Why we still believe in paper
Your story isn’t meant for a database.
Privacy here isn’t a setting. It’s a set of choices about where your information lives and who handles it. This page explains those choices plainly, including their limits.
What we do
Counseling records and signed forms are kept on paper, in locked storage at the office. There is no electronic health record. No electronic clinical charts. No unnecessary digital recordkeeping.
We made a deliberate choice for this practice: fewer systems holding your story, and fewer copies of it. For people who carry a lot of responsibility, and would rather keep some things private, that choice often matters.
It’s an old-fashioned way of working, chosen on purpose. Just a more intentional approach to personal care.
What we still use, and what it means
We keep counseling records and signed forms in locked paper files, not in an electronic health record. We do still use a few everyday tools for specific jobs: Square for payments, Google Calendar for scheduling and Zoom for online sessions. None of them is used as a clinical record. Paper records are still protected health records under HIPAA and Washington law, and like any health record they can be disclosed when the law requires it. What we offer isn’t a promise that nothing is ever digital. It’s a deliberate choice to keep your story out of a database.
- Paper, in locked storage
- Counseling records and signed forms
- Square
- Payments
- Google Calendar
- Scheduling
- Zoom
- Online sessions
These services may handle the limited information each job needs, such as your name, an appointment time or a payment amount. We follow HIPAA and Washington health-privacy law.
What you can do
- Keep clinical details out of texts and emails. Ordinary email and text can carry privacy risks. A short message with your name and the best way to reach you is enough; the rest can wait for your session.
- Ask for a confidential way to be contacted, such as a particular phone number, email address or mailing address. Tell us at any time.
- For online sessions, join from a private place where you won’t be overheard, and on a device you trust.
- You may ask to see or get a copy of your records, and ask for corrections. The Notice of Privacy Practices explains how.
Your rights
Our Notice of Privacy Practices describes how your health information may be used and disclosed, the special protections Washington gives mental health records, and your rights, including how to make a complaint.
Read the Notice of Privacy Practices
This website has no contact forms, analytics or tracking scripts. The website privacy statement explains what it does and doesn’t collect.
Schedule a session
Call or text 971-464-1155. A short message with your name and the best way to reach you is all we need. Scheduling changes go by text.