What Equipment Do You Need?

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Hardware

You may use any current, commercially available computer, whether Macintosh or PC. You must have a digital video camera with audio capability or web-cam with a microphone attached to your computer. You must have a broad band internet connection.

Software

I exclusively use Skype for audio-video communications. Accordingly, you must have Skype software properly loaded onto your computer to participate in the therapy sessions. Skype software is available for free from www.Skype.com. Skype represents that its software encrypts transmitted data, thereby protecting the privacy of our therapy sessions. You can review Skype's security and safety policies at www.skype.com/security/ .

How Do You Schedule An Appointment?

Appointments may be made over the internet at my webpage. On my webpage, go to my scheduling page (Click here to schedule an appointment), select the type of service you’d like to make an appointment for, and review my calendar for available appointments. Just click on the time slot that works for you.

If this is your first visit, you have to schedule an appointment for an “Initial evaluation” before you’d become eligible for any other services.

To complete the appointment process, you will have to provide your credit card information at the time of scheduling for verification purposes. However, your card will not be charged for the amount of the scheduled session until 24 hours prior to your appointment.

CANCELLATIONS OR RESCHEDULING ATTEMPTED LESS THAN 24 HOURS BEFORE THE SCHEDULED APPOINTMENT WILL RESULT IN A LOSS OF THE SESSION FEE. YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO RECOVER YOUR FEE IF YOU CANCEL OR RESCHEDULE AN APPOINTMENT WITHIN THE LAST 24 HOURS BEFORE THE TIME OF THE SCHEDULED APPOINTMENT. TO LEARN HOW TO CANCEL AN APPOINTMENT, SEE "HOW DO YOU CANCEL AN APPOINTMENT"

How Do You Cancel Or Reschedule An Appointment?

Go to my webpage, and click on the “Click here to schedule an appointment” button. Log into your account, and go to “My appointments”. Click on the reschedule or cancel button on the right hand side.

How Do You Start A Therapy Session?

At the time of your appointment just log on to your Skype account, find my Skype name (PsychMD.com), and initiate a contact. Make sure that your camera, microphone and speakers are turned on.

When you initiate a session with me over Skype, Skype will ask for your name (Skype will give you an option to log on under different user names for different communications). It is important that you log on under the same name on Skype to communicate with me that you used to schedule your appointment.

I only accept calls over Skype at the time of the scheduled appointments and only from the person whose name is in my calendar for that time slot.

If you are unable to make contact with me over Skype in the first 10 minutes after the start of your scheduled appointment, I will attempt to call you at the phone number you recorded on my scheduling page at the time you made your appointment.

Security and Privacy

No personal data of yours, including credit card numbers, personal data, medical or psychiatric history, will be stored on my web-site or on the server that hosts my web-site. Your “medical record” will be stored on a separate hard drive that is not connected to the internet, is password protected, and only I have access to it.

My appointments are scheduled through AppointmentQuest LLC. They will ask you for your name, address and contact info. They will also ask for your credit card information so you can pay for your sessions on line. They will not ask for and will not store any of your protected health information such as medical or psychiatric data. The scope of the information that you will need to provide to AppointmentQuest is about the same as you would need to provide for any other on-line purchase transaction. You can verify their security practices at www.appointmentquest.com/privacy.

The security of our on-line sessions is guaranteed by Skype’s encryption technology. You can review Skype's security and safety policies at www.skype.com/security/ .