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Photo by Andrea Piacquadio from Pexels | Article by Kimberly Yusay

Are you considering taking online therapy? Here are three safety measures you can take when trying it out.

(1) Find Qualified Counsellors

As stated in a 2020 article published in the Human Givens Institute, there are three things to consider for online counsellor selection.

• Experience– Face-to-face experience is one of the top online counsellor qualifications.
• Legality– Some therapists aren’t licensed to provide therapy within a certain state or location. In case the client still wants to proceed despite this knowledge, written consent can be provided.
• Insurance– It best to check if online therapy covers your insurance policy.

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(2) Aim for Data Protection

Amy Novotney emphasised in her recent article for the American Psychological Association that data protection should a top priority for online therapy.

Here are some laws that will help safeguard your privacy:

• HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) -According to the HIPAA Journal, this American law requires companies to prevent data leaks.

• PHIPA & PIPEDA (Personal Health Information Protection Act and Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act) – These Canadian laws serve the same function as HIPAA. PHIPA covers organisations while PIPEDA applies to health information custodians.

• HITECH (Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act) – This U.S. law notifies clients once there’s a data breach.

• GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) – European Union’s toughest data privacy law imposes heavy fines on violators, some amounting to millions of dollars.

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(3) Pick the Right Platform

Using a secure online counsellor platform that works well for you is also important.

• Doxy.me– Online therapy using doxy.me is cost-free, user-friendly and HIPAA, HITECH, PHIPA/PIPEDA, and GDPR-compliant.

• Zoom-With 200 million daily users, it is incredibly popular. Online therapy using zoom is totally free, with high-quality video calls, and is HIPAA, PIPEDA/PHIPA-compliant.

• Skype– Online therapy using Skype is convenient. It’s Business E3 and E5 packages are HIPAA compliant. It’s also established and well-known, boasting about 100 million monthly users.

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