Office Hours
Tuesday – Friday, 8:00 am to 4:00 pm JST.
Please be aware that I may not be able to respond to you outside of these days/times and even within these times, I will likely be in session. As a result, it may take 24 to 48 hours to get back to any email or voicemail (excluding holidays or vacations).
Fees & Cancellation Policy
Fees are due at the beginning of each session.
I require 24-hour notice for any cancellations or rescheduling. You will be responsible for the full session fee (TRICARE beneficiaries are responsible for paying 15,000 JPY) for any missed appointment with less than 24-hour notice, including instances of no-shows, cancellations, or rescheduling. The late fee is due by 11:59 pm JST on the same day of the missed appointment and must be paid in full before booking your next appointment.
If you do not arrive for your session within 15 minutes of our agreed-upon start time, it will be considered a late cancellation, subject to the same policies as cancellations made with less than 24 hours’ notice.
If you show late, between 1 and 14 minutes of our agreed-upon start time, the session will still end 50 minutes from our agreed upon start time and the full session fee is still due.
For free consultations, I require 48-hour notice for any cancellations or rescheduling. For late cancellations or more than one request to reschedule a free consultation, no reschedules will be permitted and I will provide you with other possible resources to find a different provider.
UNPAID FEES: If a client accrues ¥500 JPY or more in unpaid balances, future sessions cannot be scheduled until the balance is paid in full. Services will be terminated if payment is not received by 10:00 am JST on the following Friday from the original due date.
Consecutive Missed Sessions
If a client misses 3 consecutive sessions without 24-hour notice services will be terminated.
Unpaid Fees/Balances
If a client accrues $1 USD or more in late fees and/or unpaid balances, future sessions cannot be scheduled until the balance is paid in full. If the balance is not paid within 3 weeks from the date it was originally due, services will be terminated.
Document Preparation
Document fees are calculated in 15-minute increments. The rate is $32 per 15 minutes of document preparation time.
Confidentiality Concerns
I am held to strict confidentiality standards and I take that very seriously. This means I will not talk about your story with anyone else or even acknowledge if you’re a client or not. There are certain limits to confidentiality, which we will review in our first session.
I cannot guarantee the privacy of clients while entering/exiting the office building while waiting in the lobby or entering/exiting my office. If you have concerns about others seeing you, please let me know. I can try to make accommodations to reduce the risk of being seen by others or we can meet online.
E-mail Communication
Email is the best way to contact me. I use Hushmail, a secure encryption email provider, to communicate with you by email.
I ask we keep e-mail communication limited to scheduling purposes only.
Texting
I do not communicate through SMS, iMessage, or any other texting apps. If you do text me, I may not receive it or see it, and you will not receive a reply.
Communication Between Sessions
Except for scheduling, I ask we keep communication limited to in-session only. Occasionally, phone check-ins between sessions may be useful. We can discuss how and when to use these check-ins. In general, phone check-ins are brief and around 5 to 10 minutes. If more time is needed, a full session fee will required.
To protect confidentiality, if we see each other in public, I ask that you not discuss personal issues and instead wait until the next session to talk.
Required Personal Information
For safety reasons, I require, at minimum, your full legal name, your current physical address of where you are living/staying, your phone number, and an emergency contact person.
Release of Information
I require a signed release of information form if you’d like me to communicate with another provider or individual about our work together. With exception to issues around someone’s safety, If a provider or individual contacts me and informs me they have signed a release of information from you, I will not communicate with the provider until you sign a release of information with me.
Fee Changes
I examine my fees on a yearly basis and may make an increase. I will give clients 90 days’ notice of any planned increase in fees.
Service Locations
I can only work with clients who are physically located in Japan or California. If we begin our work together and you are located outside of Japan or California temporarily or permanently, we will need to pause or terminate our work together. I can provide you with referrals to other providers who are able to serve your new location.