1. I will not google you.
2. It is not a part of my clinical practice to search for client information (including students, trainees, consultees, and others with whom I have had a professional clinical relationship) on Google, Facebook, or other search engines.
3. In the unusual instance that I fear for your safety, the safety of someone else, or potential risk to a child, AND I cannot contact you via the information on file; I may resort to using a search engine. This will be fully documented in your medical record, and we will discuss it with you in a clinical context when we next meet.
4. I will focus on building and maintaining strong, trusting relationships separate from social media contacts.
5. If I come across your information online, I will move on and avoid reading it. It is important to know you as you are in my office. Casual viewing of clients’ online content outside the therapy room can confuse whether it’s being done as part of your treatment or satisfy my personal curiosity. In addition, viewing your online activities without your consent and our explicit arrangement towards a specific purpose could negatively influence our working relationship. If you wish to share things from your online life with me, please bring them into our sessions, where we can view and explore them together during the therapy hour.

Be Kind.

Avoid offensive language, threats of violence, discrimination, and harassment that have no place anywhere, including social media.

Listen to, understand, and embrace others’ unique skills and knowledge.

Avoid Dual Roles.

Be Clear. Clearly outline the ethical and legal boundaries that constrain me as a Registered Psychologist.

Be Accurate. Maintain accurate and truthful statements on social media about my practice, colleagues, the profession of psychology, and other issues.

Be Evidence-Based. Give special attention to the scientific support and empirical basis for statements made and the limitations of available evidence regarding topics.

Strive to provide relevant, valid, and reasonably current information.

Be Transparent about the limitation of psychological research.

Avoid “cherry-picking” research to support my personal, political, or other agenda.

Appropriately cite resources, respect copyright, and avoid plagiarism.

Delineate and differentiate facts, findings, and personal opinions.

Be Informative. Facilitate the public to develop informed judgment and choice concerning psychology and mental health/wellness.

Avoid giving specific advice, offering diagnoses, or otherwise behaving as if I were conducting therapy.

Be Open. People will never see eye-to-eye on all issues — social, political, or otherwise.

Embrace and value different backgrounds, opinions, and experiences on social media and refrain from criticizing points of view different from my own.

I will not use SMS or messaging via social media sites for interactions. These messaging tools are not secure and are not checked regularly. If there is anything you wish to discuss, please feel free to bring it up in session or utilize the contact form on my website or by e-mailing secure@drtulapaul.ca

if you decide to “follow” or “friend” my professional pages, you use an easily recognized name, and I notice that you have liked or followed me; we may briefly discuss it and its potential impact on our working relationship.

To respect your privacy and confidentiality, I do not accept friend or contact requests from current or former clients on my personal social media profiles. This alters our professional relationship and is outside our scope of any clinical work. This policy is designed to safeguard our professional relationship and ensure your continued experience of safety in therapy).

Clients are not expected to follow my professional social media pages. If you choose to follow me, I will not follow you back as I only follow other health professionals and do not follow current or former clients on any social media.

If you do “follow” or “like” my professional pages, you use an easily recognized name, and I notice that you have liked or followed me; we may briefly discuss it and its potential impact on our working relationship.

I will not engage with you, comment, or respond through social networking sites (i.e., messenger, wall posts, @replies, etc.).

These social media communication tools are not secure, may be read by others, and I do not check them in a timely or consistent manner. Engaging me in this way could compromise your confidentiality and safety.

Further, given our professional relationship, these exchanges become part of your legal medical record and will need to be documented and archived in your chart. 

If you wish to discuss anything within my social media pages, please feel free to bring it up in session, utilize the contact form below or email secure@drtulapaul.ca.

Of course, you have a right to express yourself on any site you wish. You get to decide what to tell people. You can share that you are in therapy with me with whoever and wherever you like. You have a choice as to what you reveal about yourself and our work online; however, I will not reveal my connection to you.

I will NEVER share information about clients or your sessions on any social media platform. Confidentiality means that I cannot tell people that you are my client. My Ethics Code prohibits me from requesting testimonials and confirming or denying that you are in therapy with me. But you can choose where and how to share your personal information.

Please keep in mind that interacting, friending, and liking my professional pages could compromise your confidentiality. Suppose you choose to follow, like, comment, forward or interact on any social media or digital platform. In that case, there is a possibility that people may make assumptions about our relationship or ask you about your connection to me if you connect with me in any form on social media.

To access these materials without having a visible, public link to me you can:

-use an RRS feed

-use a Locked Twitter List

-subscribe to my blog without becoming a “fan” or “liking” my professional pages or individual posts.

Please know, you can also access all materials without “liking”, “following”, or “friending” my professional pages.

If you use location-based services on your mobile phone, you may wish to be aware of the privacy issues related to using these services. I do not place my practice as a check-in location on various sites, such as Foursquare, Gowalla, Loopt, etc. However, if you have GPS tracking enabled on your device, others may surmise that you are a therapy client due to regular check-ins at my office. Please be aware of this risk if you are intentionally “checking in”, from my office or have a passive LBS app enabled on your phone.

GOOGLE READER

SNAP CHAT

WHATSAPP

TIK TOK

YOUTUBE

ONLINE CONSULTATION

Many of the forums where users rate their providers and add reviews are not solicited, and I may not even be aware of their existence (i.e., Yahoo, Yelp, HealthGrades, etc.). 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 find my listing on any of these sites, please know that it is NOT my listing. Its’ existence is NOT a request for a testimonial, rating, or endorsement from you as my client.

I do not expect you to review my practice online. But you have the right to express yourself on any site you wish or not. If you do, I will not engage you on the review site, regardless of whether the review is positive or negative. If you leave a comment on one of these sites, there is a very good chance I will never see it.

If we are working together, I hope you directly bring your feelings and reactions to our work. This can be an important part of the therapy process, even if you decide we are not a good fit. I welcome discussion about your experiences; positive and negative experiences are valuable.