Privacy & practices
What we keep private, and the few times we can't.
Written plainly, because a privacy page that nobody can read protects nobody. This explains how your information is handled, what this website collects, your right to know what care will cost, and the specific circumstances in which the law requires disclosure.
Your right to a Good Faith Estimate
Because at this time the practice does not accept insurance, every client is what federal law calls a self-pay client, and that gives you a specific right to know the cost in advance.
You have the right to receive a Good Faith Estimate of what your care will cost.
Under federal law, health care providers must give clients who are uninsured or who are not using insurance an estimate of the expected charges for their care. You are entitled to one for counseling, for a written assessment, and for any other service offered here.
- You may ask for an estimate at any time, before you schedule anything. Ask by phone, and you will receive it in writing.
- If you schedule an appointment at least three business days ahead, you will receive an estimate within one business day of scheduling.
- If you schedule at least ten business days ahead, you will receive it within three business days.
- If you request an estimate without scheduling, you will receive it within three business days.
- If what you need changes, you will receive an updated estimate before your appointment.
Keep your estimate. If you are ever billed at least $400 more than your Good Faith Estimate, you have the right to dispute the bill, and you have 120 days from the date of the bill to start that process.
Any question you ask about cost, by phone or through the form on this site, is treated as a request for an estimate. You never have to ask twice.
For questions about this right, or to get a copy of this notice, call the practice. The federal government also publishes guidance for people who are uninsured or paying for their own care at cms.gov/nosurprises, or by phone on 1‑800‑985‑3059. That page is about your rights as a self-paying client. It is not about insurance, and nothing there requires you to have any.
Confidentiality, and the limits of it
What you say in session stays in session. There are a small number of exceptions, every one of them set by New York or federal law rather than by us. You deserve to know them before you start, not after.
New York law protects communications between a client and a licensed social worker. That protection is strong, but it is not absolute. The situations below are the ones that can require disclosure.
When a child may be being harmed
Social workers are mandated reporters under New York's Social Services Law. If there is reasonable cause to suspect that a child has been abused or maltreated, a report must be made to the State Central Register.
Two parts of this surprise people, so they are worth stating plainly. First, the duty can be triggered in a parent's own session. If a parent describes circumstances that would make a child abused or maltreated, that is reportable even though the child is not the client. Second, once a report begins an investigation, New York law requires the reporter to provide the requested records to Child Protective Services, including clinical records, and that requirement overrides the usual privilege.
When someone is likely to be seriously harmed
Under New York's Mental Hygiene Law, a mental health professional who is currently providing treatment and who concludes, in reasonable professional judgment, that a client is likely to engage in conduct causing serious harm to themselves or another person is required to report that to the county Director of Community Services.
The report goes to the county, not directly to the police, and what is passed onward is limited to identifying information rather than clinical detail. The consequence clients are least likely to anticipate is that it can affect eligibility for a firearms license. We would rather you learned that here than discovered it later.
Separately, and independently of that statute, the law does not require a social worker to treat as confidential a communication revealing the contemplation of a crime or a harmful act.
When a court orders disclosure
A court can order records or testimony. A subpoena on its own is often not enough, particularly for substance use records, which carry stronger protection than ordinary health records and generally require a specific court order in addition to compulsory process. Where a court does order disclosure, we release only what the order actually requires.
If you are notified that your records have been subpoenaed, tell us, and speak to your attorney.
When you ask us to share something
You can authorize disclosure to anyone you choose, a physician, an attorney, a school, a family member. In writing, for a stated purpose, for a stated period. You can withdraw that authorization in writing at any time, which stops future disclosures.
Two categories need their own specific written authorization, because a general medical release is not sufficient for either under New York and federal law: Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) related information and substance use treatment records. We will give you the right form rather than a general one.
Ordinary practice matters
Limited disclosure can occur for professional consultation, clinical supervision, and the administration of the practice. Anyone involved is bound by the same confidentiality. Where consultation happens, identifying detail is kept to the minimum necessary.
Substance use records carry extra protection
If your care here touches substance use, including a Driving While Intoxicated (DWI) assessment, a separate and stricter body of federal law applies to those records, on top of everything else on this page.
A subpoena alone is not enough
Federal confidentiality rules for substance use records mean that a subpoena does not by itself authorize release. A specific court order is generally needed as well, and the court must follow a defined procedure before granting one.
They cannot be used to build a case against you
These records may not be used to begin or support a criminal charge or investigation against the person they concern. That restriction follows the record. It binds anyone who comes to hold it, not only this practice.
Onward sharing stays restricted
Anyone who receives these records with your consent receives a written notice restricting what they may do with them. The protection does not stop at our door.
You will get a separate notice
Because these rules differ from ordinary health privacy rules, you will receive a dedicated written notice describing them at intake, and you can ask for a copy at any time.
Court and agency assessments work differently
This is the most important distinction on the page, and the one most easily misunderstood.
When a court, an attorney, a probation department, the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), or an agency asks for an assessment, a DWI evaluation, an immigration psychosocial, a Family Court assessment. the whole purpose of the engagement is to produce a written report for someone else. That is not confidential therapy, and it should not be mistaken for it.
- Who the report goes to is agreed in advance, in writing, before the interview happens.
- What you say during the assessment is intended to appear in the report where it is relevant to the question being asked.
- The findings are the clinician's professional judgment, not an outcome you or a referrer can specify in advance.
- Impaired-driver assessments involve reporting into New York State systems as the state's process requires.
- If you want counseling as well as an assessment, that is a separate relationship with its own confidentiality, and we will explain how the two are kept apart.
If you are unsure which kind of appointment you are booking, ask. It matters, and there is never a bad time to ask.
Your records, and records for young people
Your own records
A clinical record is kept for everyone seen here. You may ask to see it or to have a copy, and you may ask to have something you believe is inaccurate corrected. Requests are handled promptly and in writing.
Records are retained for as long as professional and legal requirements demand, then disposed of securely. Reports prepared for courts or agencies are retained as part of your record.
Children and adolescents
Counseling for someone under 18 generally requires the consent of a parent or guardian. We will not imply otherwise.
That said, counseling only works if a young person can speak freely. So at the start of the work we agree explicitly, with the parent and with the young person, together. On what will be shared and what will stay in the room. That conversation happens at intake, in person, rather than being buried in a form.
One thing that cannot be signed away. Under New York law your right to inspect, copy, and seek correction of your own clinical record cannot be waived by agreement. Any form that appeared to ask you to give that up would be unenforceable.
Where we can and cannot see you online
Professional licensure is granted state by state, and what governs is where you are physically sitting during the session, not where the practice is, and not where you usually live.
- Clients located in New York State are straightforward.
- If you will be in another state, including temporarily, for work, school, or travel. Tell us before you book. Some arrangements are possible and some are not.
- If you are outside the United States, tell us where. Some international arrangements can be made. Any that cannot will be said so plainly at the outset rather than after you have started.
Online sessions are held on an encrypted platform intended for clinical use, and are not recorded. Before your first online session you will be asked for your physical address and a local emergency contact. Standard telehealth practice, so that help can be reached quickly if a session ever raises a safety concern.
Text messages and ordinary email are convenient but not secure, and are not used for clinical content.
What this website does and doesn't collect
Short version: no advertising trackers, no analytics profiling you, no social media pixels. This is a deliberate choice, and an unusual one for a health care website. There is exactly one third-party component, and it is named below.
No third-party tracking
There is no advertising pixel, no social network tag, no analytics service and no session-recording script on this site. Nothing here reports your visit to a marketing company. Simply reading a page about depression, veterans counseling, or Driving While Intoxicated (DWI) assessments does not put you in anyone's dataset.
The contact form
It collects only what you type: your name, a phone number, optionally an email address, the reason for contact, and your message. It is used to reply to you and to arrange an appointment. When you send it, the message is delivered to the practice as an email, and this website does not keep a copy of it.
The one third party we do use
The contact form is protected by Cloudflare Turnstile, which checks that a real person is filling it in rather than a spam script. It loads a small file from Cloudflare, so your browser does contact them. Turnstile is built for this purpose specifically: it sets no advertising cookies and does not follow you around other websites. We chose it over the puzzle-style alternatives for exactly that reason. It loads only on the Contact page. This website is also hosted and delivered by Cloudflare, so Cloudflare handles ordinary web traffic records, such as your network address, as any web host does.
Please keep messages brief
Email is not a secure channel. Give us enough to call you back, not your clinical history. Please don't include diagnoses, a Social Security number, or a driver's license number in the form.
The form is for adults
It is intended for adults. Clients, parents and guardians, and referral sources such as attorneys, schools, and courts. If you are under 18, please ask a parent or guardian to make contact. Don't send us a child's details through the form. We will take those by phone.
How inquiries are handled. Messages go to the practice's own email, are read only by the clinicians and any authorized administrative staff, and are kept only as long as needed to respond and arrange care. We use reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards appropriate to the sensitivity of this information, and we deliberately do not claim that any system is perfectly secure, because no honest practice can.
This website is not monitored around the clock
The form and voicemail are not a crisis service. If you are in immediate danger or thinking about harming yourself:
Call or text 988The 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline is free, confidential, and available 24 hours a day. In an emergency call 911. Outside the United States, contact your local emergency number.
Accessibility
This site is built to target Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 Level AA: semantic structure for screen readers, keyboard navigation throughout, visible focus indicators, text contrast tested rather than assumed, no information conveyed by color alone, and no interaction that depends on motion.
Accessibility work is never finished, and automated checking tools miss real barriers. If any part of this site is difficult for you to use, please tell us. Call the office and we will both help you directly and fix the page. We would rather hear about it than have you give up on reaching us.
If you need information from this site in another format, or need an accommodation for an appointment, ask. Reasonable adjustments are part of the service, not a favor.
Questions about any of this?
Ask before you book, not after. Nothing on this page is a trick question, and there is no wrong thing to ask about how your information is handled.
About this page. It describes how this practice handles information. It is not legal advice, and it does not replace the formal notices and consent forms you will receive at intake. Where this page and a signed intake document differ, the signed document governs. Contacting the practice does not create a counselor to client relationship.
Last updated 3 September 2026 at 2:44 PM Eastern Time. If this page changes materially, the date changes with it.