The following is the Privacy Policy of Through the Looking Glass Counselling. It exists to inform you of your rights around the collection, use and disclosure of your personal information, under British Columbia’s Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA).

This information applies to anyone who has accessed this website or is a current or past client of Through the Looking Glass Counselling. The relevance of the information found herein will vary, depending on whether or not you are receiving Through the Looking Glass Counselling’s services.

The following information and the information contained on throughthelookingglass.ca is intended for adults 19 years of age and up. Through the Looking Glass Counselling does not provide counselling to children under the age of 19.

Personal Information – Use and Collection

According to PIPA, this refers to “information that can identify an individual” and “information about an identifiable individual.” Through the Looking Glass Counselling will collect and use such information only as needed and as is relevant to the provision of counselling, consultation or EMDR services as requested by you. Examples of the information collected and why is described below.

Your personal information may be used by Through the Looking Glass Counselling to provide counselling services or information to you, to respond to phone calls, emails or provide resources to augment your therapy experience, to arrange and conduct 15-minute consultations, to manage the waiting and cancellation lists and to contact you when your name comes up to start counselling.

Interest Form

When the waiting list is open, Through the Looking Glass Counselling has an encrypted contact form for those who would like to arrange a 15-minute consultation with Dawn Hinze to determine whether Through the Looking Glass Counselling is suitable for them. This form asks for name and email address so that Through the Looking Glass Counselling can contact potential clients to arrange a time to meet in person, by phone or by video.  Dawn returns all requests for consultations via email; if you want to make arrangements for a consultation by phone, please contact her directly at 604-735-0060.

If it has been mutually agreed during the consultation that Through the Looking Glass Counselling is right for the potential client, Dawn will offer an appointment (subject to availability) or a place on her waiting list, and potentially her cancellation list, if available, and if desired. Clients’ names, email addresses and sparse, relevant information about counselling needs are collected and recorded electronically in the Jane App, a secure (Canadian-based) online practice management system so that the wait list can be efficiently managed and waitlisted clients contacted, when an opening arises. Clients may remove themselves from the Through the Looking Glass Counselling wait list at any time, by contacting Through the Looking Glass Counselling directly.

Intake

At the time of the initial intake to start counselling, Through the Looking Glass Counselling will collect:

New client name and email address with a link to start a profile in the Jane App, where address, date of birth, and other information relevant to counselling is requested and inputted by clients.

The above is to ensure that:

You are the person who is seeking counselling, and that you are a resident of BC where the counselling registration of Dawn Hinze (owner) is valid.

You are contactable outside of the session if needed or during an emergency, or for phone counselling (if requested) or in the event of an emergency during a session.

Your email address is requested should you choose to receive communication such as receipts and appointment reminders, which clients can also toggle off in their profile in the Jane App.

Counselling

Any information you choose to share about your personal situation, past or present, for the purpose of providing counselling and collaborating with you on a treatment plan.

Website

Throughthelookingglass.ca exists for interested parties to find out more information about Through the Looking Glass Counselling’s services, Dawn Hinze’s professional profile and contact information and those who are interested in reading Through the Looking Glass Counselling’s articles, book recommendations and resource suggestions. The website also contains an interest form to request a free 15-minute consultation through the Jane App.

Throughthelookingglass.ca does not actively collect personal and identifiable information about clients or potential clients. Google analytics collects statistics on popular webpages, search terms, browsers, operating systems and devices used. This information is given as aggregate data and is not personally identifiable to Through the Looking Glass Counselling. Dawn Hinze’s Internet browser may passively, and not at the request of Dawn, collect IP addresses and locations.

Some clients may choose to pay for their sessions via Jane Payments, which will ask you to input your credit card information. No credit card data is stored in Jane Payments. When credit card information is entered into Jane, Jane creates and keeps a token that can be used to reference that information, but the actual sensitive information is sent to and stored within their payment partner Stripe, which holds the highest security certification in the industry.

Email – Special Considerations

Email is not considered a secure and confidential way of communicating. For the protection of your privacy, please do not email information you would not be comfortable discussing in a public space. Dawn Hinze is happy to confidentially discuss your concerns either in session, via the Jane app’s secure messaging platform, or, if they can be addressed in the course of a 15-minute free phone or in-person consultation.

Any email or Jane messaging exchanges are also part of the personal record.

Dawn Hinze works from a home office for phone and video sessions. This is a single-use room with a door that is closed during sessions and when working with any form of confidential documentation. The room is situated in a private area of her home with no other individuals present. Any confidential client information or documentation is locked when not in use.

Disclosure of Personal Information

Confidentiality

Your identity, attendance and all personal information communicated by you in counselling is strictly confidential, with the following exceptions:

• You have expressed the desire to harm yourself or someone else.

• In situations of suspected or known child abuse/neglect or suspected elder abuse or neglect, reporting is required by law; failure to do so could result in harm to the child or adult in question, in addition to professional penalties such as fines, jail time and the removal of Dawn’s counselling license.

• Should the counselling record be subpoenaed by the court.

• If Dawn is requesting clinical consultation or supervision; no identifying information about clients is released.

• Insurance companies periodically contact Dawn to request confirmation of sessions that have been claimed via employment/extended health benefits. This is to stop insurance fraud by ensuring that submitted sessions have occurred. It is Dawn’s practice to contact clients first before returning calls to insurance companies.

• Should Dawn be required to retain the services of a collection agency or seek legal counsel.

• Should Dawn need to retain the services of a bookkeeper who handles copies of receipts.

• Should public health officials require the disclosure of names of people with whom Dawn Hinze has had recent contact, should Dawn Hinze become ill.

Disclosure to Third Parties

Through the Looking Glass Counselling is not authorized to disclose your personal information to any third party without your express written and signed consent, except in emergency situations where there is only time for you to authorize verbal consent. Through the Looking Glass Counselling cannot respond to requests from concerned family members or friends about clients’ attendance, disclosure in session or the treatment plan; please talk to your loved one directly. This also applies to family members or friends who are paying for the client’s sessions.

There are restrictions, albeit rare, to confidentiality which involve disclosure to third parties; these are detailed in the above section, “Confidentiality.”

Protection of Your Personal Information

Through the Looking Glass Counselling treats all aspects of your personal information with the greatest care and takes active steps to protect your information. Dawn Hinze securely stores client/clinical information using her online practice management system, Jane App, a North Vancouver-based company which has secure servers in Eastern Canada. This system has a private server bank located in a secured SOC2, Type2-certified data centre, and all data is backed up regularly on secondary servers in Western Canada.

Dawn also provides secure video counselling, also through Jane App, “Jane Online Appointments.” Each video session is encrypted using 256 bit encryption when sent between Dawn’s devices and the system’s servers. Sessions are anonymous and are never recorded or stored.

More specifically, Jane Online Appointments uses a standard that provides peer to peer a/v communication in most cases. This means that all the traffic flows directly between each user’s web browser and completely bypasses their servers. The traffic is also encrypted in transit and none of the data is stored anywhere.

Computer Use

Dawn uses her computer to conduct video counselling sessions, send and respond to emails, use the calendar, issue receipts, receive credit card payments, search therapy-related topics, compose clinical notes, publish her blogs,  send welcome information, produce, edit and publish content for throughthelookingglass.ca and perform other administrative tasks related to the running of her practice. Dawn’s computer is firewalled, password protected and lock-screened after one minute.

Phone

Dawn uses her cellular phone to accept credit card payments through Jane Payments, access voicemail, return phone calls, conduct phone counselling sessions/consultations, access email and the calendar and occasionally respond to text messaging. Dawn’s phone is password-protected, lock screened and two-factor authenticated.

Voicemail

Dawn is rarely able to answer her phone directly, so most calls will go to voicemail. Any messages left are password-protected, saved and then deleted after they have been played. Clients or potential clients: please only leave a phone number where you are comfortable being contacted and having a message left for you.

Text Messages

Like email, text messaging is not considered a private means of communication. If it is clear that you are seeking and consenting to a texted response, Dawn will respond, although does not advertise this as a preferred mode of contact.

Accessing and Correcting Your Personal Information

Clients have a right to view or receive a copy of their file, or portions of the file, if this information is still available. Through the Looking Glass Counselling has 30 days to respond to your request, unless Dawn Hinze is out of the office or has recently returned after an extended time away. As per PIPA, any information given either by third parties, or about third parties that is contained in the file, is required to be blacked out, to preserve the third party’s privacy. Requests that take longer than 15 minutes to organize are billed in 30-minute intervals according to Through the Looking Glass Counselling’s current fees for paperwork.

If you have undertaken couples counselling, and one or both parties wants copies of the file, the written and signed consent of both parties is required in order to release the information.

On rare occasions, if Dawn Hinze believes that the release of your file would result in harm to either you or another party, Dawn Hinze has the right under PIPA to refuse to release a copy of the file.

If, in the course of your review, you have discovered factual information that you have deemed to be inaccurate, Dawn Hinze will put a correction on the electronic file, or with paper files, with a single strike through of the objected information and the correction beside it, signed and dated. Dawn cannot make corrections to her clinical assessment/impressions unless this assessment has changed in the light of the corrections.

Disposing of Your Personal Information

Any paper files are subject to shredding after a 7-year period. Should any technology require disposal (for example, an old and inefficient computer) that contains personal information, such technology is only disposed of once the hard drive is destroyed.

Privacy Policy Changes

The information above is subject to periodic revision and changes. The current version will always be posted on throughthelookingglass.ca.  If you have any questions about this policy, please contact Dawn Hinze directly through one of the means noted above.