Clinic Policies

Communication Policies

If you have a general clinic inquiry or need to notify a therapist about a last-minute cancellation, you can call the general line at the SDSU Psychology Clinic at 619-594-5134. Calls to this telephone number are answered directly by our clinic coordinator or answering service during clinic hours. Outside of these hours, clients can leave a message, and calls will be returned the following business day.

If you want to leave a message directly for your clinic therapist, you can call the therapist's voicemail line at 619-594-0131. This touch-tone system allows clients to select the therapist for whom they wish to leave a message. Requests to reschedule appointments should be communicated directly with your therapist, as therapists coordinate their own clinic schedules.

The clinic utilizes HIPAA-compliant email (Hush Mail) to send and receive secure email messages. Clinic paperwork can be completed securely using this system.

Using Hushmail
In order to maintain security and keep your communications private, clinic staff will be communicating with you through a Hushmail account. You do not need to sign up for an account yourself. You will receive an email at your regular email account with a link to a secure web page where you will be able to read and respond to the clinic staff's message.

If you haven't used Hushmail before, the first email that you receive contains instructions for how you can securely read your message. The first time you receive an email from clinic staff, Hushmail will prompt you to create a passphrase. When you get messages from the clinic in the future, you will be automatically directed to the Hushmail site, where you can enter your established passphrase to read your message. If you have questions about Hushmail and how it encrypts your email, you can read about it at: https://hushmail.com 

Secure messages to you via Hushmail will be deleted after 14 days by default, so you should copy and store any information you need to keep for future reference.

Visit Policies
Visits generally start at the top of the hour and are traditionally a “therapy hour” (50 minutes long). Visits will start and end on time, and it is recommended clients arrive at their appointments (both in person and telepsychology) 5-10 minutes before their scheduled start time.

Cancellations & Missed Appointments

If you need to cancel an appointment for any reason, please do so at least 24 hours prior to your appointment. If you cancel within 24 hours or miss (no show) your appointment without providing 24 hour notice, it is clinic policy to charge for the canceled or missed session and you will be responsible for this fee.
 
Frequent appointment cancellations may result in the termination of treatment. Frequent missed sessions or 2 consecutive no shows will result in the termination of treatment. 

COVID-19 Policies

Our priority in the clinic is to serve our clients while protecting the safety and well-being of our clients, clinicians, and staff. Therapists, staff, and clients (and anyone accompanying a client, if needed) will not be permitted to come to the clinic if they are ill with COVID-19 symptoms.

All clients and accompanying will be screened upon entry to the clinic by verbally responding to COVID screening questions. If COVID-19 symptoms are observed or reported, no in person services will be provided and appointment will be rescheduled or transitioned to telehealth. The use of masks is optional though recommended. Masks will be available at the clinic front desk if needed.

Client Feedback

We are committed to providing high quality clinical care and continually seek to evaluate and improve our services. We would appreciate your cooperation with our evaluation efforts by completing post-treatment evaluation forms. This is important both as a means of evaluating and improving our clinical services and as clinical research data.

Complaints

If at any time you have a complaint or problem, please address your complaint with the Clinic Director, Dr. Colby Chlebowski. Dr. Chlebowski can be reached at 619-594-2836.
 
If after this you feel the clinic has not addressed your complaint adequately, you may contact the San Diego State University Psychology Department at 619-594-1936 or the American Psychological Association at 1-800-374-2721, extension 5930. If you have a complaint about any licensed psychologist, contact the consumer complaint number of the Department of Consumer Affairs Board of Psychology at 1-866-503-3221.