My Counseling Site.Com - Terms of Service Agreement

E-MAIL COUNSELING TERMS OF SERVICE AND USER PRIVACY POLICY

PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING. BY USING MY-COUNSELING-SITE.COM E-MAIL COUNSELING SERVICES, YOU ARE INDICATING YOUR UNDERSTANDING AND AGREEMENT TO THE FOLLOWING TERMS AND CONDITIONS.

Use by Adults and Definition of relationships.
I understand that these E-mail counseling services are provided by Timothy F. Dowty, M.A., MFT (dba:My-Counseling-Site.com). I understand that Mr. Dowty is licensed as a Marriage Family Therapist in the state of Nevada. Mr. Dowty has fully disclosed his professional credentials, which are available on his website, along with links to the licensing and credentialing bodies involved.

My-Counseling-Site.com E-mail counseling services are limited to persons 18 years of age and older. By purchasing and accepting these E-mail counseling services you certify that you are an adult. Validation of age may be required before receiving services.

If I reside outside the state of Nevada, I hereby confirm that I consider our meetings to occur in cyberspace and that Mr. Dowty does not claim to be licensed or credentialed in my state or country of residence. If my state of residence has laws regulating with whom I may seek counseling or therapy online, I am responsible for informing myself and complying with such laws. I accept full responsibility for my decision to purchase and utilize Mr. Dowty's services under these conditions.

You acknowledge and agree that there is no professional therapist-client relationship established between My-Counseling-Site.com and you as a user of E-mail counseling services. You agree that My-Counseling-Site.com shall not be liable for any claim of loss or damage arising out of the use of E-mail counseling services.

In the event of technical difficulties, My-Counseling-Site.com will make every effort to provide services purchased in the timeliest manner possible. If necessary, we will fax, or deliver via US Postal service our service response when internet technology fails. It is your responsibility to provide complete and accurate contact information to facilitate delivery.
Refunds
Any purchased message or session must be used within 90 calendar days of purchase. There are no refunds for unused messages/sessions.

Any purchased service not fulfilled as a result of My-Counseling-Site.com's failure to perform is eligible for a full refund. You hereby agree the maximum liability is limited to the fees actually paid by you for services.

As E-mail counseling responses are provided as the best professional judgment of the counseling professional, you agree that you will not be able to request or receive a refund based on any dissatisfaction regarding the content (including the amount) of the response provided.
Privacy, Confidentiality of Records and Limits on Confidentiality
My-Counseling-Site.com is committed to maintaining your privacy and refraining from inappropriately using information about our users and website visitors. There are limited exceptions to this policy as required by law. If it appears to the counseling professional, or if you advise the counseling professional, that you are about to do physical harm to yourself or others or that you are engaged in "child abuse" or "elder abuse" as defined in and under local or state laws, the protections afforded by privileged and confidential communications do not apply and the independent counseling professional at My-Counseling-Site.com is bound by specific reporting requirements and ethical principles.

There may also be limited legal circumstances where the counseling professional and/or My-Counseling-Site.com are required to disclose information to third parties, such where a law, regulation, search warrant, subpoena or court order requires us to do so.

My-Counseling-Site.com collects individual personal information that you voluntarily provide outside of counseling communications when you access the E-mail counseling services. This information typically includes your name, address, phone number and credit card information or other billing information. My-Counseling-Site.com also collects information that you voluntarily provide through your responses to assessment forms and surveys. You may also provide individual information to us by other e-mail communications.

My-Counseling-Site.com will not disclose to any unaffiliated company any individually identifiably information that you provide to us, except under the limited circumstances described in this policy.

If you choose to use My-Counseling-Site.com E-mail counseling fee services, the billing information that you provide will be used to obtain your payment for services purchased. Also, if you provide assessment information to us for counseling purposes, My-Counseling-Site.com will disclose that information to your counseling professional.

My-Counseling-Site.com reserves the right to have an independent counseling professional monitor user counseling sessions and communications for clinical treatment and quality control purposes, however, such communications otherwise remains privileged and confidential. My-Counseling-Site.com will not disclose your individually identifiably personal information (for a fee or otherwise) to a vendor who might want to sell you a good or service without your prior consent.

In accordance with industry practices, My-Counseling-Site.com may provide general demographic information about the overall use of our website, services, mental health professionals, users and visitors to third parties, but no such information will allow you to be individually identified or contacted. In some cases, My-Counseling-Site.com may charge the third parties for this information.

My-Counseling-Site.com wants your individually identifiable information to remain as secure as reasonably possible and My-Counseling-Site.com utilizes data security measures to assist in protecting your information.

My-Counseling-Site.com also does not track individually identifiable information about your use of our site. My-Counseling-Site.com does not imbed "cookies" (small computer files transferred to a visitor's hard drive), or use other tracking techniques, to allow us to track your use of the site.

Contact information and records relating to E-mail counseling sessions are not maintained on the My-Counseling-Site.com server or network. Messages sent to us via assessment forms and surveys are maintained on a secure server. Email to the regular email addresses of My-Counseling-Site.com is processed as ordinary email.

A secure server is employed for the purpose of processing your E-mail counseling service charges and other website orders. User e-mail addresses and other identifying information are not sold, rented, or otherwise shared with any other organization, group, individual, or entity unless you have opted-in to receive third party promotional communications.

Our website contains links to other independent websites. Our privacy policy does not apply to these other websites and My-Counseling-Site.com recommends that you review their respective privacy policies if you elect to connect to them.
Liability
My-Counseling-Site.com, Timothy F. Dowty, M.A., MFT, or any other counseling professional connected to this entitiy is not liable for any damages that may be attributed to third parties, such as payment service providers or the companies that host our websites.

Any person requesting E-mail counseling services agrees My-Counseling-Site.com, Timothy F. Dowty, M.A., MFT, or any staff member(s) [employed or otherwise utilized] will not be held liable for any special, incidental, indirect or consequential damages or loss arising from the use or inability to use any of the professional services offered.
Acceptance
By accepting this agreement you consent to the conditions of e-mail counseling (services and billing), and to the policies outlined above. You agree and understand that this is not psychotherapy but a service for support and guidance. You state truthfully that you will actively pursue a mental health professional in your community if you have thoughts of harming yourself (suicidal thoughts) or anyone else (i.e. violence, etc.). Further, you accept full responsibility if you choose not to follow any recommended referral information given by a counseling professional at My-Counseling-Site.com

You acknowledge and attest to the following:

You are over age 18, and that all contact information provided is truthful and accurate.

You are the owner of the charge card or chekcing account you have used to sign up for professional services, or that you have the permission of the account holder.

You are not currently in therapy with another licensed therapist.

If you have been diagnosed with a psychotic disorder, you are under psychiatric care, and you have made no suicide attempts in the past 5 years.

You are aware that the delivery of mental health services over the internet is still considered experimental, and although techniques used for the actual therapy may be based on research, the effectiveness of internet therapy is not. For this reason, it is extremely helpful for us to receive feedback about your experience with the online therapy.

You are aware that internet communication security is not perfect, and that no communication on the Internet can be guaranteed completely free from potential breach of confidentiality in transit, by hackers or Internet service providers or by others who have access to the account or the computer. You are aware that your records on your computer may be viewed by anyone having access to your computer equipment. Therefore, you TAKE FULL RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE SECURITY OF TREATMENT RECORDS ON YOUR COMPUTER AND IN YOUR PHYSICAL LOCATION. My-Counseling-Site.com, or Timothy F. Dowty, M.A., MFT will not be held liable for any breach of confidentiality due to acts of third parties (legal or illegal) or regarding electronic or paper records taking place in any location under your control and outside the control of My-Counseling-Site.com and its employees, voluteers or contractors. You hereby agree that you are responsible for privacy and confidentiality on your end of the cyberspace connection.

You have been informed of circumstances in which online counseling is not the appropriate or most effective treatment. You understand that email counseling will not be continued after the initial assessment if it is determined that you do not fit the criteria for the above agreement, or that you are not a good candidate for email counseling for other reasons such as lack of motivation, non-compliance with payment or boundary requests, or disregard for the seriousness of the process. Recommendations will be made at that time for you to seek office treatment in your location.

Your inquiry is for personal counseling, and that you are not conducting research for any type of reporting, private or public.

If you do not understand any statement in this policy, send an inquiry before beginning. You may contact us at any time with questions regarding our terms of service and privacy policy. To do so, please e-mail us at: servicepolicyinfo@my-counseling-site.com