Social Media Policy

As a professional, we have specific standards we must be held up to regarding how we conduct ourselves inside and outside of our work day and office building. Please read this Social Media Policy to understand the expectations of Hope & Growth Counseling, PLLC (herein referred to as Hope & Growth Counseling) and how you can expect us to respond to various interactions that may occur between yourself and the employees at Hope & Growth Counseling on the Internet in relation to Social Media. Professional ethics prohibit us from having virtual or online relationships with therapy clients which includes the use of social media.

Friend Requests and Connections

No employee of Hope & Growth Counseling is allowed to accept friend requests or connection requests of any kind on any social media platform from therapy clients. It is believed that adding clients as friends on these platforms can compromise your confidentiality. It may also blur the boundaries of our therapeutic relationship.

Likes, Following and Commenting

Hope & Growth Counseling may post on the website, Twitter, Facebook page and Instagram page. You are welcome and encouraged to view either as there are often good resources shared. Your participation in social media posts is at your discretion. Many followers of the page are not former or current clients and you will never be identified as such on social media by me. We have no expectation that you, as a client will want to follow any of our platforms. However, if you use an easily identifiable name and we happen to notice that you have followed us, your therapist may briefly discuss this and it’s potential impact on your working relationship with your therapist. If you happen to follow any of Hope & Growth Counseling social media platforms, or receive our newsletter, please do not post any comments identifying yourself as a therapy client. If you do, your post will be removed in order to protect your privacy and confidentiality.

Facebook and Business Review Sites

You may find my play therapy practice on sites such as Google, Yelp, Yahoo Local, Bing, or other places which list businesses. Some of these sites include forums that allow users to 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 Hope & Growth Counseling listed 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.

Of course, you have a right to express yourself on any site you wish. But due to confidentiality, we cannot respond to any review on any of these sites whether it is positive or negative. We urge you to take your own privacy as seriously as we take our commitment of confidentiality to you. You should also be aware that if you are using these sites to communicate indirectly with us about your feelings about our work, there is a good possibility that your therapist will never see it. If you do choose to write something on our Facebook page or other business review site, we hope you will keep in mind that you may be sharing personally revealing information in a public forum. We urge you to create a pseudonym that is not linked to your regular email address or friend networks for your own privacy and protection.