Text messages

Who sends them

Cub Valley Counseling and Consulting, LLC, a solo practice. Miles D. Kramer, LCSW, is the only clinician and the only person who sends these messages. Each one is typed or chosen by hand, to one person, about one appointment. Nothing is scheduled, nothing is sent in bulk, and there is no mailing list to be added to.

What they say

A conversation can only start with one of these four messages. They are the complete set, word for word:

• Hi, Miles here, I have you scheduled for a session right now, are you going to be able to make it?
• No problem, I’ll be here. Take your time.
• If you can join in the next few minutes we can still use the time. After that we should find another slot.
• I’m going to release this time. Reach out when you’re able and we’ll find another slot.

After you reply, I may answer in my own words, still about the same appointment. I will never send you advertising, and I will never use your number for anything other than reaching you.

How often

Rarely, and never on a schedule. A message is sent only when a session is due to start and you are not there, or when I am running late, or when we are finding another time. Most clients get none at all. There is no recurring program and no set frequency, because nothing is sent unless something has gone wrong with a specific appointment.

How you agree to them

There are two ways, and no others.

On the intake paperwork. The packet you sign before your first session asks for your phone number as a required field, and the Consent to Telehealth in that packet says this, which you agree to in the statement you sign:

Calls and texts about your appointments. I may call or text you at the number you give me, about your own appointments: to reach you if you are not there when a session is due to start, to tell you I am running late, or to arrange another time. These are messages about your care and nothing else. I will never send you advertising, and I will never use your number for anything other than reaching you. Your carrier’s usual message and data rates may apply. You can tell me to stop texting at any time, or reply STOP to a text, and the texts will stop. That will not affect your care.

The statement you sign at the end of that consent reads: “I have read this telehealth consent, I understand where I must be located during sessions, I consent to receiving care by telehealth, and I agree that Miles may call or text me about my appointments at the phone number I provide.”

By texting me first. If you send a text to the practice number yourself, I will reply to it. Writing to me is your own consent to be written back to.

Either way, I record the date you agreed against your number before anything is sent, and the software refuses to send to a number that has no date recorded. Nobody is texted who has not agreed. No phone number is ever bought, rented, shared, or uploaded from a list, and no number reaches this practice from anywhere but you.

How to stop them

Reply STOP to any message and the carrier will stop them immediately. CANCEL, END, QUIT, UNSUBSCRIBE, OPTOUT and REMOVE work the same way. You can also simply tell me, in session or by email, and I will stop.

Stopping texts will not affect your care in any way. We will arrange appointments the way we did before.

Reply HELP to any message for help, or email miles@cubvalleycounseling.com.

Costs

I do not charge for text messages. Your carrier’s usual message and data rates may apply, and that is between you and your carrier.

Privacy

Your number and the messages are held in my own Amazon Web Services account, in the United States, encrypted. The messages themselves are deleted automatically after 48 hours; what is kept is your number, the date you agreed to be texted, and whether you have asked me to stop. Those are kept because the software must not text someone who has not agreed or who has asked me to stop.

Text messages are not a secure channel, in the same way email is not. Please keep clinical detail out of them and use them to sort out a time. What belongs in your record goes in your record.

The rest of how this practice handles information is on the privacy page, including the Notice of Privacy Practices that governs your clinical record.

Not for emergencies

I do not watch this number, and a text may sit unread for a long time. It is not a way to reach me urgently and it is not a crisis service. If you are in crisis, call or text 988. If you or someone else is in immediate danger, call 911.