LinkedIn, etc We believe that adding clients as friends or contacts on these sites can compromise your confidentiality and our respective privacy. It may also blur the boundaries of our therapeutic relationship. If you have questions about this, please bring them up when we meet and we can talk more about it.
Fanning: As of May 2015, we have deleted our professional Facebook Page after concluding that the potential risks of maintaining such a Page outweigh any potential gains. Some therapists keep a Facebook Page for their private or professional use. They may allow people to share their blog posts and practice updates with other Facebook users. You are welcome to view www.jodiprovincecs.com However, in regards to blogs or post, we do not accept clients as Fans of this Page. We believe having clients as Facebook Fans creates a greater likelihood of compromised client confidentiality and feel it is best to be explicit to all who may view my list of Fans to know that they will not find client names on that list. In addition, the American Psychological Association's Ethics Code prohibits my soliciting testimonials from clients. We feel that the term "Fan" comes too close to an implied request for a public endorsement of this practice.
Following: If we publish a blog on our website or any other social media and if you use an easily recognizable name on Twitter (for example) and we happen to notice that you've followed us there, we may briefly discuss it and its potential impact on our working relationship. Our primary concern is your privacy. If you share this concern, there are more private ways to follow us on X (such as using an RSS feed or a locked X list), which would eliminate your having a public link to a therapist's content. Note, we will not follow you back. In addition, viewing your online activities without your consent and without our explicit arrangement towards a specific purpose could potentially have a negative influence on our working relationship. 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 SMS (mobile phone text messaging) or messaging on Social Networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook, or Linkedln to contact us. These sites are not secure and we will not read these messages. Do not use Wall postings, @replies, or other means of engaging with us in public online if we have an already established client/therapist relationship. Engaging with us this way could compromise your confidentiality. It may also create the possibility that these exchanges become a part of your legal medical record and will need to be documented and archived in your chart. If you need to contact us between sessions, the best way to do so is by phone. 336-818-0733 or 336-526-0073 for quick, administrative issues such as changing appointment times. See the email section below for more information regarding email interactions.
Use of Search Engines: It is NOT a regular part of our practice to search for clients on Google or Facebook or other search engines. Extremely rare exceptions may be made during times of crisis. If we have a reason to suspect that you are in danger and you have not been in touch with us via our usual means, coming to appointments, phone, or email (if consented to), there might be an instance in which using a search engine (to find you, find someone close to you, or to check on your recent status updates) becomes necessary as part of ensuring your welfare. These are unusual situations and if we ever resort to such means, we will fully document it and discuss it with you when we next meet.
Google Reader: We do not follow current or former clients on Google Reader and we do not use Google Reader to share articles. If there are things you want to share with us that you feel is relevant to your treatment whether they are news items or things you have created, we encourage you to bring these items of interest into our sessions.
Business Review Sites: You may find our counseling practice on sites such as Yelp, Healthgrades, Yahoo Local, Bing, or other places which list businesses. 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 Social Media Policy whether the business has added itself to the site. If you should find our 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. Of course, you have a right to express yourself on any site you wish. But due to confidentiality, we cannot respond to any review 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 of confidentiality to you. You should also be aware that if you are using these sites to communicate indirectly with us about your feelings about our work, there is a good possibility that we may never see it. If we are working together, we 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 you and your counselor or clinician are not a good fit. None of this is meant to keep you from sharing that you are in therapy wherever and with whomever you like. Confidentiality means that we cannot tell people that you are a client and we will follow our Ethics Code. But you are more than welcome to tell anyone you wish about your therapy or how you feel about the treatment, in any forum of your choosing. If you do choose to write something on a business review site, we hope you will keep in mind 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. If you feel we have done something harmful or unethical and you do not feel comfortable discussing it with