As professional mental health care service providers, we will use our best knowledge and skills to help you. This includes following the standards of the American Counseling Association, and the American Association of Christian Counselors. In your best interests, the codes of ethics of these organizations put limits on the relationship between a therapist and a client, and I will abide by these.

These limits enhance our counseling relationship and are not personal responses to you:

• We are licensed and trained to practice counseling psychotherapy—not law, medicine, finance, or any other profession. We are not able to give you good advice from these other professional viewpoints.
  

• It is in your best interest that we be only your therapist. We cannot have any other role in your life.  We cannot have a business relationship with you, other than the counseling/therapy relationship.
  

• State laws and the codes of ethics of these organizations require me to keep what you tell me confidential. The only in exceptions to this is defined in the section entitled Confidentiality which is contained elsewhere on this website or in this packet of information.
  

• I will make every possible effort to preserve your privacy, for example if we meet socially, on the street or in any other public place, I may not say hello or talk to you very much. My behavior will not be a personal reaction to you, but a way to maintain the confidentiality of our relationship.
  

Problems can arise in our relationship, just as in any other relationship. If you are not satisfied with any area of our work, please raise your concerns with us at once. Our work together will be slower and harder if your concerns with us are not worked out. We will make every effort to hear any complaints you have and to seek solutions to them. If you feel that we have treated you unfairly or have even broken a professional rule, please tell us. You can also contact the state or ACA and speak to the chairperson of the ethics committee. He or she can help clarify your concerns or tell you how to file a complaint.

In our counseling practice we do not discriminate against clients because of any of these factors: age, sex, marital/family status, race, color, religious beliefs, ethnic origin, place of residence, veteran status, physical disability, health status, sexual orientation, or criminal record unrelated to present dangerousness. This is a personal commitment, as well as being required by federal, state, and local laws and regulations. We will always take steps to advance and support the values of equal opportunity, human dignity, and racial/ethnic/cultural diversity. If you believe you have been discriminated against, please bring this matter to our attention immediately.

About Our Appointments
The very first time we meet with you, we will be asking you a lot of questions in order to gather basic information about you and your reasons for seeking counseling. This first session will last approximately one hour. Following this, we will usually meet for a 45 minute session once or twice a week, then less often. We will endeavor to schedule our meetings to accommodate both of our schedules.

An appointment is a commitment to our work. We agree to meet here and to be on time. If we am ever unable to start on time, we ask your understanding. We also assure you that you will receive the full time agreed to. If you are late, we will probably be unable to meet for the full time, because it is likely that we will have another appointment after yours.

A cancelled appointment delays our work. We will consider our meetings very important and ask you to do the same. Please try not to miss sessions if you can possibly help it.

We request that you do not bring children, regardless of their age, to our counseling/therapy sessions.

Late Cancellations and Missed Appointments Policy
Our cancellation and missed appointment policy is necessary because of the high demand for our counseling services. We have been blessed with a very active counseling practice and as such we have several clients requesting to be notified if an appointment time should become available. In order to accommodate as many of these requests as possible we require 24 hours prior notice to the cancellation of a scheduled appointment. There will be no charge for cancelling an appointment 24 hours prior to the schedule appointment time. Our offices telephone service provides 24 hour voice mail capabilities for your convenience to record your messages should you have to cancel an appointment. Missed appointments or canceled appointments with less than 24 hours prior notice are subject to a $40.00 fee. This fee will not be paid by your insurance company and will be considered to be your personal responsibility. If you start to miss a lot of sessions, I will no longer reserve a regular session time for you, in which case you may have to be put on a waiting list for an appointment. Exceptions to this policy will be considered for sickness – client or client’s children, family tragedy, school closing due to inclement weather or other unexpected cause, and personal circumstances subject to our agreement.

We thank you for your cooperation and for understanding the necessity of this policy.


If You Need to Contact Us
We cannot promise that we will be available at all times. Although we are in the office Monday through Friday, we usually do not take phone calls when we are with clients. You can always leave a message on our telephone voice mail, and we will return your call as soon as we can. Generally, we will return messages daily except on Sundays and holidays. If you have a valid emergency or crisis, you may call our Emergency numbers (410-615-0082 or 410-382-4211). We ask that you not call these numbers for appointment scheduling or cancellations. If you have a behavioral or emotional crisis and cannot reach us immediately by telephone, you or your family members should call one of the following community emergency agencies: the local police force; “911”; or go to the nearest hospital emergency room.

Termination of Treatment
The counselor may terminate treatment if payment is not timely, if prescriptions are not filled (such as seeking consultation, refraining from dangerous practices, coming to sessions sober, etc.), or if some problem emerges that is not within the scope of competence of the counselor. The usual minimal termination for an ongoing treatment process is four to ten sessions but a satisfying termination to long-term work may take a number of months.

Clients are urged to consider the risks that major psychological transformation may have on current relationships and the possible need of psychiatric consultation during periods of extreme depression or agitation. Not all people experience improvement from psychotherapy and therapy may be emotionally painful at times. Clients have the right to refuse or to discontinue services at any time and complaints can be addressed to the state licensing board and/or the American Counseling Association.

Other Aspects of the Counseling Relationship
If you ever become involved in a divorce or custody dispute, We want you to understand and agree that we will not provide evaluations or expert testimony in court. You should hire a different mental health professional for any evaluations or testimony you require. This position is based on
two reasons: (1) Our statements will be seen as biased in your favor because we have a therapy
relationship; and (2) the testimony might affect our therapy relationship, and we must put this relationship first.
If, as part of our therapy, you create and provide to us records, notes, artworks, or any other documents or materials, we will return the originals to you at your written request but will retain copies.