Personal-Counselor

Client-Counselor Agreement

Any client who wishes to work with Laura S. Diallo, Ph.D. must agree to the following conditions:

You agree that you have read the separate section here on confidentiality and agree with the terms set out in that section.
You agree that our email exchanges occur in the state of Maryland (USA) and are governed by the laws of this state and country.
You agree that you are at least 18 years old.
You agree that you are not currently under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
While I am hopeful that our email exchanges will be very helpful to you, there is no way that I could possibly guarantee a positive outcome. In addition, you agree that because online counseling has only been in existence for several years, we have only preliminary evidence indicating that it is helpful to most of those who have tried it with the help of a well-trained, experienced therapist. Thus, you must understand that working with me online is, in many ways, an experimental activity.
I reserve the right to choose whether to work with you or not once you’ve contacted me. I will work with you only if I feel that you are a suitable candidate and that I can be helpful to you. If I do NOT feel that I can be helpful to you, I will suggest alternatives.
As I’ve noted, online counseling and face-to-face psychotherapy or counseling are not the same and online counseling is NOT a substitute for traditional face-to-face psychotherapy treatment.
Our work together should be construed as an educational process designed to assist you in dealing with emotional difficulties, rather than as formal diagnosis and treatment of psychological disorders. As such, I cannot and will not make any formal diagnoses nor carry out traditional psychotherapy online. Therefore, it remains your right and responsibility to seek face-to-face psychotherapeutic assistance whenever necessary.
Like any other therapeutic modality, the effectiveness of online counseling depends greatly on how much of an investment of time and energy you are willing to make. Generally speaking, the more you invest in it, the more you will get out of it.
You agree that I cannot be held responsible for providing services to you in the event of a crisis or emergency situation. While online counseling may be very effective for helping people with mild-to-moderate difficulties, it is likely to be much less effective for people with moderate-to-severe difficulties.
You agree that if you are currently seeing a therapist on a regular basis, it is your responsibility to discuss with that therapist the advisability of working with me before doing so.
The goal of our exchanges is to help you. If either of us feels, at any time, that working together is not helpful enough to you, either of us is free to terminate our relationship at any time.
There are no other explicit or implicit commitments in our email relationship.

Important Note: By returning the completed Client Questionnaire to me, you understand that you agree with the terms and conditions as stated above.