PRACTICE POLICIES

PRIVACY

Our Lives Counseling understands that information about you and your health care is personal. We are committed to protecting health information about you according to the regulations established by HIPAA.

APPOINTMENTS AND CANCELLATIONS
Please remember to cancel or reschedule 24 hours in advance. You will be responsible for the entire fee of the therapy session if cancellation is made in less than 24 hours.

The standard meeting time for psychotherapy is 50 minutes. Requests to change the 50-minute session needs to be discussed with the therapist in order for time to be scheduled in advance.

A $35 service charge will be charged for any checks returned for any reason.

Cancellations and rescheduled sessions will be subject to a full charge if NOT RECEIVED AT LEAST 24 HOURS IN ADVANCE. This is necessary because a time commitment is made to you and is held exclusively for you. If you are late for a session, you may lose some of that session time. Clients will be considered “no show” if they have not arrived within 30 minutes of their scheduled session and will be billed as a late cancellation.  

INCLEMENT WEATHER

In cases of inclement weather, please check with Our Lives Counseling to see if we will be replacing in-person appointments with Telehealth appointments on those days.

FEES, PAYMENT, AND INSURANCE REIMBURSEMENT

The client is fully responsible for payment of all fees for services provided regardless of any insurance coverage they may have. Our Lives Counseling LLC policy requires that the fee for any session is payable at the time of service, which can be paid with a credit card or a debit card. The fees for services are:

• Therapy Session - $150

• Diagnostic/Evaluation (one-time session) - $250

• Diagnostic Letters - $65

• Written Reports for Legal Purposes (per request) - $300

• Records Fee (per request) -  $35

• Credit Card/Debit Card Disputes - $300

• Legal Proceedings Involving Mental Health Professional - $325 per hour (eight-hour retainer fee of $2,600 is required as a deposit; if all hours are not needed, OLC will reimburse for any hours not used.)

• Legal Proceedings Involving Administrative Staff of OLC - $75 per hour

ACCESSIBILITY
If you need to contact Our Lives Counseling LLC between sessions, please leave a message through the practice website, www.ourlivescounseling.com. Often we are not immediately available; however, we will attempt to return your call within 24 hours. If a true emergency arises, please call 911 and/or 988, or any local emergency room.

SOCIAL MEDIA COMMUNICATION
Due to the importance of your confidentiality and the importance of minimizing dual relationships, we do not accept friend or contact requests from current or former clients on any social networking site (Facebook, 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 the therapeutic relationship. If you have questions about this, please bring them up with your therapist.

ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATION
We cannot ensure the confidentiality of any form of communication through electronic media, including text messages. If you prefer to communicate via the practice website (www.ourlivescounseling.com) for issues regarding scheduling or cancellations, we will do so. While we will try to return messages in a timely manner, we cannot guarantee immediate response and request that you do not use these methods of communication to discuss therapeutic content and/or request assistance for emergencies.

Services by electronic means, including but not limited to telephone communication, the Internet, facsimile machines, and e-mail are considered telemedicine. Telemedicine is broadly defined as the use of information technology to deliver medical services and information from one location to another. If you and your therapist choose to use information technology for some or all of your treatment, you need to understand that:

(1) You retain the option to withhold or withdraw consent at any time without affecting the right to future care or treatment or risking the loss or withdrawal of any program benefits to which you would otherwise be entitled.
(2) All existing confidentiality protections are equally applicable.
(3) Your access to all medical information transmitted during a telemedicine consultation is guaranteed, and copies of this information are available for a reasonable fee.
(4) Dissemination of any of your identifiable images or information from the telemedicine interaction to researchers or other entities shall not occur without your consent.
(5) There are potential risks, consequences, and benefits of telemedicine. Potential benefits include, but are not limited to, improved communication capabilities, convenient access to up-to-date information, consultations, support, reduced costs, improved quality, change in the conditions of practice, improved access to therapy, better continuity of care, and reduction of lost work time and travel costs. 

Effective therapy is often facilitated when the therapist gathers a multitude of observations, information, and experiences about the client. Therapists may make clinical assessments, diagnoses, and interventions based not only on direct verbal or auditory communications, written reports, and third-person consultations, but also from direct visual and olfactory observations, information, and experiences. When using information technology in therapy services, potential risks include, but are not limited to, the therapist's inability to make visual and olfactory observations of clinically or therapeutically potentially relevant issues such as: your physical condition including deformities, apparent height and weight, body type, attractiveness relative to social and cultural norms or standards, gait and motor coordination, posture, work speed, any noteworthy mannerism or gestures, physical or medical conditions including bruises or injuries, basic grooming and hygiene including appropriateness of dress, eye contact (including any changes in the previously listed issues), sex, gender, chronological and apparent age, ethnicity, facial and body language, and congruence of language and facial or bodily expression. Potential consequences thus include the therapist not being aware of what he or she would consider important information that you may not recognize as significant to present verbally to the therapist.

MINORS
If you are a minor, your parents may be legally entitled to some information about your therapy. Our Counseling therapists will discuss with you and your parents what information is appropriate for them to receive and which issues are more appropriately kept confidential.

TERMINATION
Ending relationships can be difficult. Therefore, it is important to have a termination process to achieve some closure. The appropriate length of time before termination depends on the length and intensity of the treatment. Your therapist may terminate treatment after appropriate discussion with you if they determine that the psychotherapy is not being effectively used or if you are in default on payment. Our Lives Counseling will not terminate the therapeutic relationship without first discussing and exploring the reasons and purpose of terminating. If therapy is terminated for any reason or you request another therapist, Our Lives Counseling will provide you with a list of qualified psychotherapists to treat you. You may also choose someone on your own or from another referral source.

Should you fail to schedule an appointment for three consecutive weeks, unless other arrangements have been made in advance, for legal and ethical reasons, the professional relationship will be considered discontinued.

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