Policies & Fees

Intake appointments are by e-Referral only (from a family physician or a nurse practitioner). Our clinic will contact you via text message and secure email (Brightsquid) inviting you to create your own account in Jane (our scheduling website) to then complete our online intake and consent form as well as to book your own intake appointment.

After booking an intake appointment you will receive an email notification confirming your booking and including a link to the intake form. Upon receiving this email the following is required:

1. The patient profile and intake forms must be completed prior to your first appointment with Dr. Sharma.

In order to help us best make use of our time together, please note that the online intake and consent form must be completed and signed at least 48 hours in advance of your scheduled intake appointment time.

*A valid credit card is required to be kept on file with the clinic. Read the next section below for more detail. Please note that GST may be applicable.

A valid credit card is required to be kept on file at the time of booking an intake appointment for individual therapy and any followup appointments. This is to process payments due to the clinic for any late cancellation/missed appointment/no show fees incurred.

A credit card is not required to be kept on file if only attending clinic services covered by Alberta Healthcare (ex. weekly virtual group meditations, and monthly mental health webinars; *both of which are not currently offered).

As per clinic policy, any late cancellation or late rescheduling (less than 48 hrs advance notice given) or missed appointments (no shows) will be charged at a rate of $250.

Late attendance to an individual appointment with a physician by 5 or more minutes after the scheduled appointment time, will be counted as a late cancellation/no show and charged the full missed appointment fee of $250, with the appointment being rescheduled after successfully processing the payment. It is important to have access to the full hour for therapeutic work to be facilitated and that there exist a shared responsibility in being punctual for appointments.

Attending an appointment while intoxicated or actively using substances during appointments will lead to the appointment being cancelled and will incur the full $250 missed appointment fee, with the appointment being rescheduled after successfully processing the payment.

Partial appointments are not permitted as it is a mutual commitment by patient and physician to attend weekly or biweekly therapy appointments for their full duration of 1 hour in order to facilitate effective therapeutic work and as such any missed appointment time from the full hour will be subject to a charge at a prorated amount at the rate of $250/hr.

Late cancellation/missed/partial appointment charges will be processed at the time of the appointment and will otherwise be due within 48 hours if not successfully processed at the time of the affected appointment. If the payment is not provided within this timeline, it will be sent to a debt collections agency to be recovered on behalf of the clinic and an interest charge of $5 per day overdue will apply.

If payment is not successfully processed within this time period, then the patient will be required to clear the outstanding payment and provide an additional $250 deposit in order to book another appointment given the history of failing to follow the clinic policies. This $250 deposit is refundable, should the patient decide to seek care elsewhere.

As long as patients attend their appointments at the scheduled time, for the full duration of the appointment, and without being under the influence of substances or using substances during appointments, there is no cost for followup appointments with a physician.

In order to pursue individual therapy at Think Recovery, you must agree to and adhere to the following at all times:

1. Show up on time to all of your scheduled appointments and be ready to engage sincerely
2. Attend appointments from a private, quiet, and well-lit location with a reliable internet connection, stable video quality and without interruption or disturbance from others
3. Attend appointments for their full scheduled duration without distraction (ex. not eating, getting up to grab things, doing other tasks, etc.)
4. Be an active participant in your own treatment; sharing honestly, openly, and being willing to follow through on treatment recommendations
5. Not consume any substances prior to or during your scheduled appointments and otherwise not show up intoxicated, hungover, or under the influence of any substances for any of your appointments
6. Proactively communicate any need to reschedule appointments 48+ hrs in advance of their originally scheduled time
7. Appointments from workplaces are not permitted. If you are not able to consistently attend ALL of your appointments from home please do not book in with our clinic. As appointments will be occurring virtually and not in an in-person office setting, the physical location of both patient and physician at the time of appointments becomes the virtual “office space” and it is important that this be a consistent, reliable, distraction-free, and familiar setting that is safety promoting and thus in turn, facilitative of therapeutic work and ultimately therapeutic progression.
8. Commit to attending weekly or biweekly appointments as available/offered
9. Commit to attending appointments from Monday to Friday at 10:30 AM, 12:00 PM, or 3:00 PM as available/offered; sticking with a consistent day/time each week
10. All appointments will take place via secure videoconference using Zoom; patients are required to have their video on during sessions in order to facilitate non-verbal communication within the therapeutic setting.
11. Submit immediate payment for any fees incurred at the time of the originally scheduled appointment in the event of a late cancellation, partial attendance, or no show fee.
12. Maintain a valid credit card on file as per clinic policy

Failure to adhere to the above will preclude the establishment of a safe/effective therapeutic alliance and treatment frame, thus leading to termination of the therapy and patient-physician relationship.

As part of Dr. Sharma’s commitment to continual learning, his pursuit of advanced training/certification, adherence to quality improvement, and desire to best serve his patients via safe and effective psychotherapeutic practice, Dr. Sharma routinely records his sessions with patients.

Specifically, the recording of sessions permits Dr. Sharma to do the following:

(i) to review what happened in the sessions;

(ii) to securely view the video recordings with another appropriate registered health professional who practices psychotherapy and/or assists Dr. Sharma within the Think Recovery clinic;

(iii) to review the text transcriptions of the content of sessions in a small group supervision setting with other licensed therapists under the guidance of a more senior faculty member of the Advanced Psychotherapy Certificate Program at Loyola University Chicago (or another similar training institute in the future) for the purposes of Dr. Sharma successfully completing the mandatory supervision requirements in order to receive the relevant certification being pursued;

(iv) to securely view segments of video recordings of sessions with other licensed therapists within a group setting to receive supervision from another more senior faculty member in Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy (ISTDP);

(v) to securely view segments of video recordings of sessions with other licensed therapists within a group setting to receive supervision from other more senior faculty members in Mentalization-Based Treatment.

The recordings will be viewed only with mental health professionals who are bound by law, professional obligation, and agreement to maintain patient confidentiality. Only Dr. Sharma will have access to the recordings, which will be securely stored and only retained for as long as required for the purposes of achieving certification in his various training programs, with text transcriptions reviewed in small group supervision as part of the Advanced Psychotherapy Certificate program at Loyola University Chicago (or a similar institute in the future). The recordings and transcriptions are the property of the Think Recovery clinic and may be erased or destroyed by Dr. Sharma at any time. Dr. Sharma also shall erase or destroy any or all of the video recordings any time that the Patient wishes.

As Dr. Sharma continues to pursue additional professional training programs involving individual and/or group supervision he may present text, audio, or video material from sessions at other programs in the future with licensed professionals under the same obligations of patient confidentiality as outlined above. For the most up-to-date listing of the specific supervision settings Dr. Sharma is presenting case material in, please consult the section titled, ‘Video and Audio Recording of Individual Therapy Sessions’ at the following link: https://thinkrecovery.ca/policies-fees/

Consenting to recording of sessions is mandatory in order to work with Dr. Sharma, as it is a necessary part of his pursuit of continued professional development in order to best serve his patients via safe and effective psychotherapeutic practice.

The Patient consents to the videotaping and transcribing of patient sessions subject to the terms, conditions and limitations set forth above. The Patient understands that his or her consent is completely voluntary and may be withdrawn at any time.

Please keep in mind that ALL virtual appointments occur via ZOOM. You will receive the link to your virtual appointment via Brightsquid secure email the day prior to your scheduled appointment and via Text Message on the day of your appointment. Please install ZOOM on your device and familiarize yourself with the program prior to your first appointment.

Your appointment will NOT take place via Jane.