Downtown Cognitive Behavioral, doing business as Downtown Behavioral Wellness
Effective date: October 28, 2026
This page explains how we handle information on downtownbehavioralwellness.com, the terms for using the site, and the limits of what a website can do for your care. We wrote it to be read, not just to exist. If anything is unclear, email contact@downtownbehavioralwellness.com and we will explain it.
Downtown Behavioral Wellness is the business name of Downtown Cognitive Behavioral, a therapy practice with an office at 96 5th Avenue, Suite 1L, New York, NY 10011, and online sessions for people located in a state where their clinician is licensed. In this policy, “we,” “us,” and “our” mean the practice.
This policy covers information we collect through downtownbehavioralwellness.com (the “site”), including our contact form, consultation booking, newsletter sign-up, and the tools that run on the site. It also covers emails, calls, and texts you send us before you become a client.
It does not cover your therapy records. Once you become a client, your health information is protected under HIPAA and state law, as described in our Notice of Privacy Practices. If this policy and that notice ever differ about your clinical information, the notice controls.
Our website tools are not designed to hold health information. Please share only what we need to reach you: your name, how to contact you, whether you prefer in-person or online sessions, and a general sense of what you’re looking for. Save symptoms, history, diagnoses, and medications for your consultation or intake, which happen on secure, HIPAA-compliant platforms.
Regular email and text messages are not encrypted end to end. If you choose to email or text us, we may reply the same way, but we will keep clinical details to a minimum.
Information you give us
Information collected automatically
When you visit the site, our hosting and the tools listed in section 4 may collect:
Some of this runs only if you accept it. Section 3 explains which tools are essential and which are optional.
Information from other sources
We do not use what you submit through the site to build advertising profiles, and we don’t use remarketing to follow you around the web with our ads.
We share information only with people and companies who help us run the practice, and only what they need:
We do not sell personal information. We do not use remarketing (showing you our ads elsewhere because you visited our site), and we do not share information for cross-context behavioral advertising (ads based on your activity across other websites). We do not use the Meta (Facebook and Instagram) pixel or similar social media tracking on this site.
We may run ads on Google from time to time. If you accept advertising cookies, Google Ads receives a signal when someone who clicked one of our ads goes on to send our contact form or book a consultation, so we can tell whether our ads are working. It never receives what you type into our forms. If you don’t accept advertising cookies, or your browser sends a Global Privacy Control signal, this signal is not sent.
We keep website inquiries, newsletter sign-ups, and job applications only as long as we need them for the reason you shared them, and we delete them after that. Clinical records are kept as long as the law requires, as described in our Notice of Privacy Practices. We may keep information longer if the law requires it or to resolve a dispute.
We use encryption in transit (HTTPS) across the site and HIPAA-compliant platforms for clinical work. No system is perfectly secure. If a breach affects your information, we will notify you and the authorities as federal and state law requires.
Wherever you live, you can ask us to:
Some states give residents additional rights under their privacy laws. We honor valid requests from anyone, whether or not a law requires it. Your rights over your therapy records are explained in our Notice of Privacy Practices.
How to make a request: email contact@downtownbehavioralwellness.com with “Privacy request” in the subject, or call (347) 601-4665. We may ask you to confirm your identity before sharing or deleting information. You can have an authorized agent make a request for you with your written permission. We reply within 30 days. If we can’t fully meet your request, we’ll explain why, and you can ask us to reconsider by replying to our decision. We won’t treat you differently for using any of these rights.
Other choices:
We work with teens ages 16 and 17 as well as adults. The website itself is meant for adults, including parents and guardians looking for care for a teen. If you’re under 18, please ask a parent or guardian to reach out with you. We do not knowingly collect information through the site from children under 13, and if we learn we have, we will delete it.
Therapy for clients under 18 begins with consent from a parent or legal guardian, except where New York law allows a minor to consent on their own. How we handle a teen client’s confidentiality and what we share with parents is explained during intake and in our consent forms.
If you contact us, we’ll use your contact information to reply and schedule. We send appointment and administrative messages to clients through our practice systems. We send the newsletter only to people who sign up for it; getting in touch does not add you to the newsletter. Our newsletter tool may record whether emails are opened and links are clicked; you can limit this by turning off images in your email app.
We and our service providers process information in the United States.
Back to topSome states protect health-related information even when HIPAA doesn’t apply, such as the fact that someone visited a therapy website or asked about a type of care. We treat that kind of information with the same care for everyone, wherever they live.
Consumer health data is personal information that is linked or reasonably linkable to you and that identifies or suggests your past, present, or future physical or mental health. On a therapy practice’s website, that can include information collected before you become a client. Information in your clinical record is covered by HIPAA and our Notice of Privacy Practices instead.
We do not ask for diagnoses, symptoms, medications, insurance member IDs, or payment card numbers through the website.
From you, when you fill out a form, book a consultation, or contact us, and from the site’s tools, automatically, as described in sections 3 and 4.
Only to respond to you, schedule your consultation, match you with a clinician, keep the site working and secure, and, with your consent, understand general site use and measure whether our ads lead to inquiries. We do not use it to target ads to you, and we do not use it to build profiles or draw conclusions about you for any other purpose.
We do not share consumer health data to target ads, and we don’t allow third parties to collect it across websites to target ads or build profiles.
We do not sell consumer health data. We do not use geofencing (virtual boundaries around our office or other health care locations) to track people or send them messages.
You can ask us to:
Use the steps in section 1.9. We reply within 30 days, and you can appeal a decision by replying to it. If your appeal is denied, you may contact your state attorney general. We will never treat you differently for exercising these rights.
Back to topCookies are small files a website stores in your browser. Similar technologies include pixels, local storage, and scripts that send information to a service provider. We keep these to a minimum, and optional ones stay off until you choose to turn them on.
| Category | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Essential | Makes the site load, keeps it secure, blocks spam, and remembers your cookie and accessibility choices | Always on (the site can’t work without these) |
| Analytics | Shows us, in general terms, which pages people visit and how they found us | Off until you accept |
| Advertising | Tells us whether people who clicked our Google ads went on to contact us or book a consultation | Off until you accept |
| Embedded content | Loads scheduling, our inquiry form, newsletter sign-up, or video from other companies when a page includes them | Loads with the page that uses it (see section 4) |
We do not use remarketing, retargeting, social media pixels, or session-recording tools on this site.
Your cookie choice is saved for 6 months, then we ask again. Analytics cookies, if you accept them, last up to 2 years, and advertising cookies up to 90 days, unless you clear them sooner. Embedded tools set their own cookies under their own policies.
Back to topThese are the outside companies whose tools run on our website or handle website inquiries. Each one gets only what it needs to do its job. Their own privacy policies explain how they handle data.
| Tool | What it does | Category | What it receives |
|---|---|---|---|
| Showit and WordPress | Builds and hosts the site and blog | Essential | IP address, browser details |
| CleanTalk | Blocks spam on our forms and blog | Essential | IP address, email address, and signals about how a form was filled out (such as timing) |
| Google Fonts and Adobe Fonts | Display the site’s typefaces | Essential | IP address, browser details |
| Google Tag Manager | Loads our analytics and ad measurement tags, only after you accept them | Analytics and advertising (only with consent) | IP address, browser details |
| Google Analytics | Measures site visits in general terms | Analytics (only with consent) | Pages visited, approximate location, device type (IP address not stored) |
| Google Ads | Measures whether our ads lead to contact form submissions or consultation bookings | Advertising (only with consent) | Ad click identifier, cookie ID, and that a form was sent or a consultation booked (never what you type) |
| 123FormBuilder | Runs the inquiry form on our Contact page | Embedded content | What you type into the form, IP address, browser details |
| Calendly | Books your free 15-minute consultation | Embedded content | Your name, email, phone, chosen time, booking answers |
| Flodesk | Runs our newsletter sign-up and emails | Embedded content | Name, email, and newsletter opens and clicks |
These don’t run on the website, but they handle your information after intake. They are covered by our Notice of Privacy Practices.
| Service | What it’s for |
|---|---|
| My Best Practice | Electronic health records, client portal, scheduling, billing, superbills, and online therapy sessions |
| Google Workspace | Practice email |
We review this list when we add or remove a tool, and we update the effective date at the top of this page when it changes.
Back to topAs a health care provider, we follow the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and New York law for your clinical information. You’ll receive our full Notice of Privacy Practices at intake. Here is what it covers.
Therapy is confidential, with limited exceptions required or allowed by law, including:
Psychotherapy notes have extra protection and are shared only with your specific written authorization, except in rare cases the law allows.
You have the right to see and get a copy of your records, ask us to correct them, ask for a list of certain disclosures, ask us to limit how we use or share your information, ask us to contact you in a particular way, and get a paper copy of the notice. Details and how to make each request are in the full notice.
We are an out-of-network practice and don’t bill insurers directly. When you submit a superbill to your insurer, you share your diagnosis and treatment dates with them. Please decide what you are comfortable sharing before you submit. If you pay out of pocket, you can ask us not to share information with your health plan.
Contact our privacy officer, Madelaine Ellberger, LCSW, Founder, at contact@downtownbehavioralwellness.com or (347) 601-4665. You can also file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights at hhs.gov/ocr/complaints. We will never retaliate against you for filing a complaint.
Back to topThese terms apply to your use of downtownbehavioralwellness.com. By using the site, you agree to them. If you don’t agree, please don’t use the site. Your therapy is governed by the consent forms and agreements you sign at intake, not by these terms.
The site is meant for adults, including parents and guardians seeking care for a teen. Our services are available to people physically located in a state where their clinician is licensed at the time of each session.
The site shares information about our practice, our clinicians, and the therapies we offer, and lets you contact us, book a consultation, and sign up for our newsletter. Section 7 explains what the site is not: medical advice, a therapy relationship, or an emergency service.
The text, photos, graphics, logo, and design on this site belong to Downtown Behavioral Wellness or are used with permission. You may view, print, and share links to our pages for personal, non-commercial use. Please don’t copy, republish, sell, or adapt our content, or use it to train AI models, without our written permission. Short quotes with a link back to the page are welcome.
Please don’t:
We may block access or delete submissions that break these rules.
We don’t ask current clients for testimonials, consistent with professional ethics codes. Media appearances, our blog, and the Are We Okay? podcast share general ideas about mental health. They are not therapy, and they don’t describe any real client.
The site links to and embeds outside services, such as Calendly, 123FormBuilder, Flodesk, our podcast, and social media pages. We don’t control those services and aren’t responsible for their content or practices. Please don’t send private health information through social media messages or comments.
To the extent New York law allows, the site is provided “as is” and “as available.” We work to keep it accurate and running, but we don’t promise it will always be available, error-free, or up to date.
To the extent New York law allows, we are not liable for losses arising from your use of the website or your reliance on its general information. This does not limit any rights you have under law that can’t be limited, and it does not apply to the professional care you receive as a client, which is governed by your signed agreements and professional standards.
These terms are governed by New York law. If you have a concern about the website, please contact us first so we can try to resolve it. Any dispute relating to the website will be heard in the state or federal courts located in New York County, New York, unless the law gives you the right to bring it elsewhere.
We may update these terms. The effective date at the top of this page shows when they last changed. If part of these terms can’t be enforced, the rest still applies. Our not enforcing a term isn’t a waiver of it.
Back to topEverything on this website, including our blog, is general information. It is not medical, mental health, or legal advice, and it is not a substitute for care from a qualified professional who knows your situation.
Using this site, sending a message, or having a free 15-minute consultation does not create a therapist-client relationship. That begins only after you complete intake, sign our consent forms, and we agree to work together.
Downtown Behavioral Wellness is not a crisis or emergency service. We can’t respond to crises through the website, email, text, or voicemail, and these aren’t monitored around the clock.
Our team includes a licensed clinical social worker (LCSW), licensed master social workers (LMSW), and clinical residents. Clinical residents are second-year graduate students completing their clinical internship with us. They provide therapy through our reduced fee program under the close supervision of Madelaine Ellberger, LCSW, and our senior clinical team, with weekly case consultation. LMSWs also practice under the supervision of a licensed clinician, as New York law requires. Each clinician’s training or credentials are listed on their bio.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), EMDR, mindfulness-based therapy, and the other approaches we use are evidence-based, but no therapy can promise a particular result. Your experience will depend on your goals, your circumstances, and your work together with your clinician.
We see teens ages 16 and 17. Therapy for clients under 18 requires consent from a parent or legal guardian, except where New York law allows otherwise. We talk with families at the start about how confidentiality works for teens, what we share with parents, and when we would need to share more for safety.
Online sessions are available only to people physically located in a state where their clinician is licensed at the time of the session. Most of our clinicians are licensed in New York only. Online therapy has limits, including technology failures and the difficulty of responding to an emergency from a distance.
We are out-of-network and do not bill insurers directly. We can provide documentation you can submit for reimbursement, but we can’t guarantee that your plan will reimburse you, so please check your benefits before starting. Our reduced fee program, offered through our clinical residents, has limited spots, and eligibility is reviewed case by case. If you’re uninsured or paying out of pocket, you have the right under federal law to receive a Good Faith Estimate of expected costs. See our Good Faith Estimate page for details.
Our clinical consultation and supervision services are for professional development. They don’t replace your own legal, ethical, or clinical judgment or your licensing board’s requirements. Workshops and talks are educational and are not therapy.
Back to topWe want everyone to be able to learn about our practice and reach us, including people who use screen readers, keyboard navigation, magnification, captions, or other assistive technology.
We are working to meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2, Level AA. Work so far includes visible keyboard focus across the site, support for your device’s reduced-motion setting, and an accessibility options panel (the icon in the bottom-left corner) that lets you enlarge text, underline links, highlight links and buttons, and pause motion. We are continuing to review images, color contrast, and forms.
Open accessibility optionsSome content comes from outside tools, such as our Calendly booking calendar, our 123FormBuilder inquiry form, our Flodesk newsletter sign-up, embedded video, and social media. We choose accessible tools where we can, but we don’t control their design. If one of them doesn’t work for you, contact us and we’ll help another way.
If something on the site is hard to use, or you need information in a different format, please email contact@downtownbehavioralwellness.com with “Accessibility” in the subject or call (347) 601-4665. Tell us the page and what happened. We aim to reply within 2 business days and to fix problems as quickly as we can. You can also book a consultation or ask questions by phone at any time.
If you need an accommodation for in-person or online sessions, let us know during your consultation and we’ll work with you.
This statement was last reviewed on October 28, 2026.
Back to topWe sometimes use AI tools to help gather background information and draft or edit blog and website content. A member of our clinical team reviews everything before it’s published, and we don’t put client information into these tools.
Our website doesn’t use AI chatbots or automated decision-making about you. Our spam filter uses automated signals to tell people apart from bots, but it doesn’t make decisions about your care.
Back to topWe review this page at least once a year and whenever we add or remove a tool or change how we handle information. The effective date at the top shows when it last changed. If we ever plan to use information in a significantly different way than described here, such as sharing it with a new kind of company, we will ask for your consent first where the law requires it.
Privacy officer: Madelaine Ellberger, LCSW, Founder
Practice: Downtown Cognitive Behavioral, doing business as Downtown Behavioral Wellness
Email: contact@downtownbehavioralwellness.com
Phone: (347) 601-4665
Office: 96 5th Avenue, Suite 1L, New York, NY 10011
For privacy requests, put “Privacy request” in the subject line. For accessibility help, put “Accessibility.”
Back to top96 5th Ave Suite 1L
New York, New York 10011
© 2026 Downtown Behavioral Wellness|Privacy Policy|Legal Disclaimer|Good Faith Estimate|Privacy choices|Accessibility
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