My Credentials: I am a Registered Social Worker (MSW, RSW) who specializes in provision of cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT). I have completed the CBT accreditation requirements with the Academy of Cognitive Therapy and Canadian Association for Cognitive and Behavioural Therapies that act as quality assurance organizations for CBT therapists. I am a college regulated health professional permitted to provide psychotherapy but I am not a psychologist or a psychiatrist. Consequently, I cannot offer diagnostic clarifications or prescribe medications.
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Confidentiality: Your confidentiality and privacy are important. However, as a health professional I am obliged to keep records of our appointments. Your files are kept in locked cabinets. In keeping with Ontario Personal Health Information Protection Act, I have secured services of Owl Practice that provides secure server storage that meets all the mandated requirements. You can check www.OwlPractice.ca
Your records will not be released without your written consent unless they are subpoenaed by court. If you have asked a third party to request your records, please ensure that you have signed a release of information form that has your name, address, date and specifies the treatment period for which the information is to be released. It is my standard practice to call you and verbally confirm your consent whenever I receive any such requests.
Your confidentiality may be broken when there is a risk that you may cause physical harm to another person, you are at high risk of ending your life or there are reasons to suspect child abuse. The sharing of information in the above circumstances is limited to what is necessary in order to ensure safety.
Sometimes therapists receive calls from concerned family and friends. You will be informed of such calls and no appointments to discuss your situation will be scheduled without your prior approval. To avoid misunderstandings, it is advisable that you attend such appointments as well.
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Structure Of Appointments: Our appointments will be of approximately 55 minutes duration. Our first 1-2 meetings are used to gather as much of information as possible so that we can work towards better understanding of your circumstances.
The reminder of our appointments follow a typical agenda of reviewing any changes in your situation, discussion of tasks that you may be asked to complete between our appointments and identifying the main issues to be discussed during each meeting. Agenda setting is necessary as some of the therapeutic techniques may be stirring difficult emotions and we cannot leave talking about the most emotionally salient issues to the last 5 minutes of our appointment and run out of time. My attention is on you but now and then I will also be checking the clock. I don’t mean it as a sign of disrespect – I simply need to ensure that all the issues that we have identified for our agenda are given sufficient attention.
Once we arrive at a shared understanding of your difficulties, we will have a discussion about what we can do in therapy so that you can make an informed decision about the interventions we will be using. We may work at a generic level to address your thoughts, behaviours and interaction patterns or there may be a clear indication for application of an established CBT protocol that has been developed to capture your unique set of difficulties. Feel free to address any concerns you may have about the proposed course of therapy.
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I have clinical responsibility towards persons I am working with. If you do not come to the appointment, I have to reach out to you to verify if you are OK. Please let me know if you need to cancel an appointment ahead of time or at least notify me that you were not able to come or decided not to continue in therapy. If I cannot reach you directly, I have to call your emergency contact.
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Response To Crises: I might not be able to respond to emergencies as quickly as you might desire. Moreover, some emergencies cannot be handled in context of a small private practice. Examples of such emergencies include dangerous suicide attempts, severe disorganization of your thinking or emergence of psychotic symptoms. Please go to the nearest hospital if you cannot manage your behaviour and emotions in response to these symptoms. We will work hard to develop crisis plans that would assist us with de-escalation of such crises and give you tools and insight to reduce risk of such severe emotional dysregulation.
If you are a person at risk of suicide, we should involve someone close to you in our safety planning and conduct at least one joint appointment so that this person can have a better understanding of what type of assistance works the best for you and what is expected of them. In such situations, I also need to be in close communication with your doctor in order to ensure that we remain well coordinated to ensure your safety while we are working on some tough issues in therapy.
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PLEASE DO NOT USE TEXTING OR EMAIL TO GET CRISIS SUPPORT.
You can definitively call, text or e-mail me to schedule an urgent appointment.
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Ending Therapy: Typically ending therapy is a mutually agreed-upon process when you have reached your goals and no longer require support to maintain a life worth living. Many clients transition from intensive therapy of weekly appointments to booster sessions once per month or once every two months. Please notify me if for some reason you are unable to continue or decided to withdraw from therapy. If applicable, we can meet for a discharge / review appointment. Again, I am under obligation to reach out to you or your emergency contact if you do not show for your appointment without notifying me.
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Office Policies: My fee is $150 per appointment. This fee should be paid at the end of the appointment. Payment can be made by cash, cheque, credit card or e-transfer. In order to keep costs low and avoid administrative fees, I do not coordinate payments with insurance companies. Clients whose ability to pay for the appointment depends on reimbursement from the insurance company, will receive an invoice to be filed with their insurance company and are expected to pay within 4 weeks of the date of the appointment.
Please check the extent of your coverage with your insurance company and whether you can get reimbursed for services delivered by a Registered Social Worker. It is understood that you will be responsible for any outstanding fees that may not be covered your insurance.
I generally do not charge cancellation fees but please keep in mind that I do not have many appointment spaces available and consequently need at least 2-days-notice to be able to offer the appointment time to someone else.
A person who cancels more than three appointments will be asked to pay for an appointment before a booking is made and this payment will not be reimbursed if they fail to show up. There is no penalty for emergency cancellations provided that this is not a frequent occurrence.
As a registered social worker, I cannot diagnose my clients . This is an important consideration of you’re seeking my assistance with insurance claims. You can request a copy of your intake assessment and treatment plan – it will be given to you free of charge after our third appointment.
Sometimes clients request their treatment notes for legal purposes (e.g., filing grievance with an employer, divorce or aftermath of a car accident). Please note that I will not change the content of the assessment to suit the position that you intend to argue in court and that I am not qualified to provide parenting capacity assessments . If you request such records after we have completed our work together, you will be charged an administrative fee, depending on the complexity of documentation that you require.
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