Social Media Policy
SG Mental Health Counseling (“Company,” “we,” or “us”) respects your use of social media. This page outlines my office policies related to the 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.
Friending/Following/Adding as a Contact
I maintain an online presence on several social media sites. I use my full name or various username derivatives of my full name 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.
I don’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. My reasons for not following current or former clients on social media are described above.
In addition, 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 devices. 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 SMS (mobile phone text messaging) or messaging on Social Networking sites such as Twitter, Snapchat, Tik Tok, Messenger, 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 medical record and will need to be documented and archived in your chart.
If you need to contact me between sessions, the best way to do so is by phone, the contact form on this website, or email at Marissa.Collier@
I also may, in the future, have a blog/podcast/video series in which I allow moderated comments. Please don’t comment on the blog/podcast/video series as it creates another public forum in which we may be interacting. I would much prefer that if you read or hear something on my blog/podcast/video series and you have a reaction to it, that we talk about it together rather than having a public exchange in my comments.
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 chart 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 may publish a blog/podcast/video series on my website. I also have a Twitter account, a Facebook account, a LinkedIn account, and an Instagram account. I am also a member of various online communities. 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 working relationship.
You may also run across my information in other settings. You may see online ads that I post, 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 that I have online reviews of my private 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 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 working together.
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.
Contact Us
The Company welcomes your questions or comments regarding the Social Media Policy:
SG Mental Health Counseling
1375-A Cross Creek Circle
Email Address: Marissa.Collier@
Effective as of [05/24/2021]