Phone: (208) 887-6283 to call if you have any questions or concerns.
Client Disclosure
I am pleased you have chosen me as your counselor. This document is designed to inform you about my background and orientations. And to ensure that you understand our professional relationship. This document deals with privacy issues and supplements other documents given to you that deal with related issues in therapy. When you sign my intake paperwork and initial the receipt of this document, it will represent an agreement between us. Please read it carefully and jot down any questions you might have so that we can discuss them at our next meeting.
Privacy & Confidentiality
First of all, I wish to reassure you that I am personally and professionally committed to protecting your privacy. I realize that therapy can only take place in a setting in which everyone feels secure in the knowledge that his or her thoughts and feelings will remain protected and secure within the confines of the therapy office. While you are in my office, you will have my full attention to assist you in progressing and achieving your goals.
Services & Fees
In return for a fee of the contracted amount per session (see fee schedule), I agree to provide counseling services for you. Sessions are the length of time contracted. It is impossible to guarantee any specific results regarding your counseling goals. I assure you that my services will be rendered in a professional manner consistent with accepted ethical standards. Because counseling is a private and most often an emotionally intimate experience, discussing the issues you bring to our counseling sessions may cause you at times predictable or unpredictable feelings. The end result of counseling is to help you feel empowered and independent.
Professional Boundaries
When counselors blend the roles of friend and counselor, they create a conflict of interest that compromises the objectivity needed for sound professional judgment. Because of this, in order to help you as much as possible, please do not offer me gifts or ask me to your home or nonprofessional social activities during the time I am serving as your counselor. Our relationship will be kept strictly professional.
Sexual intimacy with a Counselor is never appropriate and should be reported to the State Licensing Board.
Qualifications
I am a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor (LCPC) and Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) by the Idaho Board of Examiners for Licensed Professionals. Only Licensed Mental Health Professionals may provide counseling services in Idaho. I have been Nationally Licensed over 25 years as a Hypnotherapist and am now certified as a coach so anyone outside of Idaho can only receive coaching. I received my Masters (M ED) degree in Education, Community Counseling from the College of Idaho. I have been a Certified Instructor of "Parent Project" a parenting system for out of control teens. My Bachelor of Arts Degree was in Communication from Boise State University in 1987.
Therapeutic Approach
The primary difference between counselors and other mental health professionals is that counselors espouse the wellness model of mental health instead of the illness or medical model. I have been a Professional Counselor since 1992. I provide services for clients in my private practice whom I believe have the capacity to resolve their own problems with proper assistance. I believe that as individuals expand perspectives, learn new skills, and become more accepting of themselves and others; they are more capable of finding happiness and contentment in their lives. Self-awareness and self-acceptance are goals that sometimes take a long time to achieve. While some clients may need only a few counseling sessions to feel resolve, others may require months or even years of counseling.
I am biased and work toward helping couples and families stay together; however decisions on marital status are not mine but are the responsibility of you the client. Most relationships are improved with as little as 5-10 sessions while others have sought much more support and progress. I would estimate the majority of my individual clients feel complete with as little as 6-10 sessions while most of my relationship clients are complete with only 10-15 sessions. Where complicated grief issues or addiction or childhood trauma is involved 6 months of treatment to 2 years of periodic tune ups are recommended.
Faith & Values
I have worked with spiritual/religious leaders as well as many individuals from various life orientations and life views. It may or may not be important for you to know I personally consider myself a Christian. I am active in my religious community. There was a time I studied some and aspired to become a Chaplain having served in the Army for several years as a combat soldier; instead I became a Counselor. Having interest and a limited study in world religions and cultures I consider myself open to discussing anyone's personal beliefs for your values clarification. I invite you to include your own spiritual beliefs though that is entirely up to you and by no means any requirement. It has been my experience, and research shows that one's spiritual beliefs can be a vital factor in an individual's strategies for resolving life issues.
Exceptions to Confidentiality
I will keep confidential anything you say to me with the following general exceptions: you authorize me to tell someone else, I determine you are a danger to yourself or others, or I am ordered by a court to disclose information.
My goal as your Counselor is to help you grow and progress toward a safer, happier and more productive life. In the unfortunate event I have found sufficient cause for me to report abuse or neglect I will do so under the following circumstances which by my licensing, I am mandated to do:
- Abuse or Neglect of Children, Older Adults, Disabled adults
- Danger to Self
- Danger to Others
- Fatal, Communicable Disease
I will consult with and enlist the help of others to help you and others be safe.
Consultation
So that I may better serve you; you need to know part of my being a Professional Counselor includes my seeking periodic Consultation. I may consult with my colleagues or professional consultant anytime I work with an individual more than 10 times and may consult approximately every ten visits. If your case involves something I believe may be helped with additional ideas ("Two heads are better than one") without using identifying information I may consult with a monthly peer group of professionals or with my brilliant wife that has a way of helping me clarify my own thoughts or other professionals with possible insight to the topic of your issue. Do not assume I have consulted with her or other staff and that any of them know your case. In most cases when I do consult they still will be unable to identify you with what I have consulted with them.
Public Encounters
It is customary in order to prevent an inadvertent breach of confidentiality to not greet clients in public. Thus, should we happen to meet in public, I will intentionally not say hello to you, in order to protect your confidentiality. You may, however, feel free to greet me in public if you so desire, and I will do my best to respond. Because much of my work is Brief Therapy and I meet many people in a variety of other settings, I may accidentally initiate greeting you while temporarily believing I met you in a different forum.