On-line Psychotherapy Policy
I offer on line sessions through Zoom. You will receive a Zoom link in your appointment reminder 24 hours prior to your appointment. Be advised that not every one is a good candidate for on-line psychotherapy/telementalhealth.
- First you must be comfortable independently working with the technology at a basic level. For example, the service I use, Zoom, will work in all browsers, but has additional features if you access your it with the Zoom app. To use the app, you must be comfortable loading apps on your device. You also need to be comfortable with the usual process of muting and unmuting, and activating and deactivating your camera.
- Telementalhealth is not recommended for:
- individuals who are in crisis, or who have moderate to severe difficulty with self soothing.
- Individuals with high impulsivity, who habitually currently engage in self harm, drug or alcohol abuse
- Individuals who have dementia, psychosis, or have mania and are not stabilized
Individuals with these kinds of difficulties are most successfully treated in person. So, online psychotherapy will not be recommended until there is a good degree of stability. If you are dealing with any of these issues we can discuss what can be done to prepare to move to being able to use the online service in the future.
- Telementalhealth is also not possible if you are not physically located within California when receiving on line services, or if you are more than 15 miles from emergency and law enforcement services.
If all is in order, the day before your session I will send you a link in your appointment reminders to attend on line through Zoom. If you feel that any of these issues would impede our working together on-line, feel free to leave a message for me on the discussion board at this link:
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