Privacy Practices & Notices
Your privacy is the foundation of therapy. This page explains how Strength Within Counseling PLLC protects your health information, what your rights are, and what to expect about the cost of care.
Notice of Privacy Practices
This notice describes how health information about you may be used and disclosed and how you can get access to this information. Please review it carefully.
Effective date: July 2026.
Our commitment to your privacy
Strength Within Counseling PLLC is required by law to maintain the privacy of your protected health information (PHI), to give you this notice of our legal duties and privacy practices, and to follow the terms of the notice currently in effect.
How we may use and disclose your health information
- Treatment. We use your health information to provide your counseling care and to coordinate care with other providers you authorize.
- Payment. We may use your information to bill you or your health plan for services, if applicable.
- Health care operations. We may use your information for practice operations such as quality review and required record keeping.
- Required by law. We will disclose information when required to do so by federal, state, or local law — including reporting suspected abuse or neglect, responding to court orders, and preventing a serious and imminent threat to health or safety.
- With your written authorization. Any other use or disclosure — including most uses of psychotherapy notes — will be made only with your written authorization, which you may revoke at any time.
Texas law provides additional protections for mental health records; where state law is more protective than HIPAA, we follow state law.
Your rights
- Request to see and get a copy of your health records.
- Request corrections (amendments) to your records.
- Request confidential communications — for example, contacting you only at a certain phone number.
- Request limits on what we use or share for treatment, payment, or operations.
- Receive a list of certain disclosures we have made of your information.
- Receive a paper copy of this notice at any time.
- Choose someone to act for you (with a medical power of attorney or as legal guardian).
- File a complaint if you believe your privacy rights have been violated — with us directly, or with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights. We will never retaliate against you for filing a complaint.
Questions or concerns
Contact Perla Abeyta, LMFT — Privacy Contact, Strength Within Counseling PLLC, PO Box 690031, Killeen, TX 76549 • (254) 607-2808 • pabeyta@swcounselingtx.com.
Website Privacy
This website is intentionally simple and private:
- No forms, no accounts, no tracking. This site does not collect personal information, does not use analytics or advertising trackers, does not set cookies, and does not load fonts, scripts, or images from third-party services.
- Hosting. The site is served by Cloudflare, which processes standard technical logs (such as IP addresses) to deliver the site securely. We do not use those logs to identify visitors.
- Email and phone are not for emergencies or PHI. If you choose to call, text, or email us, please do not include sensitive health information — standard email and SMS are not HIPAA-secure channels. Once you become a client, care is delivered through a secure, HIPAA-compliant telehealth platform.
Good Faith Estimate — No Surprises Act
You have the right to receive a "Good Faith Estimate" explaining how much your health care will cost.
Under the No Surprises Act, health care providers must give clients who don't have insurance — or who choose not to use insurance — an estimate of the expected charges for services. You have the right to receive this estimate in writing at least one business day before your service, and you can ask for one before you schedule.
If you receive a bill that is at least $400 more than your Good Faith Estimate, you can dispute the bill. Make sure to save a copy of your estimate. For questions or more information, visit www.cms.gov/nosurprises or call (800) 985-3059.