NOTICE OF PRIVACY PRACTICESAND TEXAS HEALTH-INFORMATION PRIVACY NOTICE
The Bend Within Counseling & Wellness, PLLC
Effective Date: September 5, 2026
Last Updated: September 6, 2026
YOUR INFORMATION. YOUR RIGHTS. OUR RESPONSIBILITIES.
This Notice describes how health and mental-health information about you may be used or disclosed, how you may exercise applicable privacy rights, and how to raise a privacy concern. Please review it carefully.
This Notice applies to health information created, received, maintained, or transmitted by The Bend Within Counseling & Wellness, PLLC in connection with counseling and related services provided by Tula Christine-Lee Hahn, LPC Associate, Supervised by Olufemi Olukoya, LPC-S.
Important Status Notice Regarding HIPAA
As of the Effective Date, the Practice is private-pay and does not currently submit electronic insurance claims or otherwise represent that it is a “covered health care provider” under the federal HIPAA Privacy Rule. HIPAA generally applies to health-care providers that conduct specified standard electronic transactions. The Practice nevertheless remains subject to applicable Texas health-information and mental-health confidentiality law and professional rules.
If the Practice later becomes a HIPAA covered health care provider, it will comply with applicable HIPAA Privacy, Security, and Breach Notification requirements and will revise or supplement this Notice as required before relying on HIPAA-covered practices. Nothing in this Notice is intended to reduce any right provided by Texas law or any federal law that becomes applicable.
Texas Privacy Protections
Texas Health & Safety Code Chapter 611 provides heightened protection for mental-health information. Communications between a patient and a professional concerning diagnosis, evaluation, or treatment of a mental or emotional condition, and records of the patient’s identity, diagnosis, evaluation, or treatment created or maintained by the professional, are confidential except as specifically permitted or required by law.
Texas Health & Safety Code Chapter 181 also regulates protected health information and certain electronic disclosures. When another Texas law provides greater confidentiality, the Practice will follow the more protective applicable rule.
Your Applicable Privacy Rights
Access to Records
You may request access to or a copy of health information to the extent provided by applicable Texas or federal law. Mental-health records may be subject to special procedures, exceptions, limitations, fees, and timing requirements. If access to particular information may lawfully be restricted because disclosure would be harmful or another exception applies, the Practice will follow the procedures required by law, including any applicable notice or alternative-access process.
Correction or Amendment
You may ask the Practice to correct inaccurate demographic or factual information or to amend a record when applicable law provides that right. The Practice may deny a request where permitted by law and is not required to delete accurate clinical documentation or change a clinician’s professional judgment merely because a client disagrees with it.
Confidential Communications
You may ask the Practice to communicate with you in a particular manner or at a particular location, such as by a specified telephone number or email address. The Practice will consider and honor reasonable requests as required by applicable law. Please keep communication preferences current.
Authorizations and Revocation
When a use or disclosure requires your authorization, the Practice will seek legally sufficient authorization. You generally may revoke an authorization prospectively, subject to actions already taken in reliance on it and other legal limitations. Revocation should be communicated in writing unless another method is legally permitted and documented.
Complaints
You may raise a privacy concern with the Practice without retaliation for a good-faith complaint or exercise of a legally protected right.
Privacy Officer
The Bend Within Counseling & Wellness, PLLC
5900 Balcones Drive, Suite 20971, Austin, TX 78731
469-332-5703
connect@thebendwithin.com
Professional licensing complaints may also be directed to the Texas Behavioral Health Executive Council. See Section 12 below.
How the Practice May Use or Disclose Information
The Practice will use or disclose health information only as permitted or required by applicable law and professional rules. Depending on the circumstances, permitted uses and disclosures may include the following.
Treatment and Coordination of Care
Information may be used to provide, coordinate, or manage counseling and related care. Disclosure to another health-care professional will be made only when legally permitted and clinically appropriate. Texas mental-health confidentiality law may require authorization or impose restrictions beyond ordinary health-information rules.
Professional Supervision
Because Tula Christine-Lee Hahn, LPC Associate is an LPC Associate, counseling services are provided under supervision by Olufemi Olukoya, LPC-S. Information reasonably necessary for lawful clinical supervision may be discussed or reviewed with the supervisor as permitted by Texas law and disclosed through the Practice’s informed-consent process. Supervision may include clinical presentation, diagnosis, treatment planning, risk assessment, ethics, documentation, boundaries, and professional development. The supervisor is also subject to applicable confidentiality and professional obligations.
Payment
The Practice is private-pay as of the Effective Date. Information may be used or disclosed as reasonably necessary to process payment, issue receipts, address disputes or chargebacks, comply with tax or accounting obligations, or perform other lawful payment functions. The Practice does not currently submit insurance claims. If insurance billing begins later, this Notice will be reviewed and updated as appropriate.
Practice Operations
Information may be used or disclosed as lawfully necessary for records administration, scheduling, security, quality, supervision, licensing compliance, legal and accounting services, professional liability insurance, risk management, technology support, business planning, and other legitimate practice operations. The Practice will limit disclosures and use appropriate safeguards as required by law.
Service Providers
The Practice may use vendors for secure practice management, scheduling, telehealth, payment processing, hosting, communications, data storage, information technology, cybersecurity, accounting, and legal services. Vendors will receive only information reasonably necessary for their authorized functions and will be subject to applicable legal and contractual safeguards. Current systems may include Sessions Health, Stripe through Sessions Health, Psychology Today, and Squarespace for the public website.
Uses and Disclosures Required or Permitted by Law
Depending on the facts and applicable law, information may be disclosed without ordinary client authorization in limited circumstances, including:
mandatory reports of suspected child abuse or neglect under applicable Texas law;
reports concerning abuse, neglect, or exploitation of an elderly person or person with a disability when Texas law requires reporting;
situations involving qualifying threats of serious or imminent harm where disclosure is permitted or required by law;
lawful health-oversight, licensing, or regulatory activities;
judicial or administrative proceedings when disclosure is authorized or compelled by legally sufficient process, subject to privilege and special mental-health confidentiality protections;
law-enforcement or governmental functions to the limited extent permitted or required by law;
workers’ compensation or similar programs when lawfully applicable;
public-health functions when legally authorized; or
other disclosures specifically authorized or required by Texas or federal law.
A request, subpoena, or demand for records does not automatically mean every counseling record will be disclosed. The Practice will evaluate the request under applicable confidentiality, privilege, notice, authorization, court-order, and other legal requirements.
Texas Notice of Electronic Disclosure
NOTICE: The Practice creates, receives, stores, and transmits protected health information electronically in connection with counseling and practice administration. This Notice is intended to provide the general notice authorized by Texas Health & Safety Code § 181.154(a).
Except where a statutory exception applies, Texas law may require a separate authorization before the Practice electronically discloses an individual’s protected health information to another person. A separate authorization is generally not required for an electronic disclosure to another covered entity for treatment, payment, or health-care operations, or when the disclosure is otherwise authorized or required by state or federal law.
Use of a website, click-through agreement, cookie banner, or general acknowledgment is not treated as a substitute for a separate authorization when Texas or federal law requires one.
Electronic Records and Communications
Clinical and administrative information may be maintained electronically. The Practice uses reasonable safeguards appropriate to the sensitivity of information handled. Ordinary email and SMS/text messaging can present privacy limitations; therefore, sensitive clinical information should be communicated through designated secure systems when reasonably available. The Practice’s separate informed-consent and communication policies may contain additional requirements.
Minors and Legally Authorized Representatives
Privacy, consent, and record-access rights for a minor may depend on who consented to treatment, the minor’s legal authority to consent independently, parental rights, conservatorship, guardianship, custody orders, court orders, and other Texas law. The Practice may require documentation establishing authority before treatment, access, or disclosure.
The fact that a person is a parent does not necessarily resolve every confidentiality or record-access issue. The Practice will apply the law and any controlling court order to the specific circumstances and will explain age-appropriate confidentiality expectations in clinical informed consent.
Couples Counseling
Couples counseling involves special privacy considerations because the counseling relationship and record may contain information concerning both participants. The Practice will explain its couples-record and confidentiality policy in separate informed consent. A request for access, amendment, or disclosure may require consideration of each participant’s rights, authorization, and the nature of the information involved.
Group Counseling and Group Services
When group counseling or related group services are offered, the Practice will explain confidentiality expectations and limits in separate group informed consent. Although participants may be asked to respect each other’s privacy, the Practice cannot guarantee that another participant will maintain confidentiality after information is shared within a group.
Marketing, Advertising, and Social Media
The Practice does not sell protected health information or confidential mental-health treatment information. It will not use identifiable counseling information for third-party targeted advertising or disclose it for another party’s independent marketing without legally sufficient authority. Professional social media is used for general education and outreach, not for public confirmation of client status or confidential clinical communication.
Security Incidents and Breach Notification
The Practice maintains reasonable administrative, physical, and technical safeguards. If an unauthorized access, use, or disclosure occurs, the Practice will investigate and provide notifications to affected individuals, regulators, or others when required by applicable Texas law and, if applicable, federal law.
Professional Licensing and Complaints
Professional counseling in Texas is regulated by the Texas Behavioral Health Executive Council and the Texas State Board of Examiners of Professional Counselors.
Texas Behavioral Health Executive Council1801 Congress Ave., Suite 7.300Austin, Texas 78701Main: 512-305-7700Complaints: 800-821-3205bhec.texas.gov/tbhec/discipline-and-complaints/
If HIPAA Becomes Applicable
If the Practice becomes a HIPAA covered health care provider, additional federal rights and duties may apply, including rights concerning a HIPAA Notice of Privacy Practices, access and amendment, confidential communications, certain restriction requests, accountings of certain disclosures, and complaints to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights. The Practice will revise or replace this Notice to satisfy then-current federal requirements, including 45 C.F.R. § 164.520 and any then-applicable requirements concerning substance-use-disorder records.
Changes to This Notice
The Practice may change this Notice and its privacy practices as permitted by law. A revised Notice may apply to information already maintained as well as information received later, to the extent permitted by law. The current version will be available on the Practice website and upon request and will identify its effective date.
Contact for Privacy Questions or Requests
Privacy Officer
The Bend Within Counseling & Wellness, PLLC
5900 Balcones Drive, Suite 20971,
Austin, TX 78731469-332-5703
connect@thebendwithin.com