Kismet Psychotherapy Polices

Additional Policies can be found in the designated Tab on the top right hand corner.


SOCIAL MEDIA POLICY

This document outlines my 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 or not. These guidelines have been formulated not only from choices made during the S H I F T of online therapy/presence during the height of COVID-19, but have also been strongly guided by Ethical Codes of conduct (see reference section).

If you have any questions about anything within this document, I encourage you to contact me through the website contact form.

NOTE:
-As new technology develops and the Internet changes, there may be times when I need to update this policy.

-Contacting me on Social Media should NOT be used in Crisis or as Crisis support.
If you are in Crisis please go to A&E, Ring 999/111.

-Contact Helping Organisations such as:
Mind (Infoline: 0300 123 3393-----https://www.mind.org.uk),
SAMARITIANS (Call: 116 123-----https://www.samaritans.org),
SHOUT (Text 'Shout' to 85258), SWITCHBOARD LGBTQ (0300 3030 0630) and many more.

-Being on Social Media, does Not mean that you have 24-hour accessibility to me as your therapist.


FRIENDING/FOLLOWING
I maintain an online presence Instagram and TikTok social media sites. I use my name and/or the username ''Insights from a Therapist'' on these sites. I am not on any other active social media networks. I do not use any other pseudonym because if you are a current or past client of mine, I do not want you to 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 in session if you are a current client.

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) to avoid some of the problems outlined above. However, if we have had interactions on social media, exploring therapy may not be possible, this does not mean that if you have left a comment or question, that you won't be able to have therapy with me, but rather, if I have had reciprocal interaction with you. 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, please do let me know. However, if you create a pseudonym with the intent of having outside interactions with me under false pretences to begin therapy or during therapy, sessions will end promptly due to crossed boundaries and deceit.

INTERACTING
Please do not use DM's (direct messaging) on Social Networking sites such Instagram, Tik Tok to contact me. These sites are not secure and I will not communicate with you in this way. Do not use comments, 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 in this way will compromise your confidentiality, breaks the frame of our work together and is unethical. Additionally, I will need to document this in your therapeutic notes and it may also create the possibility that these become part of your legal and/or medical record if you receive further treatment or services elsewhere.

If you need to contact me between sessions, the best way to do so is by email. It is in our therapeutic contract that email is the best way to contact me for administrative issues such as changing appointment times, cancellations, illness etc. See the email section below for more information regarding email interactions.

If you are a client of mine and read something on any of my posts or videos that you find triggering or may have a big somatic response to, it's important that we talk about it together in session, rather than having a public exchange with others in my comments. Otherwise this will affect our work together and we will need to address how or if we can work together moving forward.


EMAIL
I prefer using email only to arrange or modify appointments, discuss absence, illness etc. Occasionally, we each may share a link to something we discussed in-session or I may send you resources based on the work we're doing together.

You should be aware that all exchanged emails become a part of your therapeutic record. Please refrain from sending me content related to your session. Doing this is not completely secure or confidential and I will not engage with the material unless in session. All emails are retained in the logs of your and my Internet service providers. While it is unlikely that someone will be looking at these logs, they are, in theory, available to be read by the system administrator(s) of the Internet service provider.

I typically reply to emails within one to two days. Emails sent on the weekend will be responded to the next working day. I will not engage with anything additional in emails other than administrative questions, session changes, payment enquiries and emergencies.

USE OF SEARCH ENGINES
It is NOT a regular part of my practice to search for clients on social media or using search engines. Therefore, you can be assured that if someone contacts you online under false pretences claiming to be me, you will know this is an Imposter..

If you do have online activity that you want me to know about, please talk to me about it during our sessions together.

DISCOVERING/VIEWING MY ONLINE ACTIVITY
I provide psycho-educational post, reels on Instagram and Tik Toks. I have published a children's book and do online seminars and talks. I only have an Instagram and Tik Tok account. I work collaboratively with other organisations of which I may be featured.

I have no expectation that clients will want to purchase my book or view social media postings. However, if you use an easily recognisable name online and I happen to notice that you’ve followed me, we may briefly discuss it in session and its potential impact on our working relationship.

You may also run across my information in other settings. You may see online ads, you may discover that we have charity/contacts organisations 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 podcasts or videos I'm featured in 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 in session if it has an impact on you and your feelings about our work together. I want to make it clear that it is very usual for people to be curious about their psychotherapist and some people feel shame or embarrassment about bringing these things up. But I hope to create a therapeutic relationship in which you are warmly welcomed to bring up anything you learn about me outside of our sessions into the therapy room, so that we can effectively work together and build trust.


UPHOLDING ONLINE BOUNDARIES
At no point will I share online any information relating to a client, their contact details, history or identity, or any information that could indirectly lead to identifying a client. Occasionally, I may refer online to issues or topics which affect many clients, and these will always be unattributed. I am aware that we live in the real world in which most of us have an online presence. Mutual respect and upholding of online boundaries is expected of both the therapist (me) and my clients.


GDPR, DATA SECURITY and CONFIDENTIALITY
I undertake never to share your contact details, personal details, or online data with any third party, notwithstanding the conditions set out in my Terms of Practice. Your contact details are stored on my computer in an encrypted file that is password protected and only accessed by myself. Where I work with organisations such as Harley Street Gender Clinic (HSGC), they will only be accessed by myself and Director of HSGC, only if working collaboratively in your treatment plan, where data will be held on their systems which has and holds their own data protection cover and policy independent of Kismet Psychotherapy. All notes and records relating to your sessions are stored on a password-protected file and do not have your name attributed.


CONCLUSION
Thank you for taking the time to review my Social Media Policy. If you have questions or concerns about any of these policies and procedures or regarding our potential interactions on Social Media, do bring them to my attention so that we can discuss them.


REFERENCES

American Psychological Association (2017). Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct. https://www.apa.org/ethics/code/

The British Psychological Society (2021). Ethics Guidelines for internet mediated research. https://explore.bps.org.uk/content/report-guideline/bpsrep.2021.rep155

The British Psychological Society (2021). Code of Ethics and Conduct https://doi.org/10.53841/bpsrep.2021.inf94

National Counselling Society (2023). Code of Ethics. General Conduct. Appendix C: Communications and Social Media. https://nationalcounsellingsociety.org/about-us/code-of-ethics