Trauma Wellness; 402 Clyde Street, Suite 3, Knoxville, TN 37921; 865-328-6091; traumawellness.com

PRACTICE POLICIES

APPOINTMENTS AND CANCELLATIONS Please remember to cancel or reschedule 24 hours in advance. You will be responsible for the entire fee if cancellation is less than 24 hours.

The standard meeting time for psychotherapy is 50 minutes. It is up to you, however, to determine the length of time of your sessions. Requests to change the 50-minute session needs to be discussed with the therapist in order for time to be scheduled in advance.

The rates for a 50-minute session are $150 for a Licensed Professional, they are $135 for a therapist/counselor under supervision for licensure.

We do not file insurance claims, however; we do provide superbills monthly which you can file if you are seeing a Licensed Professional, you cannot be reimbursed for seeing a therapist under supervision. Payment is due at the time of service via credit card/check/cash. A $10.00 service charge will be charged for any checks returned for any reason for special handling.

Cancellations and re-scheduled session will be subject to a full charge if NOT RECEIVED AT LEAST 24 HOURS IN ADVANCE. This is necessary because a time commitment is made to you and is held exclusively for you. If you are late for a session, you may lose some of that session time.

In case of inclement weather each therapist has the freedom to change sessions from in-person to telehealth which is why we ask for you to sign informed consent for telehealth therapy. You are welcome to change the session to telehealth as well.

In case of illness on your part and/or the therapist’s part, we request that the ill person either cancel the session or change it to telehealth depending on how they are feeling. We ask that no one come to in-person sessions ill. There will not be any cancellation charges applied when you are ill.

TELEPHONE ACCESSIBILITY If you need to contact your therapist between sessions, please use their office number listed by their bio on the website and leave a message or text. Your therapist is often not immediately available; however, we will each attempt to return your call within 24 hours. Please note that Face- to-face sessions are highly preferable to phone sessions. However, in the event that you are out of town, sick or need additional support, phone and/or online sessions are available. If a true emergency situation arises, please call 911 or any local emergency room.

SOCIAL MEDIA AND TELECOMMUNICATION Due to the importance of your confidentiality and the importance of minimizing dual relationships, I do not accept friend or contact requests from current or former clients on any social networking site (Facebook, LinkedIn, etc). I believe that 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. If you have questions about this, please bring them up when we meet and we can talk more about it.

ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATION We cannot ensure the confidentiality of any form of communication through electronic media, including text messages. If you prefer to communicate via email or text messaging for issues regarding scheduling or cancellations, we will do so. While we may try to return messages in a timely manner, we cannot guarantee immediate response and request that you do not use these methods of communication to discuss therapeutic content and/or request assistance for emergencies.

MINORS If you are a minor, your parents may be legally entitled to some information about your therapy. I will discuss with you and your parents what information is appropriate for them to receive and which issues are more appropriately kept confidential. If you are 16 or older then you are fully in charge of your treatment and I cannot share anything with your parents (other than you having suicidal thoughts with plans) without a written authorization from you.

TERMINATION Ending relationships can be difficult. Therefore, it is important to have a termination process in order to achieve some closure. The appropriate length of the termination depends on the length and intensity of the treatment. I may terminate treatment after appropriate discussion with you and a termination process if I determine that the psychotherapy is not being effectively used or if you are in default on payment. I will not terminate the therapeutic relationship without first discussing and exploring the reasons and purpose of terminating. If therapy is terminated for any reason or you request another therapist, I will provide you with a list of qualified psychotherapists to treat you. You may also choose someone on your own or from another referral source.

Should you fail to schedule an appointment for three consecutive weeks, unless other arrangements have been made in advance, for legal and ethical reasons, I must consider the professional relationship discontinued.

Other Issues of Policy:

In the event that a client of Trauma Wellness becomes verbally or physically threatening to anyone on-site, Trauma Wellness reserves the right to call for help from law enforcement or other emergency services as needed.  We also reserve the right to file a police report and to pursue charges as appropriate to the situation.  In the event of a client having a medical emergency, we reserve the right to call appropriate emergency services.

When a parent or parents or legal custodians come to Trauma Wellness to discuss issues related to their child(ren), the consultation sessions cannot be charged to insurance under the child’s name.  The child cannot receive a diagnosis (required for insurance payments) until they are seen.  If you do plan to file superbills for insurance out of network claims, please be aware that the initial consultation session will likely not be counted by the insurance company.

There are many laws related to mental health treatment of minors (under age 18).  A very notable one in TN is that once a minor reaches the age of sixteen (16), they have all of the rights an adult has.  Therefore, the 16 or 17 year old must sign this form.  No information can be shared with the parent(s) other than that of being a third party payor.  The parents cannot know how therapy is going unless the 16 or 17 year old signs a release of information.

If the minor is 15 or under, we recommend that the parents allow the children to have a safe space to express themselves.  This means not asking the therapist for information, they will tell you if anything threatens the minor.  It also means not asking your child to tell you what happens in therapy.  Of course you are entitled to the information as parent or custodian and we will share if asked but your child benefits best by feeling the information they discuss in therapy is confidential.

If the parents of a minor 15 and under, want their child to have treatment, we need both parents to sign an additional consent form for consent to treat.  Even if divorced, both must sign UNLESS there is a court order stating otherwise (such as only one has medical decision making).  We will need a copy of that court order.

You are entitled to a “Good Faith Estimate” of how much therapy is expected to cost. This is an estimate as there is no way to know how many sessions will be needed. You can discuss lower rates with the therapist if needed.