Terms & Conditions

Intellect Therapy Group

8300 Douglas Ave. Suite 800

972-752-3462

PRACTICE POLICIES

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

The standard meeting time for psychotherapy is 50 minutes. It is up to you, however, to determine the length of time of your sessions. Requests to change the 50-minute session needs to be discussed with the therapist in order for time to be scheduled in advance.

Cancellations and re-scheduled session 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.

TELEPHONE ACCESSIBILITY

If you need to contact me between sessions, please leave a message on my voice mail. I am often not immediately available; however, I will attempt to return your call within 24 hours. Please note that Face- to-face sessions are highly preferable to phone sessions. However, in the event that you are out of town, sick or need additional support, phone sessions are available and follow the same fee schedule as face-to-face sessions. If a true emergency situation arises, please call 911 or any local emergency room.

SOCIAL MEDIA AND TELECOMMUNICATION
Due to the importance of your confidentiality and the importance of minimizing dual relationships, I do not accept friend or contact requests from current or former clients on any social networking site (Facebook, LinkedIn, etc). I 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.

CONFIDENTIALITY OF TECHNOLOGY

If you elect to communicate via technology, please be aware that technology is not completely confidential. We work to protect your personal data by communicating via technology with your permission, and for purposes such as billing, setting appointments, homework reminders, workshop announcements, helpful articles, etc.

We make every effort to keep all information confidential. Likewise, if we are communicating via technology, we encourage you to password-protect your devices and communicate through a computer you know is safe. If you wish to communicate by email, text messages, video conferencing, cell phone, and/or fax, you may do so. However, please be aware it is not completely confidential.

NON-RECORDING

Successful therapy depends on building a relationship of trust, good faith, and openness between client(s) and therapist. Often, audio or video recording can inhibit candor and introspection in therapy. Covert recording is a direct violation of trust and good faith to all the other persons in the room. For these reasons, and others like them, Intellect Therapy Group maintains a strict policy on recordings as follows:

A. Recording may only take place with the knowledge and explicit consent of ALL (not just one) clients, therapists, and other persons present during a session or other interaction, whether face-to-face or taking place by live textual, audio, or video link.

B. Consent for each recording must take the form of dated written signatures from all persons on a paper form available for that purpose, with a copy to each person recorded. Additionally, the recording itself must include the live consent of all persons present, with such consent stated at the start of the recording or when they join a session or interaction already in progress.

MINORS
If you are a minor, your parents may be legally entitled to some information about your therapy. I 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 in order to achieve some closure. The appropriate length of the termination depends on the length and intensity of the treatment. I may terminate treatment after appropriate discussion with you and a termination process if I determine that the psychotherapy is not being effectively used or if you are in default on payment. I 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, I 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 six consecutive weeks, unless other arrangements have been made in advance, for legal and ethical reasons, I must consider the professional relationship discontinued. upon the discretion of your therapist, you may return to therapy later.