therapist. If there were an emergency, we would not be able to respond in a timely manner as we do not check these accounts regularly. The best way to interact with the clinic is by email or phone. If you post on our wall, these exchanges may possibly become a part of your legal medical record and will need to be documented and archived in your chart. 

  • USE OF SEARCH ENGINES You may have a Facebook page and Instagram or other social media accounts. We do not "google" our clients or look up information on them for any reason. It is important that your therapist knows you as you are in your online sessions. If our therapists and staff do come across your information online, they will move on and avoid reading content.

  • BUSINESS REVIEW SITES Healing Voices Psychotherapy may have directory pages. Some of these sites include forums where users rate their providers and add reviews. Many of these websites search through business directories and add listings automatically, regardless of whether the business has added itself to the site. If you should find the clinic's listing on any of these sites, please know that our listing is NOT a request for a testimonial, rating, or endorsement from you as the clinic's client. The College of Registered Psychotherapists of Ontario (CRPO) regulations state that it is unethical for Registered Psychotherapists to solicit testimonials.

    Of course, you have a right to express yourself on any site you wish. If you do post a review, we cannot respond on any of these sites, whether it is positive or negative. We urge you to take your own privacy as seriously as we take our commitment to your confidentiality. When working together with your therapist, it is our hope that you will bring your feelings and reactions to your 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 our clinic wherever and with whomever you like. Confidentiality means our therapists and staff cannot tell people that you are a client in our practice, and CRPO's Code of Ethics prohibits Healing Voices Psychotherapy from requesting testimonials. You are more than welcome to tell anyone you wish that you are seeing a therapist or how you feel about the treatment your therapist provided you in any forum you choose.

    Suppose you do choose to write on a business review site. In that case, we hope you will consider that you may be sharing personally revealing information in a public forum. We urge you to create a pseudonym that is not linked to your regular email address or friend networks for your own privacy and protection.

    Suppose you feel our therapists and/or staff have done something harmful or unethical. You do not feel comfortable discussing it with your therapist. In that case, you can always contact the College of Registered Psychotherapists of Ontario (CRPO), which oversees licensing, and they will review the services clinicians have provided. College of Registered Psychotherapists of Ontario (CRPO)

    375 University Avenue, Suite 800

    Toronto, ON M5G 2J5

    EMAIL: https://www.crpo.ca/contact-us/

    We prefer using email only to arrange or modify appointments. Please do not email your therapist or our staff content related to your therapy sessions, as email is not completely secure or confidential. If you choose to communicate with the clinic by email, be aware that all emails are retained in your and our Internet service provider's logs. 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.

TEXT

Sometimes, clients text the clinic to request an appointment time or to let our staff know if they are running late. Just know that text isn't always secure. Healing Voices Psychotherapy is fine with brief texts related to your appointment only.

CONCLUSION

Thank you for taking the time to review Healing Voices Psychotherapy's Social Media Policy. If you have questions or concerns about any of these policies and procedures or regarding our potential interactions on the Internet, please bring them to our attention so that we can discuss them.