General Information
Family LAB provides relationally focused counseling servies for individuals, couples, and families who request this service and are recommended by a Hanley Center counselor.
Involvement in Family LAB will include participation in 6 to 8 weekly telehealth or in-person family therapy sessions that are 60-90 minutes each.
Family LAB is provided as a service to individuals and families, as well as a platform for providing training and supervision of therapists developing or improving skills in family therapy. Family LAB counselors are either fully credentialed counseling professionals or clinical interns under the supervision of a fully credentialed mental health professional.
Limits to Confidentiality
Information provided in sessions are private and protected under federal and Florida law. Exceptions to this, where a counselor would be required to break confidentiality include:
* Abuse, neglect, or exploitation of a child or vulnerable adult
* Threat of harm to self or others
* Commission of a crime on the premises
No Secrets Policy
The nature of relational therapy requires honest and open dialogue. Clinical ethics require that all ongoing services must have a benefit to the client, which is all family members involved in therapy. If an individual in relational counseling shares something with a Family LAB counselor and insists on holding this secret from family members who are involved with the process, the Family LAB counselor may be required to end services and provide a referral if they believe holding that secret will render services non-beneficial to the client.
Consent to Record
Family LAB sessions are recorded for purposes of clinical training and supervision. Clinical supervision through review of videos is a common and important practice in Marriage and Family Therapy and helps to assure quality services as well as consitent improvement of therapists' skills.
Recordings are Protected Health Information (PHI) and are held to the same level of confidentiality and security as any other part of a medical record.
No recording is ever used for any purpose outside of clinical supervision and recordings are permanently destroyed after supervision.