SOCIAL MEDIA POLICY

SOCIAL MEDIA POLICY OF BE YOUR BEST SELF AND THRIVE, PLLC

This page outlines my office policies related to use of Social Media. The widespread use of social media and the ease of virtual connection has changed the way we interact. The Internet can be a great tool for connecting people to resources and educational material. It can also damage or impede our professional therapeutic relationship.

Please read the policies that follow to understand how I conduct myself on the Internet as a mental health professional and how you can expect me to respond to interactions that may occur between us on the Internet. Please discuss any questions or concerns you may have with me.

The widespread use of social media and the ease of virtual connection has changed the way we interact. The Internet can be a great tool for connecting people to resources and educational material. It can also damage or impede our professional therapeutic relationship.

Please read the following policies in order to understand how I conduct myself on the Internet and how you can expect me to respond to various interactions that may occur between us. If you have any questions about this, please ask.

Separate Accounts

Jamie Molnar, LMHC, RYT, QS and the registered interns or provisional licensed mental health counselors I may supervise from time to time hold separate and isolated social media accounts to be used for the sole purpose of professional matters regarding Be Your Best Self and Thrive Counseling, PLLC. These accounts are separate from any personal accounts held by me as an individual.

Friending

I do not accept friend or contact requests from current or former mental health counseling clients on any personal social networking sites. Adding clients as friends or contacts on these sites can compromise your confidentiality and our respective privacy. It also blurs the boundaries of our therapeutic relationship.

Following

I will not follow any mental health counseling client on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, their blogs, or other apps or websites. If there is content you wish to share from your online life, please bring it into our sessions where we can explore it together.

I have no expectation that you will want to follow my blog, Twitter stream, or professional Facebook page. However, if you use an easily recognizable name and I happen to notice that you’ve followed or liked me, we may briefly discuss its impact on our working relationship.

Viewing of clients’ online content outside of the therapy hour can create confusion, have a negative influence on our working relationship, and violates your privacy, which is my primary concern. For these reasons, it is your privacy, so please use your own discretion in choosing whether to follow me on social media. Also, please note that I will not follow you back or interact with you on these sites.

Viewing of clients’ online content outside of the therapy hour can create confusion, have a negative influence on our working relationship, and violates your privacy.

If there are things from your online life that you wish to share with me, please bring them to our sessions.

Interacting via Social Media Messaging

Please do not use messaging on social networking sites 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 and our therapeutic relationship.. It may also create the possibility that these exchanges become a part of your legal medical record, which create a duty on my part to and will need to be documented document and archive them in your mental health counseling and archived in your chart.

If you need to contact me between sessions, the best way to do so is by phone or text message. Direct email at info@bybsandthrive.com is also acceptable. However, please see the email section below for more information regarding email interactions.

Please use email and text messaging to contact me for administrative reasons only (modifying appointments, billing information, etc.). Please do not email or text content related to our counseling sessions, unless otherwise discussed. Email and text communications are not completely secure or confidential. Any emails or texts I receive from you and any responses I send to you become a part of your legal medical record.

I prefer using email only to arrange or modify appointments, as most forms of email are not completely secure or confidential.

Phone

If you need to contact me between sessions about matters related to the content of our counseling sessions, the best way to do so is by phone.

Search Engines

I do not make it a practice to search for clients on Google, Facebook, or other search engines or websites. However, I may make an exception to this rule during a crisis. If I have reason to suspect you are a danger to yourself or others and I have exhausted all other reasonable means to contact you and/or your emergency contact, then I reserve the right to use a search engine to find information about you to ensure your welfare. If this ever occurs, I will fully document the search and discuss it with you at your next session.

If you have questions or concerns about any of these policies and procedures, please bring them to my attention so we can discuss them.