Informed Consent
This informed consent for online therapy contains important information please read this carefully, and let me know if you have any questions. When you agree to this document, it will represent an agreement between us.
Benefits and Risks of online therapy
Online therapy refers to providing psychotherapy services remotely using telecommunications technologies, such as video conferencing, and/or messaging. One of the benefits of online therapy is that the client and clinician can engage in services without being in the same physical location. This can be helpful in ensuring continuity of care if the client or clinician moves to a different location, takes an extended vacation, or is otherwise unable to continue to meet in person. It is also more convenient and takes less time. Online therapy, however, requires technical competence on both our parts to be helpful. Although there are benefits of online therapy, there are some differences between in-person and online therapy, as well as some risks.
Risks to confidentiality. Because online therapy sessions take place outside of the therapist’s private office, there is potential for other people to overhear sessions if you are not in a private place during the session. On my end I will take reasonable steps to ensure your privacy. But it is important for you to make sure you find a private place for our session where you will not be interrupted. It is also important for you to protect the privacy of our session on your cell phone or other device. You should participate in therapy only while in a room or area where other people are not present and cannot overhear the conversation.
Issues related to technology. There are many ways that technology issues might impact online therapy. For example: technology may stop working during a session.
Crisis management and intervention. Usually, I will not engage in online therapy with clients who are currently in a crisis situation requiring high levels of support and intervention. Before engaging in online therapy, we will develop an emergency response plan to address potential crisis situations that may arise during the course of our online therapy work.
Efficacy. Most research shows that online therapy is about as effective as in-person psychotherapy. However, some therapists believe that something is lost by not being in the same room. For example, there is debate about a therapist’s ability to fully understand non-verbal information when working remotely.
Electronic Communications
You may need to have a certain computer or cell phone system to use online therapy services. You are solely responsible for any cost to you to obtain any necessary service, equipment, accessories, or software to take part in online therapy.
For communication between sessions, I only use email communication and text messaging with your permission and only for administrative purposes unless we have made another agreement. This means that email exchanges and text messages with my office should be limited to administrative matters. This includes things like setting and changing appointments, billing matters, and other related issues. You should be aware that I cannot guarantee the confidentiality of any information communicated by email or text. Therefore, I will not discuss any clinical information by email or text and prefer that you do not either. Also, I do not regularly check my email or texts, nor do I respond immediately, so these methods should not be used if there is an emergency.
Treatment is most effective when clinical discussions occur at your regularly scheduled sessions. But if an urgent issue arises, and you are unable to reach me, and feel that you cannot wait for our next appointment, contact your family physician or the nearest emergency room and ask for the psychologist or psychiatrist on call.
Confidentiality
I have a legal and ethical responsibility to make my best efforts to protect all communications that are part of our online therapy. However, the nature of electronic communications technologies is such that I cannot guarantee that our communications will be kept confidential or that other people may not gain access to our communications. I will try to use HIPPA compliant, encrypted, and secure systems to help keep your information private, but there is a risk that our electronic communications may be compromised, unsecured, or accessed by others. You should also take reasonable steps to ensure the security of our communications (for example, only using secure networks for online therapy sessions and having passwords to protect the device you use for online therapy).
The extent of confidentiality and the exceptions to confidentiality that I outlined in my Informed Consent Holistic Mind Care still apply in online therapy. Please let me know if you have any questions about exceptions to confidentiality.
Appropriateness of Online Therapy
I will let you know if I decide that online therapy is no longer the most appropriate form of treatment for you. We will discuss options of engaging in in-person counseling or referrals to another professional in your location who can provide appropriate services.
Emergencies and Technology
Assessing and evaluating threats and other emergencies can be more difficult when conducting online therapy than in traditional in-person therapy. To address some of these difficulties, we will create an emergency plan before engaging in online therapy services in our first session. I will ask you to identify an emergency contact person who is near your location and who I will contact in the event of a crisis or emergency to assist in addressing the situation.
Records
The online therapy sessions shall not be recorded in any way unless agreed to in writing by mutual consent. I will maintain a record of our session in the same way I maintain records of in-person sessions in accordance with my policies.
Informed Consent
This agreement is intended as a supplement to the general informed consent that we agreed to at the outset of our therapy work together and does not amend any of the terms of that agreement.