Social Media Policy

Social Media is a fantastic tool to help people get informed and engaged. I use social media for my practice and in an effort to be completely transparent with you, I have created a social media policy so you understand how I use social media in my practice and how it could impact you and our relationship. If you have any questions about my policy, I encourage you to bring them up when we meet. Social media is also constantly changing and there may be times when I need to update this policy. If I do so, I will inform you of the changes in our session.

The basis for this policy is to truly protect our relationship and your confidentiality. You get to decide what you tell people. You have a choice about what you reveal about yourself online, however I will not reveal my connection to you. Thus, if you post on my page, you are opening up the possibility of people making inferences about our relationship or asking you about your connection to me.

This is how I handle social media engagement:

Friending

To respect your privacy and confidentiality, I do not accept friend requests on my personal Facebook page from current or former clients or on any other social networking site (LinkedIn, etc).

Following

I sometimes publish a blog on my website and I post psychology news or inspirational items on Twitter or Instagram. I have no expectation that clients will want to follow my blog, Instagram or other social media streams. You are welcome to use your own discretion in choosing whether to follow me. Note that I will not follow you back. I mainly follow other health professionals and I do not follow current or former clients on blogs or other social media. 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 networking sites such as Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, or LinkedIn to contact me. These methods have very poor security and I am not prepared to watch them closely for important messages from clients. If you post on my wall it may also create the possibility that these exchanges become 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, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn account, or blog. I do not “google” my clients or look up information on them for any reason. I think it is important that I know you as you are in my office. If I do come across your information online, I will move on and avoid reading content.

Business Review Sites

I do have a Google Business page and other directory pages. 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 has 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. The California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists’ Ethics Code states that it is unethical for MFTs to solicit testimonials.

Of course, you have a right to express yourself on any site you wish. If you do post a review, I cannot respond on any of these sites whether it is positive or negative. I urge you to take your own privacy as seriously as I take my commitment of confidentiality to you. 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 we are not a good fit.

None of this is meant to keep you from sharing that you are in therapy with me wherever and with whomever you like. Confidentiality means that I cannot tell people that you are my client and my Ethics 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.

If you do choose 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.

Location-Based Services

If you used location-based services on your mobile phone, please be aware of the privacy issues related to using these services. I do not place my practice as a check-in location on various sites such as Foursquare, Gowalla, Loopt, etc. However, if you have GPS tracking enabled on your device, it is possible that others may surmise that you are a therapy client due to regular check-ins at my office on a weekly basis. Please be aware of this risk if you are intentionally “checking in,” from my office or if you have a passive LBS app enabled on your phone.