Confidentiality Policy

Confidentiality is essential to the helping nature of the client/therapist relationship. Basically, it means that anything we talk about stays private between us, unless you give me specific permission to share information with anyone else. My assurance of confidentiality allows you to speak freely, openly, and honestly about absolutely anything with me, to get the very most out of your experience. This Confidentiality Policy is intended to inform you of your rights, and the limitations of confidentiality.

 

Any information you share with me as your therapist will be kept in confidence unless you provide written consent for information to be shared with others for therapeutic purposes. You may specify to whom, and what information specifically is to be shared. I am the only person with access to your client records in my professional files. All client records are stored in a secure manner and will remain in my possession. Your records will be destroyed ten years after services are no longer being accessed. I adhere to the federally regulated privacy standards outlined in the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act.

 

There are limitations to confidentiality and as per the professional expectations outlined in the Code of Ethics for Registered Social Workers, sometimes information may need to be shared with others for professional reasons. If this should happen, in the interest of maintaining transparency in our therapeutic relationship, you and I will discuss my professional obligation to share information in advance. Confidentiality regarding the information you share will be maintained, except under the following conditions:

• 1. If there is a disclosure of a threat of causing harm to yourself or others.

• 2. If there is a disclosure of abuse of a child under the age of sixteen.

• 3. Where required by law (i.e. subpoena or court order).

 

 

Social Media Policy

This document outlines my office policies related to use of Social Media. Please read it to understand how I conduct myself on the Internet as a mental health professional and how you can expect me to respond to various interactions that may occur between us on the Internet. If you have any questions about anything within this document, I encourage you to bring them up when we meet. As new technology develops and the Internet changes, there may be times when I need to update this policy. If I do so, I will notify you in writing of any policy changes and make sure you have a copy of the updated policy.

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Friending/Following/Adding as a Contact

I maintain an online presence on several social media sites. I use my full name or the username The Open-Hearted Therapist on these sites so that it is clear it is me representing my business and myself. I do not want you to see a pseudonym and think you are following someone else only to find out later that it is me. 

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Idon’t accept friend or contact requests either from current or former clients on any social networking site. I believe 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 and make it feel like a friendship, a type of patronage, or simply encourage voyeurism. If you have questions about this, please bring them up when we meet and we can talk more about it.

 

In some rare circumstances, I have had people in my wider circle who previously followed me on social media ask to come in for psychotherapy. If we agree that meeting together does not constitute a problematic conflict of interest, I will suggest that we unfollow one another on social media (or I will at the very least unfollow you during treatment) to avoid some of the problems outlined above. I will do this to preserve the integrity of our working relationship. I will not ever knowingly follow you on social media, although it’s possible that if you use a pseudonym, I may accidentally follow you. If this happens, you are welcome to let me know when we meet. Viewing your online activities without your explicit consent and without a specific clinical purpose could have potential negative effects on your treatment. I might learn things about you that you have chosen not to discuss in therapy. It is your right to choose what to share in our work. But if I see these things outside of our sessions, then I will have to figure out how to tell you I have become aware of these things. If there are things from your online life that you do want to share with me, I encourage you to bring them into our sessions where we can view and explore them together, during the therapy hour. The best way to do this is to print things out and bring them to your session or show them to me on your device. Please don’t forward me emails or screenshots that involve other people, as anything you send me does become part of your legal record.

 

Interacting

Please do not use messaging on Social Networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook, Slack, Instagram, or LinkedIn to contact me. These sites are not secure and I may not read these messages in a timely fashion. Do not use Wall postings, @replies, or other means of engaging with me in public online if we have an already established client/therapist relationship. Engaging with me this way could compromise your confidentiality. It may also create the possibility that these exchanges become a part of your legal record and will need to be documented and archived in your clinical file.

 

If you need to contact me between sessions, the best way to do so is by phone or email at support@theopenheartedtherapist.com. I prefer that we only use email for 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 my practice to search for clients on social media or using search engines. Extremely rare exceptions may be made during times of crisis. If I have a reason to suspect that you are in danger and you have not been in touch with me via our usual means (coming to appointments, phone, or email) there might be instances in which using a search engine to check on your recent status updates becomes necessary as part of ensuring your welfare. These are unusual situations and if I ever resort to such means, I will document it in your file and I will discuss it with you when we next meet.

 

Again, the reason I don’t do this is because I see it as a potential breach of your privacy and the trust between us. I believe that viewing your online activities and postings can alter my impressions of you and change the relationship we are mutually developing in our meetings, as described in the section on Friending/Following. It can also create confusion in regard to whether I’m looking at your online activity as part of your treatment (for assessment or diagnostic purposes) or to satisfy my personal curiosity.

 

If you do have online activity that you want me to know about, please talk to me about it during our work together, when we are meeting.

 

Discovering/Viewing My Online Activity

I publish a podcast on my website and I sometimes post stories. I have published online courses. I also have a Facebook account, a LinkedIn account, and an Instagram account. I have no expectation that clients will want to follow my writings or social media postings. However, if you use an easily recognizable name online and I happen to notice that you’ve followed me, we may briefly discuss it and its potential impact on our therapeutic relationship. 

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You may also run across my information in other settings. You may see online ads that I post, or you may discover that we have friends or contacts in common on social media. You may see me quoted or published in the media or see my published writings or research. You may discover my podcasts or videos. Or you may find online reviews of my psychotherapy practice. Whether you find this information accidentally or intentionally, what is most important to me is that you feel safe and comfortable bringing it up if it has an impact on you and your feelings about our work together. I want to make it clear that it is very normal for people to be curious about their therapist and some people feel shame or embarrassment about bringing these things up. But I hope to create a relationship in which you are warmly welcomed to bring up anything you learn about me outside of our sessions that has an effect on your comfort in our working together.

 

Business Review Sites

You may find my therapy practice on sites such as Lumino Health, Yelp, Yahoo Local, 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 businesses and automatically add these listings regardless of whether the business has added itself to the site. If you should find my 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.

 

The Ontario College of Social Workers and Social Service Worker’s Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice Principle 7 prohibits the use of client endorsements or testimonials in Registered Social Worker’s public statements, announcements, advertising media and promotional activities. 

 

Of course, you have a right to express yourself on any site you wish. But due to confidentiality, I cannot respond to any review on any of these sites, whether it is positive or negative. I urge you to consider your own privacy if you choose to write a review on such a site. You should also be aware that if you are using these sites to communicate indirectly with me about your feelings about our work, there is a good possibility that I may never see it. 

 

In our sessions, I 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 we are not a good fit. None of this is meant to keep you from sharing that you are in therapy with me wherever and with whomever you like. Confidentiality means that I cannot tell people that you are my client and my professional Code of Ethics prohibits me from requesting testimonials. But you are more than welcome to tell anyone you wish that I’m your therapist, or how you feel about the treatment I provided to you, in any forum of your choosing.

 

If you do choose to write something on a business review site, keep in mind that you may be sharing personally revealing information in a public forum. Please consider creating a pseudonym that is not linked to your regular email address or friend networks for your own privacy and protection.

 

If you feel I have done something harmful or unethical and you do not feel comfortable discussing it with me, you can always contact the Ontario College of Social Workers and Social Service Workers, which oversees registration, and they will review the services I have provided. Note that if they open an investigation into my actions, and you have given your name, they may request your records to pursue the investigation.

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The Ontario College of Social Workers and Social Service Workers
250 Bloor Street East, Suite 1000
Toronto, Ontario M4W 1E6

Email: info@ocswssw.org
Phone: 416.972.9882

 

Location-Based Services

If you have used location-based services on your mobile phone, you may wish to be aware of the privacy issues related to using these services. I intentionally do not place my practice as a check-in location on various sites such as Foursquare, Places, etc. However, if you have GPS tracking enabled on your device, it is possible that others may surmise that you are a therapy client due to regular check-ins at my office. Please be aware of this risk if you are intentionally “checking in,” from my office or if you have a passive LBS app enabled on your phone. Also, if you and family members or partners use Find My Phone to track your whereabouts, and they do not know you are in therapy with me, another potential risk of them seeing your location is that they may discover you are attending therapy sessions.

 

Email

I prefer using email only to arrange or modify appointments. For teletherapy, I may also send you handouts. Occasionally, we each may share a link to something we discussed in-session. You should be aware that all exchanged emails become a part of your clinical record and I keep a copy in your file. If you choose to email me content related to your therapy sessions, please note that email is not completely secure or confidential. All emails are retained in the logs of your and my Internet service providers. While it is unlikely that someone will be looking at these logs, they are, in theory, available to be read by the system administrator(s) of the Internet service provider. 

 

I typically reply to emails within one to two business days. As noted in my regular policies, if the volume of email requires additional time beyond five minutes, I bill for the time I spend reading and replying to the email. If you want to send me things securely, the best way is to use my secure contact form on my website, which leaves no record in your email account.

 

Payment Systems

I accept cash and cheques for in-person visits. E-transfers are also accepted and should be sent to support@theopenheartedtherapist.com. 

 

I use practice software (Jane.app) that will store and bill your credit card on the day of service for our sessions. For those who prefer not to have your credit card number on file, I use Square Up that sends you an electronic invoice and you can respond to approve payment with your credit card. Your invoice will specify details for the required security question and password.

 

Record-Keeping and Data Storage

I use Jane app, a Canadian-based fully HIPAA, PIPEDA, and GDPR-compliant, cloud-based digital health system to schedule appointments, track your payments and diagnosis, store your records, and provide video appointments. 

 

I have a number of psychotherapy clients who are not comfortable with HIPAA-compliant cloud storage, and I am dedicated to using only paper files for those who prefer not to have their psychotherapy records stored in the cloud.

 

I encrypt all of my computers so that in the event of theft or loss, the entire hard drive is encrypted and the files cannot be accessed without the encryption key. This also means that HIPAA breach notification does not apply if my device is stolen. My phone has a six digit password protection and the Jane app requires a password to access stored phone numbers, addresses and records.

 

File Deletion and Destroying Data

Consistent with Principle 4 of the Standards of Practice for the Ontario College of Social Workers and Social Service Workers, all records are maintained for ten years after your last contact with me. After that point, all paper records are shredded and all electronic files are deleted. 

 

Conclusion

Thank you for taking the time to review my Social Media Policy. If you have questions or concerns about any of these policies and procedures or regarding our potential interactions on the Internet, do bring them to my attention so that we can discuss them.

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Privacy Policy

Cathy MacFarlane, MSW, RSW, The Open-Hearted Therapist (“Company,” “we,” or “us”) respects your privacy and is committed to protecting it through this Privacy Policy.

 

Our privacy commitment is based on the ten principles contained in the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (Canada) (“PIPEDA”).

 

This Privacy Policy governs your access to and use of www.theopenheartedtherapist.com including any content, functionality and services offered on or through www.theopenheartedtherapist.com (the “Website”), whether as a guest or as a registered user. This policy applies to Personal Information we collect on the Website and in email, text, forms or via other electronic messages between you and the Website.

 

Please read the Privacy Policy carefully before you use the Website. By using the Website, you accept and agree to be bound and abide by the Privacy Policy. If you do not want to agree to the Privacy Policy, you must not access or use the Website.

 

As a Registered Social Worker in the province of Ontario, Canada, I also comply with the Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice established by the Ontario College of Social Workers and Social Service Workers. This is in accordance with one of the objectives of the College as stated in the Social Work and Social Service Work Act, 1998.  

 

Personal Information

Personal Information under PIPEDA is any information about an identifiable individual, but does not include the name, title, business address or telephone number of an employee of an organization.

 

Why do we collect Personal Information?

We collect Personal Information to provide newsletters and/or other free digital resources to you. In addition, we may distribute publications and offer educational opportunities, which we provide as a service to you and others in our community.

 

The Company collects your information to record and support your participation in the activities you select. If you register to download a PDF or resources, sign up for our newsletter, and/or purchase a product from us, we collect your information. We use this information to track your preferences and to keep you informed about the products and services you have selected to receive any related products and/or services. 
 

How do we collect personal information?

We collect personal information only by lawful and fair means, and only collect personal information that is reasonably necessary for the legitimate purposes identified, and for which consent has been obtained. 

 

Information You Provide to Us

The Website provides various places for users to provide information. We collect information that users provide by filling out forms on the Website, communicating with us via contact forms, responding to surveys, search queries on our search feature, providing comments or other feedback, and providing information when ordering a product or service via the Website.

 

We use information you provide to us to deliver the requested product and/or service, to improve our overall performance, and to provide you with offers, promotions, and information.

 

Information We Collect Through Automatic Tracking Technology 

As you navigate through our Website, we may use automatic data collection technologies including Google Analytics to collect certain information about your equipment, browsing actions, and patterns. This will generally include information about your location, your traffic pattern through our Website, and any communications between your computer and our Website. Among other things, we will collect data about the type of computer you use, your Internet connection, your IP address, your operating system, and your browser type.

 

The information we collect automatically is used for statistical data and will not include your personal information. We use this data to improve our Website and our service offerings. To the extent that you voluntarily provide personal information to us, our systems will associate the automatically collected information with your personal information.

 

Use of Cookies and Pixels

Similar to other commercial websites, our Website utilizes a standard technology called “cookies” and server logs to collect information about how our site is used. Information gathered through cookies and server logs may include the date and time of visits, the pages viewed, time spent at our site, and websites visited just before and just after our own, as well as your IP address.

 

The Company reserves the right to use technological equivalents of cookies, including social media pixels. These pixels allow social media sites to track visitors to outside websites to tailor advertising messages users see while visiting that social media website. The Company reserves the right to use these pixels in compliance with the policies of the various social media sites.​

 

Third Party Use of Cookies

Some content or applications, including advertisements, on the Website are served by third parties, including advertisers, ad networks and servers, content providers, and application providers. These third parties may use cookies alone, or in conjunction with, web beacons or other tracking technologies to collect information about you when you use our website. The information they collect may be associated with your personal information or they may collect information about your online activities over time and across different websites and other online services. They may use this information to provide you with interest-based (behavioral) advertising or other targeted content.

 

Email Information

If you choose to correspond with us through email, we may retain the content of your email messages, together with your email address and our responses. We provide the same protections for these electronic communications that we employ in the maintenance of information received via online, mail, and telephone interactions. This also applies when you register for our website, sign up through any of our forms using your email address or make a purchase on this site. For further information see the email policies below.

 

Email Policies

We are committed to keeping your e-mail address confidential. We do not sell, rent, or lease our subscription lists to third parties, and will not disclose your email address to any third parties, except as required by law. 

 

All e-mails sent by us comply with the Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation (“CASL”), including clearly stating who the emailis from, and provide clear information on how to contact the sender. In addition, all e-mail messages will also contain concise information on how to remove yourself from our mailing list, so you may easily opt to receive no further e-mail communication from us. Users who no longer wish to receive our newsletter or promotional materials may opt-out of receiving these communications by clicking on the unsubscribe link in the email.

 

How do we use your information?

We use personal information for purposes of presenting our Website and its contents to you, providing you with information, providing you with offers for products and services, providing you with information about your subscriptions and products, carrying out any contract between you and the Company, administering our business activities, providing customer service, and making available other items and services to our customers and prospective customers.

 

From time-to-time, we may use the information you provide to us to make offers to purchase products and services provided by third parties in exchange for a commission to be paid to us by such third parties. Should you opt to take part in such promotions, the third parties will receive your information.

 

From time-to-time, we may use the information you provide to us to display advertisements to you that are tailored to your personal characteristics, interests, and activities.

 

Disclosure of Information

As a rule, we do not sell, rent, lease or otherwise transfer any information collected either automatically or through your voluntary action.

 

We may disclose your personal information to our subsidiaries, affiliates, and service providers for the purpose of providing our services to you.

 

We may disclose your personal information to a third party, including a lawyer or collection agency, when necessary to enforce our terms of service or any other agreement between you and the Company.

 

We may provide your information to any successor or assign in the event of a merger, divestiture, restructuring, reorganization, dissolution, or other sale or transfer of some or all of the Company’s assets and/or business.

 

We may disclose information when legally compelled to do so when we, in good faith, believe that the law requires it, or for the protection of our legal rights, or when compelled by a court or other governmental entity to do so.

 

Security Measures

We use appropriate security measures to protect against loss, theft, unauthorized access, disclosure, use or modification of personal information. Such measures will vary depending on the sensitivity, amount, format, nature, and storage of the personal information and will involve, as applicable, physical, organizational and electronic security measures, including premises security, restricted file access, technological safeguards including security software and firewalls to prevent unauthorized computer access, and password and security policies. In communicating with us, you should be aware that email is not a fully secure medium.

 

Updating Information and Correcting Errors

Since we use your personal information to provide goods or services to you, it is important that the information be accurate and up-to-date. If any of your information changes, or is inaccurate or incomplete, please inform us so that we can make any necessary updates.

 

Access to Personal Information

We will respond promptly to any request for access to your personal information and will advise you of the cost, if any, prior to the retrieval of such records or information. We will not respond to requests for access to personal information that are frivolous, vexatious, or repetitious. In certain circumstances, we may be unable to provide access to some or all of the personal information that we hold about you.

 

Visitor GDPR Rights

If you are visiting this Website from within the European Union (“EU”), you are entitled to certain information and have certain rights under the General Data Protection Regulation of the EU which include the following:

  

•  We will retain any information you choose to provide to us until the earlier of: (a) you asking us to delete the information, (b) our     decision to cease using our existing data providers, or (c) We decide that the value in retaining the data is outweighed by the costs of retaining it.

• You have the right to request access to your data that we store and the rights to either rectify or erase your personal data.

• You have the right to seek restrictions on the processing of your data.

• You have the right to object to the processing of your data and the right to the portability of your data.

• To the extent that you provided consent to our processing of your personal data, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any   time, without affecting the lawfulness of processing based upon consent that occurred prior to your withdrawal of consent.

• You have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority that has jurisdiction over issues related to the General Data Protection Regulation.

 

We require only the information that is reasonably required to enter into a contract with you. We will not require you to provide consent for any unnecessary processing as a condition of entering into a contract with us. 

For more information about your rights as a website visitor from the EU and the GDPR, please see the European Commission website here - https://ec.europa.eu/commission/priorities/justice-and-fundamental-rights/data-protection/2018-reform-eu-data-protection-rules_en.

 

Privacy Policy Changes

We may change our Privacy Policy from time to time without notice. Please check our Website for the most up-to-date version of the policy.

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Questions, Concerns or Requests for Access

If you have any questions or concerns regarding our Privacy Policy, please contact us as follows: Cathy MacFarlane support@theopenheartedtherapist.com