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DISCLAIMER / DISCLOSURE Page
The Story of
"Counseling Washington"
(trade name)
CounselingSeattle LLC
(legal entity)
Floyd Else, MA, LMHC, NCC, MAC, Owner and Webmaster
The information on CounselingSeattle.com is not intended to treat, diagnose, cure or prevent any disease and is provided for educational purposes only. Always seek the advice of your physician with any questions you have regarding a medical condition, and before undertaking any diet, exercise or other health program.In 2010 we have begun converting our page banner from, "CounselingSeattle.com," to read, "Counseling Washington" (our registered trade name) we continue to be a privately owned website whose primary goal is to help counselors throughout Washington State to make money in their private practices, groups and agencies. We are not affiliated with any city, county, or state body, although we often have links to such entities to help counselors to find the information they need. The "Counseling Washington" heading is intended to emphasize that we offer our services to masters-level (or above) counselors and to consumers in all 39 counties throughout Washington (Washington STATE as opposed to the "other Washington.")
We are not an arm of the Health Department or any law enforcement agency, although we do try to confront counselors whom we believe are operating or advertising in an unprofessional or unethical manner. We simply publicize who they and how to contact them. Then we encouraging other mental health professionals and members of the public to contact the offending counselors and chide them for their ill-considered actions. [Just search for "unprofessional counselor" or "unethical counselor" and our "Counselors Wall of Shame" page should come up.]
I have a long history as a counselor in the fields of both chemical dependency and mental health counseling. This site is my personal attempt to present educational material for both the consumers of mental health and chemical dependency counseling services and the professionals in those fields. With all the current (2008 to 2011) changes underway in counselor credentials and licensing, we are also trying to educate the public as to what these credentials mean.
In 2000, I created the Find a Counselor and Find a Therapy Group to help consumers find counselors and therapy groups in Washington State. Later I opened a Workshop Calendar to help advertise counselor continuing education and training opportunities and a Counseling Office Space and Group Rooms Available for Rent page to help those counselors who were searching for full-time or part-time counseling office space.
The general public usually does not know the meanings of the initials for credentials that counselors use after their names. Therefore, when they see credentials such as, "John Doe, MS, LMFT, NCC," they don't know what the initials mean and they can't tell what kind of work the counselor is licensed or certified to perform. It was only with the advent of the Internet and this Web site that I found a way to share such information. (See the Dictionary of Initials, Acronyms and Abbreviations Used by Counselors.) It grows a little bit more every day as I add new initials, acronyms and abbreviations.
Advertising on these pages is open to all mental health and addictions therapists and other advertisers at low fees that help defer the cost of maintaining the site. Counselors advertise their private practices, agencies, or therapy groups in and around the State of Washington. For counselors and advertisers: Note that logging-in to CounselingSeattle.com on the upper right-hand corner of the home page, will lead you to a secure site maintained for CounselingSeattle.com by Sedona Management in Bellevue, and that all personal and financial information is encrypted and held in a highly secure database.
As a public service, CounselingSeattle LLC (on www.CounselingSeattle.com) offers free listings to professionals from any of Washington State's 39 counties who are in specific categories:
(1.) counselors who are fluent in a foreign language or in American Sign Language for the deaf, to help the public and referring professionals to find these difficult-to-locate providers,
(2.) counselors who have been approved as Crime Victim Compensation Program (CVCP) mental health providers, and
(3.) counselors who are approved supervisors for counseling licensure to help counselors seeking supervision for licensure,
(4.) and a special page to list the various professionals who are experts at helping counselors with bookkeeping, accounting, billing services, and legal advice and have been recommended by counselors on this site. In the beginning, this page will only list those professionals who are recommended by counselors who are advertising on CounselingSeattle.com and who have can make this recommendation based on their personal experience.In 2002, I attended Weight Watchers™. I lost 48.2 pounds, my blood pressure dropped down to normal range, my energy increased and my waist grew considerably smaller. For my benefit, that of my WW group-mates and the weight conscious public--I published lists of products according to the number of points they contain. One Point Snacks and the other low point pages have become among the most popular pages on the site, especially in January after the holidays are over.
I subscribe to a service that surveys the links on my 200+ URL pages every week and notifies me of any broken links so that I can make necessary corrections promptly. Occasionally a domain name that I have linked to changes hands (unknown to me) and my well-intended link may connect to an unintended site. If you notice this, please let me know so I can change it. It is certainly not my intent to link to any site that the public would find objectionable or offensive. CounselingSeattle LLC can not be responsible for the outcome of clicking on any of the many links on the site.
The site uses Google.com/analytics to maintain statistics for it's various pages. Unlike any other website that I know of, we publicize our site statistics for those of our pages that are related to helping the public to find counseling services. For better or worse, all communities are not equal in terms of searching for counselors or for therapy groups and more people are searching for counselors in some areas than in others. But it all tends to work out, as smaller communities and neighborhoods tend to have fewer counselors to serve them.
With regard to Find a Counselor and Find a Therapy Group service, my goal is to help potential clients to find the highest quality of professional service. However, I can not take responsibility for the content or accuracy of information that is contributed by counselors in their individual profiles or descriptions of their groups. Those contributing such information are personally responsible for the content and accuracy of such information. Professionals are expected to conduct themselves in a manner consistent with the ethical standards of their respective professions. Since CounselingSeattle.com is accessible to the general public, professionals and public are encouraged to notify us of any inaccuracies or misstatements of fact.
We are currently (2011) spending a great deal of time and money to upgrade Counseling Washington so as to provide much more search capability to the client who is searching for the best counselor to meet his or her needs and to help everyone to navigate all the pages of information in this site.
I have done my best to provide a simple, useful site for consumers and professionals. No warranty, stated or implied, is intended. If I have made any mistakes, I hope that the viewing public will let me know so that I can make corrections. In a like manner, I hope that viewers will suggest additions that will make the site more useful.
The viewer assumes full responsibility for the communications with any therapist contacted through CounselingSeattle.com. CounselingSeattle.com shall in no event be liable to you or to anyone for any decision made or action taken by you in the reliance on information provided on this site. The Google.com search box located near the bottom of almost every page is set up to automatically search for more information on our site.
There is obviously no charge to visit and view this site. We appreciate hearing from any viewer who believes they have found an error, misrepresentation, or incomplete or outdated material. If you feel that you suffered some damage or loss due to viewing this site, I am deeply sorry and hope that you will let me know about the problem. My liability is limited to your actual cost of viewing this site (nothing), and my only intent is to provide helpful educational material and entertainment.
Enjoy!
Floyd Else, webmaster, Counseling Washington (the website)
CounselingSeattle LLCCounselingSeattle LLC -- dba COUNSELING WASHINGTON
LEGAL DISCLAIMER
for all CounselingSeattle.com Advertisers and UsersCOUNSELINGSEATTLE LLC--doing business as COUNSELING WASHINGTON (CounselingSeattle.com) STRIVES TO PROVIDE THE HIGHEST QUALITY OF INFORMATION TO MENTAL HEALTH AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES PROFESSIONALS AS WELL AS THE GENERAL PUBLIC. HOWEVER, COUNSELINGSEATTLE.COM DOES NOT TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE CONTENT OR ACCURACY OF INFORMATION THAT IS CONTRIBUTED BY USERS OF COUNSELINGSEATTLE.COM. WHILE COUNSELINGSEATTLE.COM WELCOMES AND ENCOURAGES THE CONTRIBUTION OF SUCH INFORMATION, THOSE CONTRIBUTING SUCH INFORMATION ARE INDIVIDUALLY RESPONSIBLE FOR THE CONTENT AND ACCURACY OF SUCH INFORMATION.
COUNSELORS WHO ADVERTISE ON COUNSELINGSEATTLE.COM AGREE TO RELEASE AND INDEMNIFY COUNSELINGSEATTLE.COM FROM ALL LIABILITY AND CLAIMS THAT MAY ARISE OUT OF, OR BE RELATED TO, THEIR COUNSELING AND RELATED ACTIVITIES.
CONCERNING THE INFORMATION AND SERVICES PROVIDED BY COUNSELING WASHINGTON, COUNSELINGSEATTLE LLC MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, AND SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIMS ANY WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY OR WARRANTY OF FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. ADDITIONALLY, COUNSELINGSEATTLE LLC WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL OR OTHER DAMAGES RESULTING FROM THE NEGLIGENCE OF COUNSELINGSEATTLE.COM OR ITS AGENTS. USE OF COUNSELINGSEATTLE.COM CONSTITUTES UNDERSTANDING AND ACCEPTANCE OF THESE PROVISIONS.
The Counseling Washington counselor locator is not intended as a tool for verifying the credentials (instead refer to Washington State's Provider Credentials Look-up System), qualifications, or abilities of any therapists it lists. Inclusion in the Counselor Locator does not imply recommendation or endorsement nor does omission from the counselor locator imply Counseling Washington disapproval. Counseling Washington does not warrant or represent that the Counselor Locator service or any part of the CounselingSeattle.com site is accurate or complete.
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