Frequently Asked Questions
_______
How long are sessions?
+ READ MORE
Counselling sessions are typically 50 minutes.
How much does each session cost?
+ READ MORE
The price per session depends on the experience of the Counsellor with rates ranging from $165 - $215 +GST. At NSCA we believe that counselling should be accessible. If cost is a barrier for you please send us an email.
How do I pay?
+ READ MORE
We accept cash, cheques, and all major credit cards. Most of our clients find it easiest to provide us with authorization to automatically charge their credit card for each session.
Will insurance cover the cost of my sessions?
+ READ MORE
Many insurance providers cover Registered Clinical Counsellors. Please consult with your insurance provider before booking an appointment. We do not bill directly to the insurance provider but will provide you with an invoice after each appointment for you to submit to your insurer for reimbursement.
What if I need to cancel my appointment?
+ READ MORE
To cancel an existing appointment please call our office or email us one business day (Monday - Friday) prior to the appointment. Cancellations made less than one business day prior to appointments will be considered a missed appointment and you will be charged the full session amount.
Do you do telephone or online counselling?
+ READ MORE
Yes, we provide counselling by telephone or online platforms such as Skype, Zoom, Jane App or Facetime. Please contact your counsellor to set up an appointment.
Do you offer evening and weekend sessions?
+ READ MORE
Counselling appointments are available most weekdays, afternoons & evenings and some weekends.
What if I need to contact my counsellor in the case of an emergency?
+ READ MORE
Our counsellors provide elective care to clients and are not available for crisis calls.
If this is an emergency, we recommend you seek medical attention at your local Emergency Department, call 911, or the crisis centre at 310-6789.
What is your social media policy?
+ READ MORE
This Social Media Policy was copied and minorly adapted from the Social Media Policy of Keely Kolmes, Psy.D., who licensed it under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License, making it available to other mental health professionals.
The BCACC requires Registered Clinical Counsellors (RCC) who use Social Media to have a Social Media Policy. This document outlines our office policies related to use of Social Media. Please read it to understand how we conduct ourselves on the Internet as mental health professionals and how you can expect us to respond to various interactions that may occur between us on the Internet:
Friending
Counsellors at North Shore Centre for Attachment (NSCA) do not accept friend or contact requests from current or former clients on any social networking site (Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, etc). We believe that adding clients as friends or contacts on these sites can compromise your confidentiality and our respective privacy. It may also blur the boundaries of our therapeutic relationship. If you have questions about this, please bring them up when you meet with your counsellor.
Following
North Shore Centre for Attachment publishes resources on our website. We have no expectation that you as a client will want to follow our resource page. Counsellors at NSCA do not follow current or former clients on blogs or any other social media platform. Our reasoning is that we believe casual viewing of clients’ online content outside of the therapy hour can create confusion in regard to whether it’s being done as a part of your treatment or to satisfy our personal curiosity.
In addition, viewing your online activities without your consent and without our explicit arrangement towards a specific purpose could potentially have a negative influence on our working relationship. If there are things from your online life that you wish to share with us, please bring them to your sessions where you can view and explore them with your counsellor, during the therapy hour.
Use of Search Engines
It is NOT a regular part of our practice to search for clients on Google or Facebook or other search engines. Extremely rare exceptions may be made during times of crisis. If your counsellor has a reason to suspect that you are in danger and you have not been in touch with them via your usual means (coming to appointments, or phone contact) there might be an instance in which using a search engine (to find you, find someone close to you, or to check on your recent status updates) becomes necessary as part of ensuring your welfare. These are unusual situations and if your counsellor ever resorts to such means, they will fully document it and discuss it with you when you next meet.
Business Review Sites
You may find North Shore Centre for Attachment on sites such as Google, Yahoo Local, or other places that list businesses. Some of these sites include forums in which users rate their providers and add reviews. Many of these sites comb search engines for business listings and automatically add listings regardless of whether the business has added itself to the site.
If you should find NSCAlisted on any of these sites, please know that this listing is NOT a request for a testimonial, rating, or endorsement from you as our client. The British Columbia Association of Clinical Counsellors (BCACC) Standard for Promoting and Advertising Services states, “an RCC should never solicit testimonials, expressly or by implication, from clients or other persons who, because of their particular circumstances, may be vulnerable to undue influence” (BCACC Code of Ethical Conduct and Standards of Clinical Practice and Guidelines for Registered Clinical Counsellors, 2011).
You have a right to express yourself on any site you wish. But due to confidentiality, we cannot respond to any review, whether it is positive or negative. We urge you to take your own privacy as seriously as we take our commitment of confidentiality to you. You should also be aware that if you are using these sites to communicate indirectly with us about your feelings about our work, there is a good possibility that we may never see it.
Location-Based Services
If you used location-based services on your mobile phone, you may wish to be aware of the privacy issues related to using these services. We do not place my practice as a check-in location on various sites such as Foursquare, Facebook, etc. However, if you have GPS tracking enabled on your device, it is possible that others may surmise that you are a therapy client due to your location.
Thank you for taking the time to review our Social Media Policy. If you have questions or concerns about any of these policies and procedures or regarding our potential interactions on the Internet, do bring them to your therapist’s attention so that they can discuss them.