What you're agreeing to, in plain language.

Therapy can bring real benefits, including improved relationships and progress on the specific concerns that brought you here. Reaching those benefits takes effort on your part. Psychotherapy requires active involvement, honesty, and openness to change your thoughts, feelings, and behavior. Your clinician will ask for your feedback on the process and progress of your care, and will expect you to respond openly.

Talking through unpleasant events, feelings, or thoughts can sometimes bring up real discomfort: anger, sadness, worry, fear, anxiety, or difficulty sleeping. Your clinician may challenge assumptions or offer a different way of looking at a situation. That discomfort is often part of the work, not a sign it isn't working.

Working through what brought you to therapy can lead to changes you didn't originally intend, including decisions about relationships, employment, substance use, schooling, or housing. Change will sometimes happen quickly, but more often takes time and patience. There is no guarantee that therapy will produce a specific or intended outcome.

Your clinician draws on a range of psychological and motivational approaches, chosen based on the concern being treated and their clinical assessment of what will benefit you most. These may include behavioral, cognitive-behavioral, psychodynamic, existential, systemic and family, developmental (adult, child, or family), psycho-educational, or coaching techniques.

Yes. During your first session and throughout care, your clinician will discuss your understanding of the concern, the treatment plan, therapeutic objectives, and possible outcomes. If you have unanswered questions about any procedure, its risks, your clinician's expertise with it, or the plan itself, ask. You'll be answered fully.

You also have the right to ask about other treatment options and their risks and benefits. If another form of treatment would serve you better than what we provide, your clinician has an ethical obligation to help you access it, including a referral to an appropriate specialist.

All information disclosed in sessions, and the written records of those sessions, are confidential and will not be revealed to anyone without your written permission, except where disclosure is required by law. You're expected to keep our communications confidential as well. Records of communication between client and clinician remain the property of Holistic Behavioral Solutions.

Most provisions explaining when the law requires disclosure are described in the Notice of Privacy Practices provided with your intake forms.

Disclosure is legally required in circumstances including reasonable suspicion of child, dependent, or elder abuse or neglect, and when a client presents a danger to self, to others, to property, or is gravely disabled. Full detail is in your Notice of Privacy Practices.

If you're involved in a custody dispute, or place your mental status at issue in litigation you initiate, the opposing party may have the right to obtain psychotherapy records or testimony. In couple or family therapy, or when family members are seen individually, confidentiality does not automatically apply between the parties involved. Your clinician will use clinical judgment when handling such information, and will not release records to any outside party without authorization from all adult family members who were part of treatment.

If, during or after your time with us, your clinician becomes concerned about your safety, the safety of someone else, or your need for proper psychiatric care, they will do whatever the law allows to prevent harm and ensure you receive appropriate medical care. This may include contacting the police, a hospital, or an emergency contact you've provided.

Clinicians at HBS consult regularly with other professionals regarding client care as part of standard clinical supervision. Your name and identifying information are never disclosed in these consultations. Your identity remains fully anonymous and confidentiality is fully maintained.

Beyond the exceptions above, we will release information to any agency or person you specify, upon your written request, unless we conclude that doing so could be harmful to you in some way.

Email is used for scheduling purposes only. All therapeutic issues are discussed in session. Text messaging is acceptable for appointments and housekeeping matters only. Please be aware that phone conversations may not be fully confidential due to the nature of mobile networks, and any fax sent to our office is secure. All computer files referencing our communications are maintained using secure, encrypted measures.

If you use email to journal between sessions, understand that your clinician may not review it until your next scheduled appointment, and that emails sent between sessions could be intercepted in transmission. We ask that you communicate only through a device and connection you know to be private, and that you fully exit any online session or email account when finished.

It is not a regular part of our practice to search for client information through search engines or social media. Rare exceptions may occur during a crisis. If we have reason to believe you're in danger and haven't been reachable through our usual means, using a search engine to locate you or someone close to you may become necessary to ensure your welfare. In such unusual situations, this will be fully documented and discussed with you at our next meeting.

We do not list our practice as a check-in location on services such as Foursquare. If you have location-based services enabled on your device, be aware that regular check-ins near our office could allow others to infer you're a therapy client.

Mercer County is a small community, and running into each other is entirely possible. If it happens, we'll smile and say hello in a friendly way, the same as we would with anyone else in the community. Not every dual relationship is unethical or avoidable, but sexual involvement between clinician and client is never part of the therapeutic relationship, nor is any other interaction that could impair your clinician's objectivity or clinical judgment.

Your clinician will never acknowledge working with you without your written permission. For this reason, we do not accept social media connection requests from clients on platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, or Pinterest, and we do not respond to blog comments from clients.

During intake and the first several sessions, your clinician assesses whether they're the right fit to help you, including suitability for care delivered by telehealth. We do not accept clients we don't believe we can help; in that case, we'll provide referrals you can contact directly.

If, at any point, your clinician determines they're not effectively helping you reach your goals, they're obligated to discuss this with you, up to and including ending treatment, along with referrals that may help. With your written authorization, your clinician will coordinate directly with a new provider of your choosing to support the transition.

You have the right to end therapy at any time. If you do, we'll provide names of other qualified professionals whose services you might prefer.

Current rates for services are posted on our Insurance & Fees page. Our practice operates fee-for-service, meaning fees are due at your appointment. HBS is an out-of-network provider. If your plan includes out-of-network benefits, we submit claims on your behalf and work to secure a negotiated rate, always pre-approved with you before we submit.

Individual and family sessions run 50 minutes. Group sessions run 60 minutes. Your first appointment, the Diagnostic Intake, runs 90 minutes. Abbreviated sessions are available at a reduced rate.

Scheduling an appointment reserves that time specifically for you. A minimum of 24-hour notice is required to reschedule or cancel. Unless another arrangement is agreed upon, the full session fee will be charged for missed appointments without proper notice.

If a telehealth session is disrupted by a technical issue, please attempt to reconnect within 10 minutes. If reconnection isn't possible, contact our office to schedule a new time.

You may find our practice listed on review sites such as Yelp, Healthgrades, or Bing. These listings are not a request for a testimonial or endorsement, and asking clients for testimonials would be an unethical practice on our part. If you choose to post a review, consider that you may be sharing personally revealing information publicly, and consider using a pseudonym not linked to your regular accounts for your own privacy.

If you have a concern about your care, we hope you'll discuss it with us directly first. If you're not comfortable doing so, you may make an inquiry to our licensing boards.

Any dispute arising from this agreement will first be referred to mediation, as a precondition to arbitration, with a neutral mediator chosen by mutual agreement. If mediation is unsuccessful, unresolved disputes will be settled by binding arbitration under the rules of the American Arbitration Association. If an account becomes overdue with no agreed payment plan in place, HBS may pursue legal means to obtain payment, and the prevailing party in arbitration or collection proceedings may recover reasonable attorney's fees.

Because therapy often involves full disclosure of confidential matters, it is agreed that should legal proceedings arise, such as divorce, custody disputes, or injury claims, neither you, your attorney, nor anyone acting on your behalf will call on your clinician to testify in court or in any other proceeding, nor request disclosure of psychotherapy records.

Distance therapy is a different experience than meeting in person, including the absence of some face-to-face visual and audio cues you may be used to. Telehealth is not a substitute for medication management under the care of a psychiatrist or physician, and it is not appropriate if you're in crisis or experiencing suicidal or homicidal thoughts. As always, if a life-threatening crisis occurs, contact 988, call 911, or go to the nearest emergency room.

Care at HBS follows the laws and professional regulations of the State of New Jersey, and treatment is considered to take place in New Jersey or in any other state where your clinician holds an active license. We generally do not conduct ongoing telehealth therapy with clients whose permanent residence is outside our licensed jurisdiction; sessions in that circumstance are considered consultation only.

Call our office at 609-752-3098. Your call will be returned as soon as possible; messages are checked daily, though never overnight, and less frequently on weekends and holidays. This line is not a substitute for emergency services. If you need immediate help, call or text 988, dial 911, or go to the nearest emergency room, then follow up with our office once you've been seen.