The terms on which this website is offered, written plainly. Using the site is not therapy, and reading it does not make you a client. Both points are explained below.

What this website is

This is the website of Wendy Haggerty, LMFT, a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and AASECT-Certified Sex Therapist practicing as Sex & Love Therapist. Its purpose is to explain what the practice does, to answer the questions people commonly have before reaching out, and to offer general education about sex, intimacy, and relationships. By using the site you accept the terms set out on this page. If you do not accept them, please do not use the site.

Using this site is not therapy

This is the most important thing on this page. Reading this website, including the blog, the service pages, and the answers to frequently asked questions, is not therapy and is not a substitute for it. Nothing here is individualized clinical, medical, or psychological advice, and nothing here should be used to diagnose or treat any condition. Content is written for a general audience, and a general audience is precisely the thing your situation is not.

Contacting the practice does not by itself make you a client either. Sending a message, requesting a consultation, or having a consultation does not create a therapist-client relationship. That relationship begins only when we have agreed to work together, you have received and signed the practice's consent and privacy paperwork, and services have actually started. Until that point, correspondence is a conversation about whether to work together, not the work itself.

General information is not advice about you

The educational material on this site describes patterns that are common, and common is not the same as universal. An article about desire discrepancy, painful sex, erectile difficulty, or recovery after betrayal is written from clinical experience across many people, and it may or may not fit your circumstances, your body, your history, or your relationship. Some difficulties that look psychological have a medical cause, and some have both. Please do not use this site in place of consulting your physician or another qualified professional about a health concern, and please do not delay seeking care because of something you read here.

Where services can be provided

Therapists are licensed by individual states, and a license governs where the client is physically located at the time of a session. Wendy Haggerty is licensed in Florida and in Connecticut, and therapy services are offered only to people who are physically present in one of those states during the session. This applies regardless of where you live, where you are from, or where your mail goes. If you are elsewhere, you are still welcome to read this site, but a clinical service cannot be provided to you, and where possible a referral will be offered instead.

This site is not for emergencies

Messages sent through this site are not monitored around the clock and a reply typically takes one to two business days. Do not use this website to communicate an emergency. If you are in immediate danger, or thinking about harming yourself or someone else, call or text 988 for the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, which is free, confidential, and available at any hour, or call 911. The National Domestic Violence Hotline is 800-799-7233.

Consultations, fees, and the services agreement

The consultation offered through this site is a short introductory conversation at no cost and with no obligation on either side. Requesting one does not oblige you to begin therapy, and it does not oblige the practice to accept you as a client; part of the point of the conversation is to establish honestly whether the fit is right, and either of us may conclude that it is not.

Fees, session length, scheduling, cancellation, and payment are discussed directly and are set out in the written agreement provided before services begin. That agreement, and not this website, governs the terms of any therapy you receive. Any figures or descriptions on this site are general information rather than an offer, and are not a quotation of price.

Using the site properly

Please use this site only for lawful purposes, and in a way that does not interfere with its operation or with anyone else's use of it. Do not attempt to gain unauthorized access to any part of it or to the systems behind it, do not scrape or harvest content or contact details for bulk or commercial purposes, and do not submit anything through the forms that is unlawful, abusive, or deliberately misleading.

Intellectual property

The text, articles, images, and design of this site are the property of the practice or are used with permission, and are protected by copyright. You are welcome to read, print, and share a link to anything here, and to quote a short passage with attribution and a link. Republishing articles in whole, or using this material to train or populate a commercial product without permission, is not permitted.

Third-party links

This site links to other organizations, including professional bodies such as AASECT, crisis and support resources, and reference material. Those sites are not controlled by this practice and have their own terms and policies. A link indicates that the resource is likely to be useful, not that everything on the linked site is endorsed.

Client comments and submissions

Any comments published on this site are shared with permission. If you send feedback, a question, or a suggestion through this site, you agree that it may be used to improve the site and the practice without obligation or compensation, and it will never be published in a way that identifies you without your explicit permission.

Disclaimers

The website and its contents are provided as is and as available, without warranties of any kind, express or implied, to the fullest extent permitted by law. Reasonable effort is made to keep the information here accurate and current, but it is not warranted to be complete, error-free, or continuously available, and it may be changed or updated at any time without notice. This disclaimer concerns the website. It does not limit the professional obligations owed to an actual client, which arise under the applicable licensing law, professional ethics, and your written services agreement, and which are not affected by anything on this page.

Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, neither the practice nor Wendy Haggerty will be liable for any indirect, incidental, consequential, or special damages arising out of your use of this website or your reliance on its general content, including any decision taken or not taken on the basis of something read here. Nothing in these terms excludes or limits any liability that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited.

Electronic communications

When you contact the practice through this site or by email, you are communicating electronically and consent to receive a response the same way. As explained in the privacy policy, ordinary email and web forms are not an encrypted clinical channel, so please share only what you are comfortable putting in writing. You never need to include sensitive detail in order to receive a reply.

Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless the practice and Wendy Haggerty from any claim or demand arising out of your misuse of this website or your breach of these terms.

Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Florida, without regard to its conflict of law provisions, and any dispute relating to this website will be brought in the state or federal courts located in Florida. If any provision of these terms is found unenforceable, the remaining provisions continue in full effect.

Accessibility

This site is intended to be usable by everyone, and accessibility is treated as ongoing work rather than a finished task. If you encounter a barrier, please say so through the contact page and it will be addressed. See the accessibility statement for more detail.

Changes to these terms

These terms may be updated from time to time, and the current version is always the one posted on this page. Continuing to use the site after a change means you accept the revised terms.

No particular outcome is promised

Therapy is not a product with a guaranteed result. People come with different histories, circumstances, and relationships, they engage with the work differently, and a great deal that affects the outcome sits outside the room entirely. What is offered is careful, well-trained, ethical work and an honest account of how it is going, including an honest word when the approach does not appear to be helping or when a different professional would serve you better. Nothing on this site, and nothing said in a consultation, should be understood as a promise that a particular difficulty will resolve, that a relationship will be preserved, or that any specific result will follow.

Workshops, groups, and speaking events

Workshops, groups, and talks are educational rather than clinical. They are not individualized treatment, and they do not carry the confidentiality of a private session, because other people are present. Attending one does not make you a client and does not create a therapist-client relationship. If a subject raised at an event touches something you want to work on properly, that is what individual or couples work is for.

Availability of the site

Reasonable effort is made to keep this website available and current, but it may be unavailable at times for maintenance, updates, or reasons outside anyone's control, and it may be changed or withdrawn at any point. No guarantee of uninterrupted availability is given, and the practice is not liable for any consequence of the site being temporarily unreachable. If you cannot reach the site and need to be in touch, the phone number below works regardless.

General provisions

These terms, together with the privacy policy, are the entire agreement between you and the practice concerning your use of this website. A failure to enforce any provision is not a waiver of it. You may not transfer your rights under these terms to anyone else. These website terms are separate from, and do not alter, the written services agreement that governs therapy for people who become clients; where the two ever appeared to conflict on a matter concerning your care, the services agreement governs.

How to reach me

Questions about these terms can be sent through the contact page, by email to wendyhaggerty@sexandlovetherapist.com, or by phone or text to (941) 374-7323. The practice office is at MindSpa Integrative Wellness Center, 5632 Bee Ridge Road, Sarasota, FL 34233.