Ken Sherman, LMHC, Licensed Mental Health Counselor, Counseling Services

Policies and General Information

Sessions

Sessions are fifty minutes in duration, unless other arrangements have been made in advance. Weekend hours are usually available.

Fees (due at time of service)

Sliding scale available under certain circumstances. All fees are due at time of service.

There is no charge for an occasional brief telephone contact (five minutes or so). Longer calls will be charged on a prorated basis.

Cancellations

The times set aside for you are not easily filled when cancelled with short notice (less than 24 hours). Late cancellations and missed appointments will be charged at the standard fee. Exceptions on a case-by-case basis may be made for emergencies; for example, sudden illness or hazardous driving conditions. Please remember that insurance cannot be billed for missed appointments.

Insurance

I am on several insurance panels, including Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Managed Health Network, and United Behavioral Health. Other plans may allow you to see me as an out-of-network provider.

Telephone Accessibility

When you call 617-645-3050, you will usually reach voice mail accessed only by myself. I will return your call as soon as possible, almost always the same day. Please call between 8:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. for non-emergency contacts. If an urgent situation develops, please indicate it clearly in your message. If you need to talk to someone immediately, call 911 or go to the nearest emergency room.

Confidentiality Policy and Exceptions

Professional ethics and legal standards require that our conversations, and my records (even the fact that you are a client) be kept strictly confidential.

However, there are circumstances under which I am legally and ethically obligated to breach confidentiality:

• If you present a serious imminent danger to yourself or others
• In cases of apparent abuse or neglect of a child, an elderly person, or a disabled person
• When a judge orders the release of information

These events have rarely occurred in my practice. If it does happen, I will make an effort to fully discuss it with you before taking any action. And if I must breach confidentiality, the minimum amount of information will be revealed—only enough to protect you or others.

All insurance companies require information about you that includes, at a minimum, a psychiatric diagnosis and dates and types of services provided. Managed care companies may require considerably more information to authorize visits beyond those initially approved.

I cannot control the confidentiality of any information once it is disclosed to insurance companies or their agents. I will not be able to tell you whether employers have access to information about you or if such information is distributed to national data banks. If you would prefer not to use your insurance, please ask me about your option to pay privately.

Please refer to the Notice of Privacy Practices for additional information about confidentiality.

Records

As required by law and professional ethics, I maintain confidential records of our sessions together, and any other contacts with me. These records (written or verbal) are available to others only at your written request. You are entitled to receive a copy of these records, unless there is reason to believe that releasing them might be harmful. In that case, I will provide them to an appropriate and legitimate mental health professional of your choice.

Consultation

In order to serve you best, I will consult with other professionals when appropriate. Your name and identifying details will not be disclosed.

The Treatment Process

The goals of therapy are arrived at by mutual agreement. The length of therapy can range from a couple of sessions to several years. It is usually difficult to assess at the beginning how long therapy will take.

Participation in therapy can result in a number of benefits to you, including reduction of the intensity of the distress or unease that brought you to therapy, improved interpersonal relationships, and insight. However, there are no guarantees that therapy will result in positive or intended results.

There are risks in undertaking therapy. Psychotherapy can involve recalling or reliving unpleasant aspects of your history. As a result, you may sometimes experience sadness, guilt, anxiety, anger, loneliness, and helplessness. At times, I may challenge some of your long-held perceptions, and propose different ways of looking at or handling situations, and these challenges may feel threatening.

If at any time you have any question about the process of therapy, I depend on you to bring them up for discussion. This may be difficult for you, but "stretching" yourself to try out new ways of relating to others, may be helpful.

My orientation as a psychotherapist is eclectic, which means that I draw from a number of different theoretical perspectives, including: holistic, spiritual, body-oriented, behavioral, cognitive-behavioral, psychodynamic, existential, and psycho-educational.

Ending Therapy

After the first couple of meetings I will assess if I can be of benefit to you. If not, I will suggest referrals to other clinicians or resources. If at any point during psychotherapy, it becomes evident that our work together is not effective, I will discuss this with you, and if appropriate, terminate treatment and suggest alternatives.

I will do my best to support the concluding of our work together, no matter the reason. When you decide you are ready to leave, I would like to help you leave well. Please give at least one week’s notice so that we can review our work together, and plan for the future. Even if you are unable to give advance notice, I will still do my best to help you leave well.