Policies & Procedures

The first meeting is an assessment (intake) and will include gathering background information about you and your history. Following the intake session, psychotherapy appointments occur once a week until a patient feels stable and has made progress towards their goals. Sessions are 53 minutes long and intakes are generally 55 minutes.

Research indicates that psychotherapy is most effective if meeting weekly, as it helps patients to develop a relationship with their therapist and stay focused on working on their goals. Meeting regularly also can benefit a patient through long-term gains including learning to reflect on and change patterns in interpersonal relationships, make healthy behavioral changes, and learn to better manage stress. Coming in for sessions only when there is a problem does not help change patterns of behaviors that lead to the problems and does not lead to patients learning the necessary skills to solve problems and more successfully manage their own life. The problem solving approach provides only temporary improvements and can ultimately create dependency on a therapist as opposed to integrating the skills so you are able to function independently, make more confident choices, and experience a greater overall sense of meaning in your life.

Collaboratively, both the patient and their therapist are free to discuss the frequency of therapy and whether more or less time may be needed based on availability, finances, etc.. However, our therapists do not provide biweekly or monthly appointments for new patients.

We do not provide crisis counseling. If you are in need of more coverage for treatment than 1-2 sessions weekly, we may not be the best fit for working with you. You may want to look into Intensive Outpatient Treatment options. At times, during the course of regular treatment, patients may experience a crisis. If we are unable to get you in for a session and it is urgent, you will need to call 988 or head to an emergency department. Your safety is our number one priority.

Privacy and confidentiality are important to us and there are numerous federal and state laws regarding confidentiality that we must abide by. We may use or disclose protected health information without your consent or authorization only in the following circumstances:

• Payment: When it is necessary to obtain payment that is due.

• Child Abuse: If we have reasonable cause to believe that a child has suffered abuse or neglect, we are required by law to report it to the proper law enforcement agency or the Washington Department of Social and Health Services.

• Adult and Domestic Abuse: If we have reasonable cause to believe that abandonment, abuse, financial exploitation, or neglect of a vulnerable adult has occurred, we must immediately report the abuse to the Washington Department of Social and Health Services. If we have reason to suspect that sexual or physical assault has occurred, we must immediately report to the appropriate law enforcement agency and to the Department of Social and Health Services.

• Health Oversight: If the Washington Examining Board of Psychology subpoenas one of our therapists as part of its investigations, hearings or proceedings relating to the discipline, issuance or denial of licensure of state licensed psychologists, we must comply with its orders. This could include disclosing your relevant mental health information.

• Judicial or Administrative Proceedings: If you are involved in a court proceeding and a request is made for information about the professional services that we have provided to you and the records thereof, such information is privileged under state law, and we will not release information without:The written authorization of you or your legal representative.A subpoena of which you have been properly notified and for which you have failed to inform us that you are contesting the subpoena. A court order. The privilege does not apply when you are being evaluated for a third party or where the evaluation is court ordered. You will be informed in advance if this is the case.

• Serious Threat to Health or Safety: We may disclose your confidential mental health information to any person without authorization if we reasonably believe that disclosure will avoid or minimize imminent danger to your health or safety, or the health or safety of any other individual.

• Worker’s Compensation: If you file a worker’s compensation claim, with certain exceptions, we must make available, at any stage of the proceedings, all mental health information in our possession relevant to that particular injury in the opinion of the Washington Department of Labor and Industries, to your employer, your representative, and the Department of Labor and Industries upon request.

• Health Insurance: If you decide to use your health insurance, it is important to understand that I may be required to provide them some or all of your records upon request. By agreeing to be seen through your insurance you are consenting to release your information to your health insurance plan.

Further details on HIPPA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) are included on the HIPPA form you will be directed to following the brief phone screening.

Our therapists will not engage on social media with patients, nor is it appropriate to use text to communicate with your therapist. DO NOT TEXT MESSAGE YOUR THERAPIST. In order to maintain confidentiality, our therapists will not acknowledge you if they see you in public unless you initiate contact.

We have a 48 hour cancellation policy. Once an appointment is scheduled you are responsible for paying for the full session regardless if you choose to utilize the full session or not. Since that time block has been specifically reserved for you, if you do not provide enough notice, we are unable to schedule another patient in that time block. Insurance does not pay for sessions that were not attended, so the payment for a missed appointment is entirely the patient’s responsibility.  The fee for a missed appointment is the full cost of the session. If you are more than 15 minutes late for an appointment you will be charged out of pocket for the session and the appointment will be considered a no show.