TERMS OF USE & PRIVACY POLICY

This page will provide clarity on our online boundaries for anyone visiting or interacting with this website, the blog, and associated social media sites.

This website is owned and operated by Stephen Schlatter, LLC.

GENERAL TERMS OF USE

Content on this website (innercompassioncounseling.com) and the associated social media accounts is for information purposes only.  Our online interactions do not constitute a formal therapeutic relationship. Information presented is not intended to diagnose or treat any medical or mental health disorders.

The information contained herein is not therapeutic advice nor a substitute for therapy. It should not be used to diagnose or treat any mental health problem. If you are located within the United States and you need emergency assistance please call 911 or go to your nearest emergency room.

All views expressed online are that of Stephen Schlatter, LLC and do not represent the entities or agencies he is affiliated or works with.

Your interaction with Stephen Schlatter, LLC via this website, the blog, and social media accounts is of your own free will. By interacting with this website or associated social media accounts, you agree to the policies outlined in this document.  You also agree not to hold Stephen Schlatter, LLC liable for any outcomes related to these interactions.

You may also choose not interact with Stephen Schlatter, LLC either through this website or social media platforms online as you see fit.

No content or writing on this website or affiliated social media pages represents a guarantee of outcomes should you choose to receive therapeutic services.

IF IN CRISIS

This website and social media presence is not a suitable medium to reach out for help if you are in crisis. Here are some crisis response services to connect with should you be experiencing a crisis:

For a mental health emergency in the United States, Call 911

In the State of Colorado, Colorado Crisis Service Hotline (844) 493-8255

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline 1-800-273-8255
National Domestic Violence/Child Abuse/Sexual Abuse Hotline 1-800-799-7233
National Sexual Assault Hotline 1-800-656-4673
National Youth Crisis Hotline 1-800-422-4673
There are additional resources at the Psychcentral website.

LIMITATIONS TO CONFIDENTIALITY OVER THE INTERNET

There are limits to protecting your confidentiality over the internet. Wireless and digital communications are easily accessed by unknown and unauthorized people. While this website has been secured with a Secure Socket Layer (SSL) Certificate, there is no way to guarantee your privacy.

All such communications are vulnerable to intervention by wireless service providers, the federal government, and anyone who has or gains access to your wireless device or connection, legally or illegally. Please consider the information you submit over the internet prior to sending.

We strongly discourage using email, the contact form, text messages or social media to send messages of a personal or confidential nature. Even though we do our best to keep email confidential, email is copied, archived, and retransmitted continuously as part of normal processing. Because of this, please use email only to request information about services, or other non-confidential matters.

If you choose to communicate with us via digital means, it is up to you to ensure you have a thorough understanding and knowledge of the security vulnerabilities of the systems you use. Consider who might have access to your phone, computer or wireless connection and act accordingly.

FRIENDING ON SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES

We do not accept Friend requests from current or previous clients on social networking sites (Facebook, Instagram, LinkdIn, etc.) through personal accounts. Any friend requests will be maintained through public accounts or fan accounts (ie. Stephen Schlatter, LLC, @innercompassioncounseling, etc). Adding clients as personal friends can compromise your confidentiality and our respective privacy. We also strive to keep the therapeutic relationship boundaries clear.

Our social media accounts are for sharing of information through blog posts, articles, inspirational photos and practice updates.

Clients may choose to follow or not follow the postings of Stephen Schlatter, LLC or Inner Compassion Counseling. We will not follow clients via social networking. This can create confusion about whether it is being done as part of your treatment or for personal curiosity.

In addition, viewing of your online activities without your consent and without our explicit arrangement towards a specific purpose could potentially have a negative influence on our working relationship. If there are things from your online life that you wish to share with your therapist, please bring those to session with you where they can be shared and explored together.

INTERACTING

Please do not contact us via chat or messaging on sites such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkdIn. These methods are not secure and we may not respond in a timely manner.

Should you need help immediately, please contact us via phone or private voice mail. Do not use wall postings, @replies or other means of engaging with us in public, online if a client/therapist relationship has been established. Engaging with me in this way could compromise your confidentiality.

Again, if you need to contact me between sessions, please do so by email, stephen@innercompassioncounseling.com. The second best method is by telephone, call or text, (720) 608-6120. Email should be used mostly for administrative items such as changing or confirming appointment times. See information below about email interactions.

EMAIL

It is preferable to use email for mostly administrative purposes, rather than personal emails.

Despite using a HIPAA compliant email service through Google’s Workspace, email is not completely secure or confidential. If you choose to communicate via email, be aware that emails are retained in the logs of your and our 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.

Please be aware that any emails received from you and any responses sent to you become part of your legal record.

INFORMATION GATHERED ON THIS SITE

Stephen Schlatter, LLC is the sole owner of the information collected on the innercompassioncounseling.com website.

This site generally stores no information about its visitors, with the exceptions of basic logging for site statistics (and then only machine addresses, not personal email addresses), and information provided by visitors who fill out online contact and email list sign up forms.

On certain pages, visitors have the option of providing their names, phone numbers, email addresses, consultation request dates and times. This information is not gathered without visitors knowing and providing active permission and participation.

This site does not display or make available visitors’ personal information to any person except the user himself or herself, except at the request of the user.

This site does not retrieve personal information from the visitor’s computer that was not originally sent to us or by us.

COOKIES

A cookie is a piece of data stored on the user’s computer tied to information about the user. This site uses persistent cookies. A persistent cookie is a small text file stored on the user’s hard drive for an extended period of time. Persistent cookies can be removed by following internet browser help file directions for “removing cookies.”

This site also uses Google Analytics Cookies to gain a better understanding of visitors to this site, including, but not limited to: demographics, landing pages, time spent on site, etc. You can opt out of participating in this by installing a Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on.

LOG FILES

Like most standard web site servers, we use log files. This includes internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser type, internet service provider (ISP), referring/exit pages, platform type, date/time stamp, and number of clicks to analyze trends, administer the site, track users’ movement in aggregate, and gather broad demographic information for aggregate use. This data is not linked to personally identifiable information.

BROWSER CHECK

The information you share with web sites is only as safe as your web browser. Use the Browser Check, courtesy of VeriSign, to ensure you’ve got the latest, most secure web browser.

CONCLUSION

Thank you for taking the time to review this these policies. If you have questions or concerns about any of these policies and procedures, or about our potential interactions on the Internet, please bring them to my attention so we can discuss them.

CONTACT INFORMATION

Stephen Schlatter, MA, LPCC
Inner Compassion Counseling

stephen@innercompassioncounseling.com