Thank you for your interest in participating in meetings with my client(s) who invited you. Your generous involvement can be of great benefit to them.
Before that can begin, please read this important information about what you can expect from me and this process, as well as my business policies. If you have any questions or points of concern, please contact me to discuss them. This version is of 20 Dec 2022. If you agree to this, it forms the terms of my obligations to you, and your rights, risks, and responsibilities.
Depending on your willingness, comfort, availability, and so on, your specific participation may vary greatly, from merely observing on a single occasion to attending many sessions where you will be deeply involved. With your continuing agreement, we will discuss and develop this as we proceed.
I will treat you courteously, kindly, and with respect. It would be most helpful to all of us if you voice any concerns about the process or my service as soon as they arise. Within the bounds of my responsibilities as described here, I truly welcome the opportunity to make this process work for you. Nevertheless, you may decline to participate in any particular discussion or exercise, or withdraw from the process at any time.
As a guest of my client, you will not be required to pay for any involvement, nor will you be compensated for it.
My clients are responsible for paying for late cancellations and no-shows, so if you are unable to attend any meeting as previously agreed, please give us as much notice as possible.
You may be a spouse, partner, family member, friend, or colleague of my client, and you may truly have their best interest at heart. However, regardless of the depth of your relationship with them, my duty is to them alone, and not specifically to any relationship between you. I am not responsible for conducting any sort of therapy or counselling with you. While this does not at all mean that I will ignore your welfare or side with my client’s point of view, I must make their wellbeing my first priority.
During meetings with me, you may reveal or discuss your own problems or concerns, especially those that intersect with issues of my client. You and my client may have specific differences or conflicts that you wish to resolve. While your participation may well result in an improved relationship with them, and/or help in your own growth and happiness, there is no guarantee that this will be the case. The process may produce intense emotional experiences in any of you, alter your relationship by exposing or increasing discord between you, or result in other such outcomes that you may not desire.
It may become advisable that you obtain counselling or other support services for yourself. If you request that from me in conjunction with your relationship with my client, I may decide to accept you as a joint client with my current client. This would only occur if my current client agrees, I believe I can effectively and ethically delineate our joint work, and we all consent together to a new Client Service Agreement that would supersede all previous agreements. However, if I feel that could result in a conflict of interest or be unsuitable for any party, I may instead suggest you seek another counsellor for help.
As you grant me your trust, I will ask you to disclose a range of sensitive personal information that I reasonably expect may be relevant to my work with my client. In general, I will not identify or confirm you as a guest participant, nor disclose any of your personal information to anyone else, including your family members, employer, or other physical or mental health care providers, without the express written authorization from you and my client. Nevertheless, the following circumstances are exceptions to this confidentiality.
Notwithstanding the above, to maintain a sense of safety and trust during this sensitive process, you agree not to reveal to others any statements or disclosures made by my client or me in our meetings, nor use such information to the detriment of my client or others, nor seek from me any notes, recordings, declarations, or testimony for civil or family legal proceedings.
(I am responsible for compliance with the Personal Information Protection Act, which further outlines your rights and how I may collect and use personal information.)
You will not be given any access to my client’s personal information or records without their express consent. If my client discloses information when you are present or participating in sessions, this implies their consent for me to discuss those matters with you, at my discretion.
I will not inform you about any meetings with my client that you are not invited to.
I will not be contacting you or meeting alone with you unless in exceptional circumstances governed by my agreement with the client.
In contrast, I may disclose to my client any information gained from you without your knowledge or permission, at my sole discretion. If you require keeping some information from my client, you should not disclose it to me.
Aside from initial phone contacts with prospective clients, I only consult on personal matters in scheduled sessions with clients. Please restrict any of our contact to administrative matters such as appointment details. In an emergency, please get help through crisislines.bc.ca, locate community services through bc211.ca, or call the police at 911 if there is physical danger.
Please note, by professional ethical standards, I am unable to accept any invitations, gifts, or tokens, or extend my dealings with participants in any other ways, business or personal.
To protect your privacy, if I happen to encounter you in public outside of sessions, I will usually not acknowledge or speak to you first. Similarly, I regret that I cannot interact with or acknowledge you in social media forums such as Facebook, Twitter, etc. While I very much value and appreciate your personal recommendations of me to others, if you choose to refer someone to me, I suggest that neither you nor they inform me of the connection between you.
Most clients and guest participants allow me to make video or audio recordings of our meetings. All benefit when I don’t need to make notes during the session and I can pay better attention to subtle cues, I can review just before the next meeting to keep us on track, and I can more easily evaluate and improve my performance. I always ask for consent of all participants when starting a recording, and I will stop it immediately whenever requested. Recordings are retrieved promptly and only stored offline on an encrypted drive.
If you participate in video or audio sessions with me, I may request your exact location each time. If I determine that you may be experiencing an emergency or crisis that cannot be resolved remotely, at my sole discretion I may contact appropriate health or safety authorities so that they may intervene.
Each of us is responsible for the security and privacy of our own premises and devices or equipment. I am responsible for the choice of conferencing provider, established by their normal or stated policies and conduct for privacy and service quality.
Your comfort and safety are important. For your remote sessions, ensure that you are in a space that is private and safe, where you cannot be overheard or interrupted without your permission. Please feel free to ask for any breaks or pauses needed to manage or deal with important needs.
Since technical setup and quality of connections is vital for our communication, please take all the time you need to prepare fully. If there are any interruptions or disruptions in technical service, I will make every effort to resolve it and assist you in resolving it. In case of lost audio or video, please stay on the call and wait. If the call drops, please try to rejoin or re-establish it. If we lose contact for more than a few minutes, we may get in touch by other means like WhatsApp, texting, voice call, or even email.
I take the security of your contact and personal information very seriously. Yet, it can never be completely guaranteed.
On any devices I use locally for client records, I employ appropriate technologies to protect them from unauthorized access, such as layered file and/or device encryption, unique and complex zero-knowledge passwords, firewalls, antivirus software, remote tracking, etc.
I do not store any of your information on my website server, never have your credit card details, and do not grant access to client records to any contracted individuals or services.
I may transmit or store some records using various Internet services. I attempt to ensure that all such data is encrypted by secure protocols during transmission and at rest.
You or I may make use of services of companies such as Google Contacts or Grow My Relationship for bookings; the Gottman Checkup or VIA Institute for assessment; PayPal, Interac, BMO, or Wise for payment processing; Zoom or RingCentral for videoconferencing, and others who may have minimal access to appropriate elements of your personal or contact information. Though they may communicate with you bearing the name of CoupleSolutions, I do not endorse or warrant their products or work and shall in no way be liable or responsible for the availability, accuracy, maintenance, or security of any of your data held or handled by them, or for any financial arrangements you enter into with them.
By sending a message via the button below, you indicate that you have read and understand this document and agree to these terms. You may withdraw your consent by giving notice at any time, terminating further services while the remaining terms of this agreement shall survive. You acknowledge that, regardless of our respective locations at any given time, I am domiciled in Canada and any business or work performed falls under the laws and jurisdiction of British Columbia, Canada.