Social Media Policy
This document outlines my office policies related to use of Social Media.
Please read it to understand how I conduct myself on the Internet as a mental
health professional and how you can expect me to respond to various
interactions that may occur between us on the Internet.
If you have any questions about anything within this document, I encourage
you to bring them up when we meet. As new technology develops and the
Internet changes, there may be times when I need to update this policy. If I
do so, I will notify you in writing of any policy changes and make sure you
have a copy of the updated policy.
Friending/Following/Adding as a Contact
I maintain an online presence on several social media sites. I use my full
name or the username Dr.bronte on these sites so that it is clear it is me
representing my business and myself. I do not want you to see a pseudonym
and think you are following someone else only to find out later that it is me.
I don’t accept friend or contact requests either from current or former clients
on any social networking site. I believe adding clients as friends or contacts
on these sites can compromise your confidentiality and our respective
privacy. It may also blur the boundaries of our therapeutic relationship and
make it feel like a friendship, a type of patronage, or simply encourage
voyeurism. If you have questions about this, please bring them up when we
meet and we can talk more about it.
In some rare circumstances, I have had people in my wider circle who
previously followed me on social media ask to come in for psychotherapy. If
we agree that meeting together does not constitute a problematic conflict of
interest, I will suggest that we unfollow one another on social media (or I
will at the very least unfollow you during treatment) to avoid some of the
problems outlined above. I will do this to preserve the integrity of our
working relationship.
I will not ever knowingly follow you on social media, although it’s possible
that if you use a pseudonym, I may accidentally follow you. If this happens,
you are welcome to let me know when we meet. My reasons for not
following current or former clients on social media are described above.
In addition, viewing your online activities without your explicit consent and
without a specific clinical purpose could have potential negative effects on
your treatment. I might learn things about you that you have chosen not to
discuss in therapy. It is your right to choose what to share in our work. But if
I see these things outside of our sessions, then I will have to figure out how
to tell you I have become aware of these things.
If there are things from your online life that you do want to share with me,
I encourage you to bring them into our sessions where we can view and explore
them together, during the therapy hour.
The best way to do this is to print things out and bring them to
your session or show them to me on your devices. Please don’t forward me
emails or screen shots that involve other people as anything you send me
does become part of your legal record.
Interacting
Please do not use messaging on Social Networking sites such as Twitter,
Facebook, Slack, Instagram, or LinkedIn to contact me. These sites are not
secure and I may not read these messages in a timely fashion. Do not use
Wall postings, @replies, or other means of engaging with me in public
online if we have an already established client/therapist relationship.
Engaging with me this way could compromise your confidentiality.
If you need to contact me between sessions, the best way to do so is by
phone or email at drjbronte [at] gmail mail [dot com]. I prefer that we only
use email for administrative issues such as changing appointment times. See
the email section below for more information regarding email interactions.
I also have a blog in which I allow moderated comments. Please don’t
comment on the blog as it creates another public forum in which we may be
interacting. I would much prefer that if you read something on my blog and
you have a reaction to it, that we talk about it together rather than having a
public exchange in my comments.
Use of Search Engines
It is NOT a regular part of my practice to search for clients on social media
or using search engines. Extremely rare exceptions may be made during
times of crisis. If I have a reason to suspect that you are in danger and you
have not been in touch with me via our usual means (coming to
appointments, phone, or email) there might be instances in which using a
search engine to check on your recent status updates becomes necessary as
part of ensuring your welfare. These are unusual situations and if I ever
resort to such means, I will document it in your chart and I will discuss it
with you when we next meet.
Again, the reason I don’t do this is because I see it as a potential breach of
your privacy and the trust between us. I believe that viewing your online
activities and postings can alter my impressions of you and change the
relationship we are mutually developing in our meetings, as described in the
section on Friending/Following. It can also create confusion in regard to
whether I’m looking at your online activity as part of your treatment (for
assessment or diagnostic purposes) or to satisfy my personal curiosity.
If you do have online activity that you want me to know about, please talk to
me about it during our work together, when we are meeting.
Discovering/Viewing My Online Activity
I publish a blog on my website and post video on Instagram. I have
professional LinkedIn account, and an Instagram and facebook account. I
have no expectation that clients will want to follow my writings or social
media postings. However, if you use an easily recognizable name online and
I happen to notice that you’ve followed me, we may briefly discuss it and its
potential impact on our working relationship.
You may also run across my information in other settings. You may see
online ads that I post, you may discover that we have friends or contacts in
common on social media. You may see me quoted or published in the media
or see my published writings or research. You may discover my podcasts or
videos. Or you may find that I have online reviews of my psychotherapy
practice.
Whether you find this information accidentally or intentionally, what is most
important to me is that you feel safe and comfortable bringing it up if it has
an impact on you and your feelings about our work together. I want to make
it clear that is very normal for people to be curious about their
therapist and some people feel shame or embarrassment about
bringing these things up. But I hope to create a relationship in which you are
warmly welcomed to bring up anything you learn about me outside of our
sessions that has an effect on your comfort in working together.
My Writings or Videos About Psychotherapy
I occasionally publish stories and academic writing that reference my
clinical work. When I do so, I use composite cases. I won’t be writing about
your therapy. However, if the issues I am writing about seem like they may
hit “close to home” for any of the people in my practice, my approach is to
tell you I am writing or discussing something in a video that may be linked
to topics or issues we have addressed. I will allow you to read a draft of any
material I want to publish and get your consent and let you edit/remove/change
details so that you are comfortable with what gets published. This has never been
an issue in over a decade of practice since I generally stick to common themes and
composite cases.
Business Review Sites
You may find my psychology practice on sites such as Yelp, Healthgrades,
Yahoo Local, or other places which list businesses. Some of these sites
include forums in which users rate their providers and add reviews. Many of
these sites comb search engines for business listings and automatically add
listings regardless of whether the business has added itself to the site. If you
should find my listing on any of these sites, please know that my listing is
not a request for a testimonial, rating, or endorsement from you as my client.
The American Psychological Association’s Ethics Code states under
Principle 5.05 that it is unethical for psychologists to solicit testimonials:
“Psychologists do not solicit testimonials from current therapy clients/
patients or other persons who because of their particular circumstances are
vulnerable to undue influence.”
Of course, you have a right to express yourself on any site you wish. But due
to confidentiality, I cannot respond to any review on any of these sites
whether it is positive or negative. I urge you to consider your own privacy if
you choose to write a review on such a site. You should also be aware that if
you are using these sites to communicate indirectly with me about your
feelings about our work, there is a good possibility that I may never see it.
In our work, I hope that you will bring your feelings and reactions to our
work directly into the therapy process.
This can be an important part of therapy, even if you decide we are not a good fit.
None of this is meant to keep you from sharing that you are in therapy with me wherever
and with whomever you like. Confidentiality means that I cannot tell people that you
are my client and my Ethics Code prohibits me from requesting testimonials.
But you are more than welcome to tell anyone you wish that I’m your
therapist or how you feel about the treatment I provided to you, in any forum
of your choosing.
If you do choose to write something on a business review site, keep in mind
that you may be sharing personally revealing information in a public forum.
Please consider creating a pseudonym that is not linked to your regular email
address or friend networks for your own privacy and protection.
If you feel I have done something harmful or unethical and you do not feel
comfortable discussing it with me, you can always contact the Board of
Psychology, which oversees licensing, and they will review the services I
have provided. Note that if they open an investigation into my actions, and
you have given your name, they may request your records to pursue the
investigation.
Board of Psychology
1625 North Market Boulevard, Suite N-215 Sacramento, CA 95834
1-866-503-3221
bopmail@dca.ca.gov