Tele therapy is a form of psychotherapy conducted over the phone or through a video conference.

In accordance with legal and ethical norms, information about your therapy will be kept confidential and will not be shared without your expressed consent, with the exception of the following situations:

• When a person is deemed to be a risk to themselves or others.
• When there is a reasonable suspicion of child, elder, or dependent adult abuse or neglect.
• When there is a medical emergency that renders a person unable to seek help for themselves
• When a court order is received

In such a case, we will do all in our power to let you know what reports need to be filed with the appropriate authorities to ensure your safety and the safety of others.

Under the provisions of the Health Care Information Act of 1992, we may legally speak to another health care provider or a member of your family about you without your prior consent, but we will not do so unless the situation is an emergency.

We will always act so as to protect your privacy even if you do release us in writing to share information about you. You may direct us to share information with whomever you choose, and you can change your mind and revoke that permission at any time. You may request anyone you wish to attend a therapy session with you.

If you elect to communicate with us by email at some point in our work together, please be aware that email is not completely confidential. All emails are retained in the logs of your or our internet service provider. While under normal circumstances no one looks at these logs, they are, in theory, available to be read by the system administrator(s) of the internet service provider. Any email we receive from you, and any responses that we send to you, will be printed out and kept in your treatment record.

The following are legal exceptions to your right to confidentiality. We would inform you of any time when we think we will have to put these into effect.

• If we have good reason to believe that you will harm another person, we must attempt to inform that person and warn them of your intentions. We must also contact the police and ask them to protect your intended victim.
• If we have good reason to believe that you are abusing or neglecting a child or vulnerable adult, or if you give me information about someone else who is doing this, we must inform the appropriate authorities immediately.
• If we believe that you are in imminent danger of harming yourself, we may legally break confidentiality and call the police or other authorities. We are not obligated to do this, and would explore all other options with you before we took this step. If at that point you were unwilling to take steps to guarantee your safety, we would call the authorities. Tele therapy services are meant for legal adults or minors who have written consent of their parent/guardian. You must be 18 years of age or above to initiate tele therapy. If you are under 18, we would require written consent and verification from your parent/guardian to initiate therapy. In case we have been misinformed about your age at the time of initiation of therapy and discover that you are a minor during the course of the therapy sessions, we will terminate the sessions immediately until you provide us with written consent from a parent/guardian and we are able to verify the same ourselves.

We keep very brief records, noting only that you have been here, what interventions happened in session, and the topics we discussed. If you prefer that we keep no records, you must give me a written request to this effect for your file and we will only note that you attended therapy in the record.

Under the provisions of the Health Care Information Act of 1992, you have the right to a copy of your file at any time. You have the right to request that we correct any errors in your file. You have the right to request that we make a copy of your file available to any other health care provider at your written request. We maintain your records in a secure location that cannot be accessed by anyone else.

LENGTH AND FREQUENCY OF THERAPY

Sessions in psychotherapy last 50 minutes and are scheduled on a regular basis. Time and frequency can differ for each client Couples and family therapy are dependent on the nature of your concerns and requirements, scheduled weekly for 75-minute sessions, whereas individual therapy is usually planned weekly for 50-minute sessions.

Depending on the nature of your requirements and concerns, duration and frequency of session can vary.

FEE

Fee varies for individual, family and couple’s therapy. The fee details will be mentioned in the email sent to you once online request form is submitted.

Your session time is set out just for you, so you are in charge of it!

CANCELLATION

There must be a minimum of 48 hours’ notice for cancellations. A standard cost will be charged if a session is cancelled with less than 48 hours’ notice before the scheduled start time. Wen rare circumstances, you may not be held liable for the missed appointment if a consensual decision is made to reschedule an appointment that was cancelled with less than 48 hours’ notice.

RESCHEDULING

Rescheduling may sometimes be necessary for various reasons. If the therapist is unable to keep their appointment and need to reschedule, they will contact you and setup the rescheduled session as per your convenience.

When case you need to reschedule, you can do so once for a session. However, the rescheduled session will have to be as per the therapists’ schedule and availability.

If you need to reschedule more than once, you will need to pay an additional fixed fee of Rs. 250/-

Psychotherapy has both benefits and drawbacks. Risks can include having unpleasant feelings, which frequently requires talking about the negative issues of your life. Psychotherapy, however, has been proved to provide advantages for those who use it. However, there are no assurances as to what will occur. You must make a lot of effort throughout psychotherapy. You will need to put the things we discuss into practice in order for the therapy to be most effective.

Due to the fact that there is now no media capable of guaranteeing 100% secure transmission, online appointments cannot be guaranteed to be secure and private. We advise you to always use secure electronic communication channels, like those that can guarantee privacy.

We, as your therapist, agree to work with you in a private setting through the internet. Any security or confidentiality breaches brought on by my surroundings, the internet, or other technological interference are not our responsibility. Recording of the tele therapy session is not permitted under any circumstances. This is to protect the privacy of the client and the therapist.

You, the client, are aware that compared to in-person sessions, online and telephone therapy may have some drawbacks, including the absence of "personal" face-to-face interactions and visual and aural clues.

You are aware that medicine taken under a doctor's or psychiatrist's supervision cannot be replaced by phone or internet psychotherapy.

You are aware that getting treatment via the phone or the internet might not be a good idea if you are in a crisis or thinking of harming yourself or someone else. You consent to calling the suicide prevention hotline at 1800-599-0019 in the event of a life-threatening emergency or visiting an emergency department at a hospital.

On weekdays, messages are checked during work hours. Weekend and holiday check-ins on messages are not guaranteed. Email should not be used for personal or process writing; rather, it should only be used to schedule meetings or request logistical information. Any invitations sent to me via social networking sites will not be accepted.

Please try to reconnect within 10 minutes if a technical issue prevents you and your therapist from speaking during a session. Send an email to your therapist to set up a new appointment if reconnection is not possible.

Mind & Beyond reserves the right to change the policies at any time without any prior notice to clients.