Privacy & confidentiality

What you say in therapy stays between you and Terri. That is the short version, and it is true. But "confidential" is a word people hear a lot without ever being told what it actually covers, so this page sets it out plainly, including the few places where the rule has limits.

What is protected

Affordable Behavioral Health is a healthcare practice, which means your information is protected by federal law under HIPAA, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.

In practice that covers more than the conversation. It covers the fact that you are a client at all. Your name, that you have appointments, what you talked about, your records, your contact details. None of it goes to anyone else without your written permission.

That includes the people who might most expect to be told. A spouse, a parent of an adult client, an employer, a friend who recommended you. If they call and ask, they will not be told whether you are a client here.

Living in a small town

West Point is not a big place, and this is the concern people raise most often, usually right at the end of a first phone call.

Being seen walking into an office is not the same as anyone knowing why. Nobody here will confirm to another person that you are a client, and nobody will greet you in the grocery store in a way that makes it obvious. If Terri passes you in public she will follow your lead. If you say hello, she will say hello back. If you would rather not, that is completely fine and it will not be mentioned at your next appointment.

If being seen locally is a worry at all, secure telehealth is available anywhere in Kentucky or Indiana, and plenty of people choose it for exactly that reason.

Where the limits are

There are a small number of situations where the law requires disclosure. You should know them upfront rather than discover them later.

• Serious risk of harm. If there is a genuine and immediate risk to your safety or someone else's, steps have to be taken to keep people safe.
• Abuse or neglect of a child or a vulnerable adult. Licensed clinicians are mandated reporters in both Kentucky and Indiana. Only the minimum information needed to make the report is shared, and where it is clinically appropriate and safe, you would be told a report was being made.
• A court order. Rare, and it has to be a genuine order from a judge rather than simply a request or a subpoena from a lawyer.

That is the whole list. It is not a long one, and none of it is discretionary. These are the same limits that apply to every licensed therapist in the country.

All of this is explained again during your intake, before you have shared anything of substance, so you are never in the position of finding out afterwards.

Your records

Notes are kept securely in an electronic health record, not in a filing cabinet or a laptop folder. Access is restricted and logged.

You have rights over that record. You can ask to see it, ask for a copy, ask for corrections if something is wrong, and ask for an account of any disclosures that have been made. Those are rights under HIPAA, not favours, and asking for them is completely normal.

Telehealth

Video sessions run on a private, secure telehealth platform rather than an ordinary video call, and they are not recorded.

The part worth thinking about is at your end. Somewhere you will not be overheard, and a device other people do not have open access to. A closed room, or a parked car with headphones, both work. If home is not private, say so and it can be worked around.

If you use insurance

Insurance changes what has to be shared, and it is worth understanding before you decide how to pay.

To pay a claim, an insurer needs certain information, which usually includes dates of service and a diagnosis. That becomes part of their record. It is normal, and it is how insurance works everywhere, but it is not nothing.

Paying privately keeps your care out of insurer records entirely. Some people prefer that, and self-pay with a sliding fee scale is available here for exactly that kind of reason. Neither choice is the right one for everybody, and it is worth asking about both.

Questions are welcome

If any of this raises a question, ask. Wanting to understand who might learn what before you start is a reasonable thing to want, not an awkward one, and it is asked often enough to be unremarkable.

You can call (270) 592-9564 or send a message. Please do not include sensitive details in the contact form itself, since it is not a secure channel. A sentence saying you would like to talk is plenty.