My Social Media Policy and Security

This document outlines my office policies related to use of Social Media and my efforts at protecting your information. 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.

FRIENDING 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.

FOLLOWING I occasionally publish a blog on my website I have no expectation that you as a client will want to follow my blog. If you post a comment it will be available for others to see so only do so if you are comfortable with your name being visibly to others reading the content.

INTERACTING Please do not use SMS (mobile phone text messaging) or messaging on Social Networking sites such as Facebook, or LinkedIn to contact me. These sites are not secure and I may not read these messages in a timely fashion. If you need to contact me between sessions, the best way to do so is by phone @ 707-234-8189 or email at pchechele@protonmail.com for quick, administrative issues such as changing appointment times.

HIPPA COMPLIANT VIDEO, EMAIL AND TEXT I take your personal information seriously and take every effort to maintain your confidentiality. The Zoom video, Proton email and Hushed phone number I use on this site are all HIPPA compliant for secure communications to provide you with assurance that what we discuss remains between us and only us.