This document outlines the Waterloo CBT Clinic’s (WCBT) policies related to use of social media. Please read it to understand how we conduct ourselves on the internet as mental health professionals and how you can expect us to respond to various interactions that may occur between us. If you have any questions about this policy, please raise them when you meet with your clinician.
WCBT clinicians do not accept friend or contact requests from current or former clients on any social networking site. 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.
Our clinic maintains Facebook and Instagram accounts to share content relevant to mental health, practice information, available services and updates with other Facebook and Instagram users. You are welcome to view our pages and read or share articles posted there.
Facebook and Instagram allow users to “Like,” “Follow,” or otherwise interact with our page although our clinic has no expectation that you will do so. Doing so could compromise your confidentiality, and it is important to be aware of this possibility before engaging with our pages in any way. If you choose to interact with our pages, we advise you to carefully consider your Facebook and Instagram privacy settings, and who may be able to view this activity. If you are concerned that others will become aware of your connection with our clinic, we recommend that you not interact with our social media profiles.
WCBT may periodically post articles or psychology news on our website, Facebook, Instagram or other social media sites. We have no expectation that you as a client will want to follow these postings and leave this to your discretion. Note that we will not follow you back. It is our policy to only follow other health professionals on social media and we do not follow current or former clients.
Please do not use messaging or posting features on social networking sites to contact WCBT or any of our clinicians. These sites are not secure and are monitored intermittently so we may not read these messages in a timely fashion. Engaging with us this way could compromise your confidentiality. Additionally, if such exchanges occur, please be aware they will likely need to be documented and thus will become part of your clinical file.
It is our policy NOT to search for clients online. However, rare exceptions may be made during times of crisis. For example, if your clinician has a reason to suspect you are in danger, is not able to reach you through typical channels (e.g., telephone, email), and you have not been in touch with them, there might be an instance in which using a search engine becomes necessary as part of ensuring your welfare. These are unusual situations and if your clinician ever resorts to such means, he or she will fully document it and discuss it with you when you next meet.
You may find our clinic or clinicians listed on business review sites (e.g., Yelp, Google, Lumino). 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 or not. If you find our listing on any of these sites, please know that our listing is NOT a request for a testimonial, rating, or endorsement from you as our client. (In fact, our Standards of Practice prohibit us from requesting testimonials.) Additionally, please be aware that we cannot respond to any review on any of these sites, whether it is positive or negative, as doing so would breach your confidentiality. We urge you to take your own privacy as seriously as we take our obligation to maintaining your confidentiality.
Of course, you have a right to express yourself on any site you wish. If you do choose to write something on a business review site, we hope you will keep in mind that you may be sharing personally revealing information in a public forum. We encourage you to create a pseudonym that is not linked to your regular email address or friend networks for your own privacy and protection. Additionally, please be aware that if you are using these sites to communicate indirectly with your clinician about your feelings regarding services received at WCBT, there is a high likelihood that your clinician will never see it. Instead, we encourage you to share your feelings, reactions and feedback directly with your therapist. This can be an important part of therapy, even if you decide you and your clinician are not a good fit.
Please know none of this is meant to keep you from sharing that you are in therapy wherever and with whomever you like. You are welcome to tell anyone you wish that you are a client of ours and how you feel about the services you received in any forum of your choosing.