Privacy Policy & HIPAA Notice

Effective date: August 30, 2026

Paper Moon Counseling ("we," "us," or "our") is a solo mental health therapy practice operated by Tracey Stracener, LCMHC-S, Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor Supervisor in North Carolina (License #NC #S8060).

Because we provide licensed healthcare services, we hold privacy to the highest ethical and legal standards. This page contains two essential sections:

1. Part I: Website Privacy Policy — How we handle information collected from visitors browsing this website.
2. Part II: HIPAA Notice of Privacy Practices (NPP) Summary — How Protected Health Information (PHI) is protected, used, and disclosed within clinical psychotherapy care.

Part I: Website Privacy Policy

Governs general website interactions, inquiry forms, and non-clinical site visits.

1. Information Collected via Website Forms

When you submit an inquiry through our consultation contact form, we collect the details you provide to assess whether we are a good therapeutic fit: your name, email address, phone number (optional), preferred contact method, and message.

Our contact form is powered by Hushmail (Hushforms), an encrypted, HIPAA-compliant healthcare form platform. When you submit your consultation inquiry, the transmission is secured using TLS 1.3 end-to-end encryption. Submissions are delivered directly to Tracey Stracener's secure business inbox. We do not store form data in an insecure public web database or sell your contact information.

2. Website Analytics & Privacy-First Tracking

We believe mental health website visits should remain private. In compliance with Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and HHS Office for Civil Rights guidelines regarding health tracking technologies:

• No Advertising Pixels: We do not use Meta (Facebook) Pixels, Google Ads remarketing tags, TikTok pixels, or any third-party behavioral advertising trackers.
• Cookie-less Analytics (Umami): We use an internal, self-hosted installation of Umami Analytics. Umami collects strictly anonymized aggregate metrics (such as pageview counts, device type, and referring domain) without placing tracking cookies on your device and without collecting personal identifiers or cross-site tracking data.
• Performance Monitoring: We use Ahrefs Web Analytics strictly to monitor website health and core search engine indexing performance.
• No Data Brokering: We never sell, rent, monetize, or disclose visitor data to third-party data brokers or marketing organizations.

3. Third-Party Verified Services

Our site loads verified external assets essential for practice operations:

• Hushmail: Secure form script (hushforms.com) for encrypted consultation submissions.
• Psychology Today: Verification seal (psychologytoday.com) confirming clinical credentials.
• TherapyPortal (SimplePractice): Established clients access our secure EHR portal (therapyportal.com) for telehealth sessions, appointment scheduling, and intake documentation.

Part II: HIPAA Notice of Privacy Practices (Summary)

Required by 45 CFR § 164.520 under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

This notice describes how medical and mental health information about you may be used and disclosed, and how you can get access to this information. Please review it carefully.

1. Our Legal Duties & Clinical Confidentiality

Paper Moon Counseling is required by federal and North Carolina law to maintain the privacy of your Protected Health Information (PHI), to provide you with notice of our legal duties and privacy practices, and to notify you following any breach of unsecured PHI.

All clinical psychotherapy notes, session records, telehealth encounters, and diagnostic details are stored in our secure, HIPAA-compliant Electronic Health Record (EHR) system.

2. Permitted Uses and Disclosures of Health Information

We use and disclose PHI for specific clinical and administrative functions without requiring separate authorization:

• Treatment: Providing, coordinating, or managing your outpatient counseling care and telehealth sessions.
• Payment: If you choose to use health insurance (such as Aetna, BCBS of NC, or UnitedHealthcare), submitting claims, verifying coverage, and processing reimbursement.
• Healthcare Operations: Internal quality reviews, clinical compliance, and mandatory business operations.

3. Mandatory Exceptions to Confidentiality

By North Carolina statute and professional counseling ethics codes, clinical confidentiality is strictly protected, with specific legally mandated exceptions:

• Child, Elder, or Dependent Abuse: Mandatory reporting if there is reasonable cause to suspect abuse, neglect, or exploitation of a child, elder, or vulnerable adult.
• Imminent Danger: Where disclosure is necessary to protect you or others from clear, imminent, and substantial risk of severe physical harm or suicide.
• Court Order: Subpoenas or lawful court orders issued by a judge with competent jurisdiction.
• Licensing Board Inquiry: Official regulatory investigations conducted by the North Carolina Board of Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselors (NCBLCMHC).

4. Your Individual Rights Under HIPAA

As a counseling client, you retain the following rights regarding your health records:

• Right to Inspect & Copy: You have the right to inspect or receive an electronic copy of your designated clinical record, subject to narrow exceptions.
• Right to Amend: You may request an amendment to your health information if you believe it is inaccurate or incomplete.
• Right to Request Restrictions: You have the right to request restrictions on certain uses and disclosures of your PHI. If you pay for a service entirely out-of-pocket, you may restrict disclosure of that service to your health insurer.
• Right to Confidential Communications: You may request that we contact you by specific means (e.g., cell phone, email, secure portal message) or at a specific address.
• Right to an Accounting of Disclosures: You may request a list of disclosures we have made of your PHI outside of treatment, payment, or healthcare operations.

Part III: Notice of Rights Under the No Surprises Act

Under the federal No Surprises Act (Public Health Service Act § 2799B-6), healthcare providers must provide clients who are not using insurance (self-pay or uninsured) with a Good Faith Estimate (GFE) of expected charges for medical services, including psychotherapy.

• You have the right to receive a Good Faith Estimate in writing for the total expected cost of any non-emergency healthcare items or services before your first session.
• If you receive a bill that is at least $400 more than your Good Faith Estimate, you have the right to dispute the bill through federal dispute resolution.
• For more information about your rights under the No Surprises Act, visit cms.gov/nosurprises.

Questions & Filing a Complaint

If you have questions about this privacy notice, wish to exercise any of your privacy rights, or believe your privacy rights have been violated, please contact:

You also have the right to file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights by visiting hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/hipaa/complaints. We will never retaliate against you for filing a privacy complaint.