Covid-19

The novel coronavirus COVID-19 has been declared a worldwide pandemic by the World Health Organization. COVID-19 is extremely contagious and is believed to spread mainly from person-to-person contact. As a result, federal, state, and local governments and federal and state health agencies recommend social distancing and have, in many locations, prohibited the congregation of groups of people.

While we at Petrichor Counseling, LLC are doing everything we reasonably can to reduce the spread of this illness while providing a safe and healthy environment to which our clients can return as soon as possible (as we recognize the inherent, invaluable, vital, and indispensable importance of in-person therapy), we cannot guarantee that you or your child(ren) will not become infected with COVID-19. Further, it is our ethical obligation to ensure that you are aware that attending in-person sessions at Petrichor Counseling, LLC could increase your risk and your child(ren)’s risk of contacting and thus contracting COVID-19.

Here are the steps that the staff of Petrichor Counseling LLC is taking to reduce the risk of exposure;
including:

❖ Consistent access to hand sanitizer, soap, and disinfecting wipes in public areas
❖ Maintaining regular cleaning and disinfecting of common areas and surfaces
❖ Access to facial tissues and no-contact trash receptacles
❖ Use of masks/cloth face coverings by staff in all public areas
❖ If someone arrives for an appointment and demonstrates any symptoms or self reports a fever
or symptoms, they will be required to leave the office immediately

Please let us know if you have questions about these efforts on our part to reduce risk of infection.

Here are the protocols that Petrichor Counseling, LLC is requiring all clients attending in-person
therapy to abide by in order to attend their sessions.

Petrichor Counsleing, LLC reserves the right to deny service to any person who does not follow these requirements.

❖ Do not attend your in-person appointment if you are experiencing symptoms of COVID-19 (Common
symptoms include: fever or chills, cough, shortness of breath, or new loss of taste or smell). If you are
experiencing symptoms, please contact our office immediately at 470.736.9595 by phone call or text to
alert us in order to cancel your appointment and so that we may begin the process of contact tracing if
necessary. You will not be charged for your missed appointment.
❖ Please wait in your car or outside the office, or in a designated safer waiting area until your
appointment time. Please do not congregate in any area, whether indoors or outdoors, while waiting for
your appointment time.
❖ Wash your hands with antibacterial/antimicrobial soap and/or use alcohol-based hand sanitizer when
you enter the building.
❖ Adhere to the safe distancing precautions we have set up in the waiting room and therapy room. For
example, don’t move chairs or sit where there are signs designating areas not to sit.
❖ Wear a mask or cloth face covering in all public areas of the office at all times, such as the waiting
room, bathrooms, and all hallways (Petrichor Counseling, LLC staff will wear them as well). Client
and therapist may remove face covering while in the therapy office, if mutually agreed upon by the
client and therapist, and the necessary social distance of 6 feet is available in the therapy space.
❖ Keep a distance of 6 feet with no physical contact (e.g. shaking hands or hugging) between client and
therapist.
❖ If you are bringing your child for therapy, your child must be supervised at all times by either yourself or
their therapist in order to ensure they are following these sanitation and distancing protocols. If you are
bringing a child with you who is not in therapy, they must also be supervised at all times by yourself to
ensure they are following these sanitation and distancing protocols as well.
❖ If you are waiting for your child to end their therapy session, you will need to wait either outside and
return at the end of session time or wait in a larger designated waiting area, if available. Such a
designated waiting area will be separate from the main waiting room/pre-therapy lounge, and will be
clearly marked, as well as pointed out to you by your child’s therapist in advance.
❖ Take all possible steps between appointments to minimize your exposure to COVID-19. If you have a
job that exposes you to other people who are infected, your commute or other responsibilities or
activities put you in close contact with others (beyond your family), and/or if a resident of your home
tests positive for the infection, immediately let Petrichor Counseling, LLC know and we will then
resume treatment via telehealth, unless having otherwise received approval by Petrichor Counseling,
LLC for in-person sessions. Approval will occur only on a case by case basis, dependent upon risk
factors, exposure levels, protective factors, comfort level of therapist and client, and mutually agreed
upon protective measures to be taken.