I make use of social media professionally and personally and this policy is intended to provide guidance for my clients on how I arrange my activity to operate ethically and professionally on public sites. The policy is also intended to offer guidelines that protect my client’s privacy and confidentiality, and our therapeutic relationship. If you have any questions about this policy then speak to me in our session together or via email.

Facebook
I have a Facebook Professional Page for my online counselling and psychotherapy practice but I have no expectation that you will follow this. I use this page to share information that is relevant to therapeutic and personal development, including my blog articles. You are welcome to follow this page or even ‘like’ the page but I do not engage in any counselling activity or help via this page.  You can comment on this page but please remember that this could compromise your confidentiality by alerting others that you are seeing me as a client, and it may affect our therapeutic relationship.

I do not accept friend or contact requests from any client or colleagues on my personal Facebook account which is a separate account. 

Twitter
I post information that is relevant to therapeutic and personal development in my Twitter feed  @JEarleTherapy  You are welcome to follow my feed or share any of the articles that I may tweet. I will not follow you back ... I only follow colleagues or mental health organisations.  If you do share anything then remember retweeting can, just like Facebook, compromise your confidentially or our working relationship.  I do not offer any personal help or support through twitter.

LinkedIn 
This is my professional profile. You are welcome to look at it but I will not accept any requests from clients or people I do not know.

Blog
I  blog about mental health issues and offer what I view as useful self-help tips. I have no expectation that you will follow my blog or comment on it.  As with Twitter and Facebook, please remember that commenting can compromise your confidentiality. Following my blog via email will mean that your contact details will be stored on my computer.

Search engines
I don't search for clients via google or any other search engine. I don't follow or comment on current or past client’s blog posting. This is to protect the privacy of our therapeutic relationship. If there are things that are online that you wish to share with me then you need to do so in your counselling session so that we can talk about it.

Communication
Please do not message me via Facebook, twitter or LinkedIn. I do not monitor these accounts actively and these accounts are not secure. If you wish to contact me in between our sessions then either telephone, text or email me.

Google + and advertising sites
You may have found out about me on sites such as google+, counselling directory or other places that list counselling and psychotherapy practitioners. Some of these sites allow users to add a review. If you have found me via these sites you are not expected or obliged to rate or endorse my services, but you do have the right to comment if you wish to.  However, please remember that these sites are a public forum and any sharing of information could reveal who you are.  If you have any issues that are troubling you about our work together then it is best you bring them to our sessions, rather than express them outside of sessions, as this can be an important part of our therapy.