Practice Policies

FEES, SESSION LENGTH, AND SCHEDULING

Fees are payable by credit or debit card. Because the type of counseling we provide is ministerial or pastoral in nature, it is not eligible for insurance coverage and/or benefits. One 60-minute (includes discussion of scheduling future sessions or other general business issues) Counseling/Coaching session is $100.00, and payment in full is expected at the time service is received.

CANCELATIONS

Please notify your Pastoral Counselor/Coach 24 hours in advance of a cancellation. Failure to do so will result in a full charge for the session. This is necessary because a time commitment is made to you and is held exclusively for you. If you are late for a session, you will lose some of that session time.

NO SHOW

Two no-shows will automatically terminate the counseling relationship and may mean no further appointments are offered.

SOCIAL MEDIA

Due to the importance of your confidentiality and the importance of minimizing dual relationships, Verdant Ministries does not follow, accept friend or contact requests on any social networking site (Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.) or connect outside of the Counseling/Coaching relationship with very few exceptions. I believe that adding clients as friends or contacts on these sites can compromise your confidentiality and our respective privacy and may blur the boundaries of our healing relationship. If you have questions about this, please bring them up when we meet and we can talk more about it.

ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATION
Verdant Ministries LLC cannot ensure the confidentiality of any form of communication through electronic media, including text messages and email.

If you chose to use information technology for some or all of your care, you need to understand that:
(1) You retain the option to withhold or withdraw consent at any time without affecting the right to future care.
(2) All existing confidentiality protections are equally applicable.
(3) Your access to all medical information transmitted during a telemedicine consultation is guaranteed, and copies of this information are available for a reasonable fee.
(4) Dissemination of any of your identifiable images or information from the telemedicine interaction to researchers or other entities shall not occur without your consent.
(5) There are potential risks, consequences, and benefits of telemedicine. Potential benefits include, but are not limited to improved communication capabilities, providing convenient access to up-to-date information, consultations, support, reduced costs, improved quality, change in the conditions of practice, improved access to therapy, better continuity of care, and reduction of lost work time and travel costs. Effective care is often facilitated when the Counselor/Coach gathers within a session or a series of sessions, a multitude of observations, information, and experiences about the client. Counselors/Coaches may make assessments and interventions based not only on direct verbal or auditory communications, written reports, and third person consultations, but also from direct visual and olfactory observations, information, and experiences. When using information technology in therapy services, potential risks include, but are not limited to the Counselor/Coach’s inability to make visual and olfactory observations of potentially relevant issues such as: your physical condition including deformities, apparent height and weight, body type, attractiveness relative to social and cultural norms or standards, gait and motor coordination, posture, work speed, any noteworthy mannerism or gestures, physical or medical conditions including bruises or injuries, basic grooming and hygiene including appropriateness of dress, eye contact (including any changes in the previously listed issues), sex, chronological and apparent age, ethnicity, facial and body language, and congruence of language and facial or bodily expression. Potential consequences thus include the Pastoral Counselor/Coach not being aware of what he or she would consider important information, that you may not recognize as significant to present verbally the therapist.

TERMINATION
Ending relationships can be difficult. Therefore, it is important to have a termination process in order to achieve some closure. The appropriate length of the termination depends on the length and intensity of the counseling/coaching work. I may terminate treatment after appropriate discussion with you and a termination process if I determine that the counseling/coaching is not being effectively used. I will not terminate the counseling/coaching relationship without first discussing and exploring the reasons and purpose of terminating. If counseling/coaching is terminated for any reason or you request another counselor/coach, I will provide you with at least two qualified psychotherapists or other appropriate professionals for you to pursue the services of. You may also choose someone on your own or from another referral source.

Notice of Privacy Practices

This notice went into effect on January 1, 2026

NOTICE OF PRIVACY PRACTICES

THIS NOTICE DESCRIBES HOW HEALTH INFORMATION MAY BE USED AND DISCLOSED AND HOW YOU CAN GET ACCESS TO THIS INFORMATION.

I. OUR PLEDGE REGARDING HEALTH INFORMATION: We understand that health information about you and your health care is personal. We are committed to protecting health information about you. We create a record of the care and services you receive from Verdant Ministries LLC. We need this record to provide you with quality care and to comply with certain legal requirements. This notice applies to all of the records of your care generated by this mental health care practice. This notice will tell you about the ways in which we may use and disclose health information about you. We also describe your rights to the health information we keep about you and describe certain obligations we have regarding the use and disclosure of your health information. We are required by law to:

Make sure that protected health information (“PHI”) that identifies you is kept private.
Give you this notice of our legal duties and privacy practices with respect to health information.
Follow the terms of the notice that is currently in effect.
We can change the terms of this Notice, and such changes will apply to all information we have about. Updated versions of this Notice will be available upon request through this link: SimplePractice: Verdant Ministries as well as on this ministry website.

II. HOW WE MAY USE AND DISCLOSE HEALTH INFORMATION ABOUT YOU: The following categories describe different ways that we use and disclose health information. For each category of uses or disclosures we will explain what we mean and try to give some examples. Not every use or disclosure in a category will be listed. However, all of the ways we are permitted to use and disclose information will fall within one of the categories.

For Treatment Payment, or Health Care Operations: Federal privacy rules (regulations) allow health care providers who have direct treatment relationship with the patient/client to use or disclose the patient/client’s personal health information without the patient’s written authorization, to carry out the health care provider’s own treatment, payment or health care operations. We may also disclose your protected health information for the treatment activities of any health care provider. This too can be done without your written authorization. For example, if a clinician were to consult with another licensed health care provider about your condition, we would be permitted to use and disclose your personal health information, which is otherwise confidential, in order to assist the clinician in diagnosis and treatment of your mental health condition.

Disclosures for treatment purposes are not limited to the minimum necessary standard. Because therapists and other health care providers need access to the full record and/or full and complete information in order to provide quality care. The word “treatment” includes, among other things, the coordination and management of health care providers with a third party, consultations between health care providers and referrals of a patient for health care from one health care provider to another.

Lawsuits and Disputes: If you are involved in a lawsuit, we may disclose health information in response to a court or administrative order ONLY and will not accept invitations from you to appear in court on your behalf.

III. CERTAIN USES AND DISCLOSURES REQUIRE YOUR AUTHORIZATION:

Pastoral Counseling/Coaching Notes: We do keep Pastoral Counseling/Coaching notes or “ministry session notes”, and any use or disclosure of such notes requires your Authorization unless the use or disclosure is: a. For our use in serving you. b. For our use in training or supervising c. For our use in defending ourselves in legal proceedings instituted by you. d. For use by the Secretary of Health and Human Services to investigate our compliance with HIPAA. e. Required by law and the use or disclosure is limited to the requirements of such law. f. Required by law for certain health oversight activities pertaining to the originator of the Pastoral Counseling/Coaching notes. g. Required by a coroner who is performing duties authorized by law. h. Required to help avert a serious threat to the health and safety of others.
Marketing Purposes. As Pastoral Counselors/Coaches, we will not use or disclose your PHI for marketing purposes.
Sale of PHI. As a Pastoral Counselors/Coaches, we will not sell your PHI in the regular course of our business.

VI. YOU HAVE THE FOLLOWING RIGHTS WITH RESPECT TO YOUR PHI:

The Right to Choose How we Send PHI to You. You have the right to ask us to contact you in a specific way (for example, home or office phone) or to send mail to a different address, and we will agree to all reasonable requests.
The Right to See and Get Copies of Your PHI. Other than “Pastoral Counseling/Coaching or Ministry Session notes”. You have the right to get an electronic or paper copy of your medical record and other information that we have about you. We will provide you with a copy of your record, or a summary of it, if you agree to receive a summary, within 30 days of receiving your written request, and may charge a reasonable, cost based fee for doing so.
The Right to Get a List of the Disclosures we Have Made. You have the right to request a list of instances in which we have disclosed your PHI for purposes other than treatment, payment, or health care operations, or for which you provided me with an Authorization. We will respond to your request for an accounting of disclosures within 60 days of receiving your request. The list we will give you will include disclosures made in the last six years unless you request a shorter time. We will provide the list to you at no charge, but if you make more than one request in the same year, we will charge you a reasonable cost based fee for each additional request.
The Right to Correct or Update Your PHI. If you believe that there is a mistake in your PHI, or that a piece of important information is missing from your PHI, you have the right to request that we correct the existing information or add the missing information. We may say “no” to your request, but will tell you why in writing within 60 days of receiving your request.
The Right to Get a Paper or Electronic Copy of this Notice. You have the right get a paper copy of this Notice, and you have the right to get a copy of this notice by e-mail. And, even if you have agreed to receive this Notice via e-mail, you also have the right to request a paper copy of it.