This page is about what you can expect from your psychologist and how your psychologist communicates with clients. questions about this. Please read it to understand how mental health professionals work and how you can expect me to respond to various things.

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What to expect
As a client, you have the right to:

• Be treated with respect at all times

• Feel safe that your cultural identity, beliefs and diversity are respected

• Receive a clear explanation of any services provided and the options available to you

• Agree to the terms of the service before it is provided and withdraw your consent at any time

• Work with your psychologist to set goals for the service which may include a discussion about the number of sessions that may be required

• Ask any questions about services provided

• Receive a quality, evidence-based service from a highly skilled psychologist, who is ethical and trustworthy

• Have your personal information held securely and kept confidential

• Be informed of when information might be shared without your consent

• Have all costs, including cancellation fees, clearly explained. You can access our fees via our FEES page.  

 

Out-of-session Communication
Communicating outside of sessions can blur the boundaries of therapy and stop the effect of you dedicating your sessions to really working on the hard stuff.  We prefer all contact about appointment making to be via the Clinic's reception desk.

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We recommend that you trial a few telephone support services and find which one 'fits' for you, so that you can make use of it in a crisis. A couple of good options are Lifeline on 13 11 14 or their after-hours chat room www.lifeline.org.au/get-help/online-services/crisis-chat. If you feel you need additional support outside of therapy sessions, there are a few great support groups around. Black Dog Institute has a list of Victorian ones at: https://www.blackdoginstitute.org.au/getting-help/clinics-support-groups/other-support-groups

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Email Communication
Occasionally there may be a reason you need to provide some document or information via email. This can be done via the Clinic email address info@theneighbourhood.clinic.  Be aware that all emails are retained in the logs of relevant Internet service providers. These logs are in theory available to be read by system administrators. You should also know that any emails received from you and any responses to you become part of your patient record.

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Social Media Communications
Adding clients as contacts on any social media sites can compromise the confidentiality of the client and so it is not an approved practice by the Australian Psychological Society. Individual psychologists do not have any administrator control over The Neighbourhood Clinic website or social media. The APS Code of Conduct prohibits psychologists from soliciting testimonials from clients and therefore we ask that clients do not comment on our work online.

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Social Contact
Some psychologists might live locally to their place of practice. Due to professional ethics, psychologists do not connect personally with clients outside of their professional work roles. If you and your psychologist were to encounter each other in the community (e.g school or event) your psychologist will respect your privacy and not approach you or discuss your personal information in public, but will be polite and respectful, interacting in a manner that is appropriate to the setting.

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Online Information in Therapy
Your psychologist may recommend use of online apps, such as those that allows you to record your emotions and thoughts during the day. They will not monitor this usage online. You will be expected to bring any useful reporting from these apps to your session to share. The material in them remains your own, and it is your decision as to what information you wish to share with your psychologist. It is preferable that you ask your psychologist first before showing any material that might be offensive, such as explicit material. It may be that you can simply describe this material rather than showing it to your psychologist.