Social Media

The notion of privacy on social media is a myth. Social media sites have very poor security and zero confidentiality. Please do not make contact with me using any social media messaging systems such as Facebook Messenger, Instagram Direct Message, or Twitter Messaging. I do not watch social media apps for important messages from clients, and responding to you there will compromise your privacy.

Please refrain from creating reviews of clinical services online. Online reviews are visible to the public and therefore would put your confidentiality at risk.

In the interests of client privacy, it is not ethical for me to solicit or post reviews from clients, though you may see comments or reviews from colleagues. If you are a client and you follow my business pages on social media, I caution you that it can compromise your privacy to follow or "like" those pages, and it will jeopardize your confidentiality to leave comments or reviews on those pages. They are public forums.

To protect your privacy, I may not respond to reviews or comments about my services on internet review platforms or on my public social media pages. Those pages are provided for information purposes and not for therapeutic interaction. However, I reserve the right to respond to any public complaint that contains incorrect information.

If you are an existing client and you wish to let me know how you feel about your experience with my services, please feel free to send feedback via the HIPAA-secure email I provided for you during your intake process. Again, please do not message me on social media. Social media messaging is not secure and will expose your personal health information to data mining. Please understand that to protect your safety and security, I cannot respond to any counseling-related private messages on social media. If I receive inquiries there, I will direct you to my website contact page where you will find HIPAA-compliant forms for contacting me.

To prevent harm, I do not accept friends or former friends as counseling clients. There can be some confusion about what constitutes a "friend" on social media. Most social media platforms allow users to create personal or business accounts. Distinguishing between personal social media accounts and public business accounts sets clear boundaries and averts misunderstandings. Facebook provides a great example of this difference. A Facebook profile is personal. A Facebook page, however, is always visible to the public, and its purpose is to conduct business. Most social media platforms allow users to create personal or business accounts.

My business presence on social media consists of business pages on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and LinkedIn. You are most welcome to follow me on my business accounts for inspiration and motivation, though if you are a client, I will not follow you back. Understand, however, that because social media business pages are public, you instantly abdicate your confidentiality by following them or interacting on posts (likes, comments, shares). In recognition of this risk, I do not interact personally or clinically on those platforms, though I may respond to comments in a general sense.

If you comment on a social media post and in any way identity yourself as a client, I will delete the comment. This is not a slight or a rejection of your voice. It is the most practical way to balance my legal and ethical responsibilities to protect your confidentiality with the practice of having a business presence on social media. If there is something you would like to say that identifies you as a client, please message me through the secure channels we set up during your intake. Do not message me on social media; it is not secure and the data may be shared with advertisers.

If you follow me on a public page, you are not considered a "friend" because these are business accounts. But if we are "friends" on my personal Facebook profile and you inquire about counseling, I will have to refer you to another clinician. To maintain boundaries between personal and professional relationships, I do not accept social media friend requests from current, past, or potential clients. This is not a rejection; it is an ethical boundary, and it is for your protection.

Please note that Facebook routinely prompts Facebook Page administrators to invite people to follow the page based on people who have liked, comments, or shared posts from that Page. These prompts are sent in bulk, meaning that I do not see all the names of the people I am inviting; I just click “Send Invites” in response to a prompt. This means that if you get an invite to follow one of my Pages, it’s not a personalized invite; it’s part of a bulk invite. Accept or decline as suits your preference.

LinkedIn provides two options: Follow and Connect. You are welcome to follow me there, but I will not accept connection requests from clients on LinkedIn.

Another environment that is not traditionally referred to as social media, but which I believe falls into this category, is virtual recovery meetings. They are social, the use of media makes them possible, and they are decidedly personal in nature. As a clinician, I do not engage in personal relationships or activities with clients. This means I go out of my way not to attend recovery meetings with clients. As I have said in the professional boundaries section of my conduct policy, once you are a client, our interactions will always be that of therapist and client.

If I log in to a recovery meeting and see you there, I will leave immediately, just as I would leave an in-person meeting. Note that if I am chairing the meeting or there as an invited speaker, I will need to remain at the meeting to honor that commitment. In the event that this situation occurs, I will also honor your confidentiality and refrain from acknowledging that we know each other.

If you are at an online recovery meeting with your camera off and your posted name does not clearly identify you, and you message me privately through that meeting's platform, please be advised that I will not respond. This is for your protection; virtual recovery meeting platforms are not HIPAA-secure, and the chats may be shared with the account holder hosting the meeting.

This policy was last updated on May 2, 2024.