Privacy, confidentiality and your rights, in plain English.

Confidentiality in the therapy room

What you say in session stays between us. I will not confirm to anybody that you are a client, including to a partner, a parent, an employer or anybody who calls the practice, unless you have given me written permission to do so.

There are legal exceptions that apply to every licensed clinician in New York State, and I go through all of them verbally in session one before you tell me anything, so that you can make informed choices about what you share and when.

• A serious and imminent risk of harm to yourself, where disclosure is necessary to keep you safe.
• A serious and credible threat of harm to an identifiable other person.
• Reasonable suspicion of abuse or neglect of a child, or of a vulnerable or elderly adult.
• A valid court order or subpoena, which I will resist to the extent the law allows and will tell you about.

Outside those, nothing leaves the room. I do not discuss identifiable clients with colleagues except in formal clinical consultation, where identifying detail is removed.

Clinical records

I keep the minimum clinically and legally required, written after sessions rather than during them. Records are stored in an encrypted, HIPAA compliant electronic health record with access limited to me.

You have the right to request access to your records. If you have specific concerns about how records might be used in a custody, immigration, employment or other legal context, raise this early. I will be honest about what I can and cannot protect, and I write with an awareness that records can be requested.

This website

This site is deliberately simple. It sets no advertising cookies, runs no tracking pixels, and does not sell or share any information with third parties. There is no advertising network embedded in these pages, and nothing here is used to build an audience for retargeting.

• Forms. The contact and booking forms deliver your message by email. Standard email is not encrypted, which is why the forms ask only for what is needed to arrange a phone call.
• Fonts and images. Typefaces and photography are served from third party content delivery networks, which receive your IP address as part of delivering those files, as with any website.
• Analytics. If basic aggregate analytics are in use, they are configured without cross site tracking and are never linked to clinical records.
• Sessions. Video sessions run on a HIPAA compliant platform under a business associate agreement, not on consumer video software.

Please do not include sensitive clinical detail in a web form or an unencrypted email. A sentence about what is going on is enough to get a call arranged, and the call is the secure part.

Good Faith Estimate

Under the federal No Surprises Act, you have the right to receive a Good Faith Estimate explaining how much your care will cost if you are uninsured or are not using insurance to pay.

You are entitled to a written estimate for the total expected cost of any non emergency services, including psychotherapy. I provide one automatically before treatment begins, and you can request an updated one at any time. If you receive a bill that is at least $400 more than your Good Faith Estimate, you can dispute it. Keep a copy of the estimate you were given. For more information visit cms.gov/nosurprises or call 1 800 985 3059.

Your rights

• To be told, in advance and in writing, what treatment will cost.
• To ask questions about my approach, my training, and why I am doing something.
• To disagree with me, to change direction, and to end therapy at any point without explanation.
• To request your records and to ask that inaccuracies be corrected.
• To make a complaint to the New York State Office of the Professions regarding a licensed practitioner.

Questions about any of this can go to colleenrichards@hopepsychotherapynyc.com or be raised directly in session, which is usually the better route.

This page is a summary written for readability and is not a substitute for the full Notice of Privacy Practices, which is provided to every client in writing before treatment begins.