Social Media and Electronic Information Policy
About
Ludwig
Esser Psychotherapy & Hypnotherapy
Social
Media and Electronic
Information Policy
This
section outlines the policy of Ludwig Esser Hypnotherapy &
Psychotherapywith regard to the use of social media and electronic
information. If you, as a client, have questions about any aspect
please do ask. As the world of technology is constantly changing this
document is likely to be updated regularly and the latest version
will always be available on my website.
Friending
I
do not accept friend or contact requests from former or current
clients on any social networking site as this can not only compromise
your confidentiality (eg if another of my friends saw that you were a
friend they may wonder how we know each other) but would also blur
the boundary of the therapeutic relationship.
Following
I
don not use twitter. However, if I should do so in future, I would do
so as an individual, not as a business. I would suggest not
following me and if I notice that you have I would suggest we discuss
this. I will not follow you on Twitter as this can cause confusion
around the purpose of this: would it be part of your therapy or would
I just be being curious?
Interacting
Please
do not use public ways of contact (eg @replies or tagging) again
because of the potential for this to compromise your confidentiality.
I do not use facebook messenger, but you may use Whatsapp or text to
discuss appointment times or other logistics but not therapeutic
issues. The latter cannot be kept secure.
Use
of search engines
I
do not routinely Google my clients but may very occasionally in a
time of crisis. For example, if you had failed to attend a session
and I was concerned for your safety I may try to find out about you
this way. If I did so, I would tell you about it the next time we
met.
Business
review sites
You
may find my name on business review sites but I have not asked to be
on these. Businesses do not get a choice! Clients are free to post
whatever they choose and due to confidentiality I cannot comment on
anything that is posted. Indeed, anyone (including a competitor) can
post anything so it is advisable to be aware that reviews (good or
bad) may not be representative of the views of real clients.
It
is considered unethical by my professional bodies (the National
Society for Hypnosis, Psychotherapy & Mindfulness and the United
Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy) to publish testimonials and so you
will not find any testimonials coming from me although it is always
nice to receive private messages from clients who have completed
their therapy.
Location-based
services
If
you use location-based services e.g. “Google Maps” on your phone
you should be aware that others may surmise that you are a therapy
client if you are seen as "checking in" at my address.
In order to avoid this, you need to switch off the GPS service of
your phone in time.
Email
It
is preferable to use email only for logistical contact (eg to get a
reminder of an appointment time) due to the inherent insecurity of
email. If you wish to engage in "email therapy" or send
confidential documents, then please use a password protected word
document to contain what you wish to say. I can set this up for you
if you need it.
Phone
/Text
As
above texting may be used for contact about appointment times. This
is preferable to making a phone call as it is easier to respond as I
cannot answer the phone if I am with another client. Whether phoning
or texting, please only do so between the hours of 8am – 8pm.
Due
to the nature of SMS I cannot gurantee confidentiality of text
messages via SMS. Companies like Facebook can and do access SMS to
source marketable information from the conten. I do not have Facebook
on my mobile devices, but they can access our communications if just
one of has has it installed.
As
an alternative please use “WhatsApp” or “Signal”. Both are
end-to-end encrypted messaging, call and video apps and only you and
I will have access to the communication between us.
Thanks
to Dr Keely Holmes (http://drkkolmes.com) who provided the model for
this social media policy.