Terms and Conditions

Social Media Policy

The BC Association of Clinical Counsellors (BCACC) requires registered members to post a social media policy. The intention of the policy is to ensure you have complete disclosure of how we will interact with you online.

Part of a counsellor’s obligation to their client is that we keep your relationship with us confidential. The onus of this rests on the counsellor’ shoulders. You are not at all bound by the same expectations. You can share our relationship as much or as little as you wish. You can have us share our relationship in specific contexts by providing us written consent to do so. If you choose to interact with our social media pages, it is important to note that someone may infer that you have a relationship with one of our counsellors. Again, you can choose what you might share on social media about your connection to Lavender Counselling.

If you choose to post on our social media accounts or share our content we will respond to you as if you were anyone else interacting with our pages. This may mean liking your post, or responding to it. But at no time will we name our relationship with you.

Connecting through Social Media

From time to time clients or potential clients reach out to us through our social media accounts’ messaging system. It is important to note that these sites do not have secure means of communication. We cannot guarantee your privacy through these sites. It is also possible that we may not respond in as timely fashion if you reach out to us through our social media pages. Our best suggestion for both privacy and timeliness is to connect with us through email or telephone. Part of our responsibility is to keep our relationship with you free from interference so together we can do the psychotherapeutic work you’ve come to us for. One of the ways we do this is by keeping ourselves free from external influences. Social media is one of these influences. Therefore, we will not review your online profiles.

Friending

Our counsellors will not friend you on their individual or personal pages. It is important for counsellors to have their own online autonomy and connecting personally can confuse the nature of our relationship together. If you make such a request, we will decline it on the social media platform and we will speak to you about the reasoning for this in our next session together. However, we welcome you to connect with our professional Lavender Counselling pages on Facebook, Linkedin, Pinterest, and Instagram. The best way to contact your counsellor between sessions is telephone or email.

Following

We do have Lavender Counselling social media sites where we post relevant mental health related content. There is absolutely no expectation for you to interact with these pages. At the same time, you are welcome to choose to connect to these pages for your own benefit. If you do choose to connect with us, it is important to note that it is possible that your confidentiality may be compromised. It is also possible that a third party may assume you are connected to Lavender Counselling in some way.

Safety

If at anytime we are concerned for your imminent safety, and we have attempted to contact you by all other possible means, we may use search engines or social media to attempt to locate you. These kinds of circumstances are extremely rare.

Testimonials

The BCACC directly prohibits counsellors from soliciting reviews or testimonials from clients. At no time we will expect or request you to complete a testimonial for us. If you happen to find our business listing on one of these sites, it is important to know that this was not sent to you by us and that it is a random occurrence. Of course, you have the right to review Lavender Counselling just as you do any other business. However, it is important that you are aware a review of this sort will likely compromise your privacy. You can make this choice. We cannot. Therefore we will not respond to your review in any way. The most therapeutic way to share your appreciation or concerns with our services is to contact us directly. Your opinion matters to us very much and we would like an opportunity to respond to your experiences directly.

Location based Services

As stated, you are entitled to privacy regarding your relationship with Lavender Counselling. Location services is one area where your privacy can be compromised. If you have location-services turned on for your personal device(s), you are at risk of your privacy being compromised. This may not matter to you and it is entirely your choice. However, you have the right to understand this possible compromise to your privacy.

Concerns

Please do not hesitate to contact us at anytime if you wish to discuss our social media policy or your privacy. If you have questions or concerns about these policies, please bring them to discuss at your next session with your counsellor or email carolynn@lavendercounselling.com.

If at anytime you have concern regarding your counselling interactions with one of our counsellors, please try to resolve that concern with your counsellor first. If you are not satisfied with the results of your discussion with your counsellor, you can contact carolynn@lavendercounselling.com to discuss the situation. At anytime, you can contact the BC Association of Clinical Counsellors at www.bc-counsellors.org/regulation/complaints or telephone 1-800-909-6303 if you feel your counsellor has done something harmful or unethical.