Scott L Sherman

BIOGRAPHIC SKETCH
SCOPE OF SERVICES PROVIDED
SERVICE OPTIONS
FEES
INFORMED CONSENT
LIMITS OF LIABILITY
DISRUPTIONS
OTHER RESOURCES
PROFESSIONAL CONDUCT AND ETHICS
MISUNDERSTANDINGS, CONCERNS, QUESTIONS, AND/OR PROBLEMS
DISPUTE RESOLUTION
CANCELLATION POLICY

BIOGRAPHIC SKETCH

My name is Scott Lloyd Sherman. I am and have been licensed by the State of California as a Marriage and Family Therapist (MFT 14936) since 1981. I am sixty five years old and married with grown children. My practice focuses on individuals, youth, and relationships and includes intensive experience and training in working with communication difficulties, traumas, self-esteem, and issues of depression and/or anxiety.

My phone number is (707) 445-1018 and my mailing address is 350 E Street, Suite 409, Eureka, CA 95501.

You may verify my licensure by contacting www.bbs.ca.gov.

I have a master's degree in Social Sciences from San Francisco State College and majored in a divisional degree in Sociology, Social Psychology and Criminology. I was trained as a Research Sociologist and after graduation worked for several years in that field studying the self-help movements related to addictive behavior. From there I worked as a Social Worker in a residential treatment program for disturbed youth. It was in that role that I received the supervision for my license as a Marriage and Family Therapist.

Subsequent to becoming licensed I also received extensive training in hypnosis, substance abuse, child abuse, men's issues, shamanism and other related subjects. I have received training in ritual village from the African Shamans Malidome and Sobonfu Some.

I am also licensed as a Provider of Continuing Education and provide training for other therapists. I served as the clinical supervisor for Consolidated Tribal Health in Mendocino County for nine years. See outlines of Continuing Education courses here.

SCOPE OF PRACTICE

With respect to the above I am best prepared to work with individuals regarding healing of past traumas, relationship issues and communication difficulties My work includes instructions and guidance in how to create the strong relationships in the context of community. I also emphasize the need to practice mindfulness in our approach to daily living tasks and challenges. In that respect my work approaches a spiritual healing context. The human body is uniquely qualified to connect between the heaven and earth (male and female) natural energies and to make use of these to increase one's own center or foundation (chi, life-force,or prahna). This is especially so when we work in circles of like-minded friends, family, and villagers.

From my experiences in life and trainings certain beliefs have come to be. For the most part western societies ideas of how to do relationships/marriages have been a failure. We need to find a way to get back to community/village! Some of my training classes focus on providing practical experiences in creating strong, supportive extended extra-familial relationships.

SERVICE OPTIONS - most of these services are currently in development and should be online soon. Thank you for your patience, and please feel free to contact me directly in the meantime at (707) 445-1018 or scott@scottlsherman.com.

OPEN USER FORUM
This Message Board style format is designed to engage any registered users of my service. It will be free to any user and "at your own risk." This forum will be periodically monitored by me to help direct and initiate topics for discussion and to ensure that no forum degenerates into problematic discourse. For instance, those seeking "cyber sex" will be barred from this site. The intention is to provide a free site where soul searchers can find a safe place to talk about life's issues.
CONFIDENTIAL GROUP SESSION "CHAT ROOMS"
In these confidential group sessions only clients can participate in a structured live "chat room" environment. Members will be expected to enter into a contractual relationship with myself and each other. Each will need to register, pay, and be given, at their discretion, confidential names. This will be a group therapy session. I will know who is involved and can monitor the participation providing quality control and boundary setting.
COUNSELING BY E-MAIL
Another choice is e-mail therapy or guidance relationship.
As with chat room counseling, there are certain limitations. We cannot read each other visually and therefore a fair amount of information is lost. At the same time, and if we take each other at face value and concentrate on bein gin integrity, a great deal of valid communications and healing can come about.

There are two forms of e-mail contact available, both of which require the client to first register and agree to Terms and Conditions before services may begin:
Virtual: Where we schedule time together and dialogue in the moment!
At Convenience: Where we send messages to each other as our schedules provide!

"Virtual" time is more costly, as it ties me to a schedule, while "At Convenience" is less costly as I can respond as my time allows.
COUNSELING BY PHONE
You can call me per an agreed upon time. I can allow different amounts of time and allotments depending on your needs and my scheduling. Clients must first register and agree to Terms and Conditions before services may begin.
WEB-BASED AUDIO-VISUAL COUNSELING - will be available in the near future.
This is a virtual therapy service and is the most effective, time consuming, expensive, and therefore costly option. At the same time, it offers the user the virtual abilty to see me and for me to see the user. In this way we can communicate most effectively, next to being in the same room. This will be my preferred internet option and one where I can be of the utmost service. Clients must first register and agree to Terms and Conditions before services may begin, and will need to have certain computer and video resources for this option.

FEES

For guided or Private chat-rooms the fee is $25 dollars for each hour's worth of service. There will be a limited number of people in each chat room. Chat rooms structured around issues are scheduled at times most convenient to users. Most likely they will be scheduled for one or two early (somewhere between 6:00 and 8:00) evenings each week.

Telephonic sessions are individual and charged on a sliding scale basis. My usual fees are from $70 to 100 dollars per hour. Depending on your ability to pay and the emergence of your need it may be more or less. Times for these services will be flexible and most will be during the day.

Audio-visual fees will also be charged on a sliding scale depending on ability to pay. The range is from $80 to 120 dollars per hour and will be more flexible in terms of time choices. I prefer to work in this fashion for the benefit of "face-to-face" so choices are more numerous.

Priority Subscription the fees are:

Annual: $1500
Quarterly: $400

INFORMED CONSENT

The following information must be read, and agreed to before telecommunication therapy can proceed. Please read carefully:

The client or the client's legal representative retains the option to withhold or withdraw consent at any time without affecting the right to future care or treatment nor risking the loss or withdrawl of any program benefits to which the patient or the patient's legal representative would otherwise be entitled.
Potential risks, consequenses, and benefits of tele-medicine:
As tele-medecine and counseling limits the amount of information that can be exchanged between client and therapist there are certain kinds of risks involved. While some of these risks hold true for conventional therapy, they may hold more risks for tele-medicine:

These risks include but may not be limited to:

You may feel worse before you feel better
Your relationships may suffer as you begin to feel better
While this is one means of doing therapy, you may have a different experience if engaged in face-to-face therapy, for which one or more referrals will be made if preferred.
Therapy or counseling delivered in this manner may or may not be covered by insurance.

Consequenses may include:

Lack of ready availability of support services
Missing vital information due to limited data exchange
Feeling less than satisfied due to the limitations of the media
Breakdown in communications due to your or my hardware, software, server, or telecommunications services.

Benefits may include:

Ease of communication, in that you can work with me from your own home or from the field.
Easy access to the support services of the website, such as Tools for Healing
Support services via links to other service sites

LIMITS OF CONFIDENTIALITY

All existing confidentiality protections apply as outlined by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences and which pertain to Marriage Family and Child Therapy in the State of California.

While using every reasonable means to protect and encrypt conversations and records of treatment, when doing therapy by Internet or other electronic means, such encryption cannot be guaranteed.
By agreeing to engage in therapy by Internet or otehr electronic means, the therapist and patient will each assure that any text messages or recorded discussions will be destroyed within fifteen days of reciept.
If I believe that you are a danger or become a danger to yourself or to someone else, I may inform others or insist that you be evaluated, in person, by another health care professional.
You, the patient, are encouraged to protect your own confidentiality by controlling access to your communications with me -- such as using passwords known only by you, controlling access to your computer, deleting data as agreed, using adequate encryption software to protect your privacy, etc.

PROCEDURES SHOULD WE ENCOUNTER TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES OR DISRUPTIONS IN SERVICE:

It is understood that when communicating by internet or other electronic means, disruptions in service or other technical difficulties will likely occur from time to time. Should a disruption occur at a time of crisis, the patient agrees to immediately phone me at (707) 445-1018.

OTHER RESOURCES

I may refer you to and/or expect you to avail yourself of outside supportive resources, including, but not limited to, other health care professionals, as I deem appropriate. A failure on your part to comply with such recommendations may result in a termination of therapy.

PROFESSIONAL CONDUCT AND ETHICS

I agree to abide by the Ethical Standards of the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists. These standards are accessible on the Association's website, www.camft.org, under the heading "What is CAMFT?" I also comply with the standards of professional conduct in the licensing law for the profession of marriage and family therapists (California Business and Professions Code 4982), which can be accessed at the Board of Behavioral Sciences' website, www.bbs.ca.gov.

MISUNDERSTANDINGS, CONCERNS, QUESTIONS, AND/OR PROBLEMS

It is understood that sometimes the written word can be misunderstood. If we are communicating with text, and you have questions about the meaning of my statements to you, you are asked to bring these to my attention as soon as practical and possible so that any misunderstandings may be expained and any ensuing problems may be averted or avoided.

DISPUTE RESOLUTION

Any unresolved dispute arising from our therapy is to be resolved by binding arbitration...

I understand that should it be disovered that, at any time during the course of therapy, you have willingly misrepresented your identity to me, therapy will be terminated immediately.

CANCELLATION POLICY

As with all sessions, if I am given 24 hours notice there will be no fee for a cancelled session. Forgetting or not feeling like doing it will result in your payment for the session. The exception is if you are ill or some other unavoidable interference results in your not being able to follow through with our commitment.