Agreement to These Terms
These terms are an agreement between you and WhysCounselor Family Therapy Services (“WhysCounselor”, “we”, “us”), the practice of Denise Dugan, LMFT. By using whyscounselor.com — browsing it, subscribing, buying something or creating an account — you accept them. If you do not accept them, please do not use the site.
Separate agreements cover therapy and coaching themselves. Where a signed treatment or coaching agreement says something different from these terms, that agreement governs the care it describes.
This Website Is Not Therapy
Everything published here — articles, guides, printable worksheets, audio practices, book recommendations, membership material — is general education. It is not a substitute for assessment, diagnosis or treatment by a qualified professional who knows your situation.
Reading this site, buying something from it, joining the membership, subscribing to the newsletter or sending a consultation request does not create a therapist–client relationship. That relationship begins only when you and Denise have completed an intake conversation, she has confirmed she can appropriately serve you, and you have signed a treatment agreement and informed consent.
Nothing here is medical advice, and nothing here is legal advice. Do not delay seeking professional help, or stop treatment you are already receiving, because of something you read on this website.
In a Crisis or Emergency
This website, its contact forms and our email are checked during business hours. They are not monitored continuously, and no alert is raised when a message arrives. Do not use them to report an emergency.
If you or someone else is in immediate danger:
- Call or text 988 — the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline (United States)
- Call 911, or go to your nearest emergency room
- Text HOME to 741741 to reach the Crisis Text Line
Where Denise Is Licensed to Practise
Denise Dugan is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in California (CA BBS LMFT #127910) and in Washington State (WA MFT #MFT.LF 70020681).
Psychotherapy is regulated by the state in which the client is located at the time of the session, not the state the therapist sits in. Denise can therefore provide therapy only to people physically located in California or Washington. If you live elsewhere, or expect to be elsewhere when sessions would take place, she cannot take you on as a therapy client, and we will gladly help you look for someone licensed where you are.
Coaching is not a licensed activity and is not therapy. Where coaching is offered to people outside California and Washington, it is coaching only — not psychotherapy, not diagnosis, and not treatment of a mental health condition.
Who May Use This Website
You must be at least 18 to create an account, buy anything, or join the membership. The site is written for adults. If you are under 18 and something here is useful to you, please go through a parent or guardian.
Your Account
Give accurate information when you register, and keep your password to yourself. You are responsible for what happens under your account. Tell us promptly if you think someone else has got into it.
We may suspend or close an account that is being used to break these terms, to abuse other people, or to attack the site.
The Shop — Orders, Payment and Delivery
Prices are in US dollars and do not include tax or shipping unless a page says so. We do our best to describe and price everything accurately; if an item is listed at the wrong price we will contact you before charging you, and you may cancel.
Placing an order is an offer to buy. We accept it when we send you an order confirmation, and we may decline an order — for instance if an item is out of stock or we cannot ship to your address.
Payment is handled by payment processor. We never see or store your full card number.
Physical items ship within 2–5 business days, and delivery estimates are estimates, not guarantees. Risk passes to you on delivery. We currently ship to the United States only.
Digital Downloads
Worksheets, printables, audio practices and e-books are licensed to you, not sold. You may download them, keep them, print them and use them for your own personal use.
You may not resell them, share the files publicly, upload them elsewhere, or use them in your own paid programme or practice without written permission. If you are a clinician who would like to use a worksheet with clients, ask us — the answer is usually yes.
Download links are made available immediately after payment and remain in your account. We do not guarantee they will remain available for ever; download your files when you buy them.
Refunds and Cancellations
Physical items. Unused items in their original condition may be returned within 30 days of delivery for a refund of the purchase price. Return shipping is yours or ours. Contact us before sending anything back.
Digital items. Because a download cannot be returned, digital purchases are generally not refundable once the file has been accessed. If a file is faulty, or you were charged twice, or you bought the wrong thing and have not downloaded it, contact us and we will put it right.
Consultations and sessions. Appointment cancellation and late-notice terms are set out in the treatment or coaching agreement, not here.
The Wisdom Circle Membership
The Wisdom Circle is a paid membership giving access to member material for as long as your subscription is active.
Membership renews automatically each month until you cancel, and we charge the payment method on file. You can cancel at any time from your account, or by emailing us. Cancelling stops future charges; it does not refund the period already paid for, and access continues until the end of that period.
If we change the price we will tell you at least 30 days before it affects you, so you can cancel first.
The membership is educational and communal. It is not group therapy, it is not individual therapy, and joining it does not make you a client.
Affiliate Links and Recommendations
Some books and products we recommend are linked through the Amazon Associates programme and other affiliate arrangements. If you buy through one of those links we may earn a small commission, at no extra cost to you.
Commission never decides what we recommend. Everything on the recommendations shelf is there because Denise has found it genuinely useful, and we are happy to say when we have not read or used something ourselves.
Our Content, and What You May Do With It
The text, images, worksheets, audio, design and code on this site belong to WhysCounselor or to whoever licensed them to us, and are protected by copyright and trademark law.
You may read the site, print a page for your own use, and share a link to it. You may quote a short passage with credit and a link back.
Without written permission you may not republish substantial portions of the content, use it to train a machine learning model, sell it, put it behind your own paywall, or present it as your own work.
Comments and Anything Else You Post
If you comment on an article, you keep ownership of what you wrote, and you give us permission to display, store and moderate it on the site.
Please do not post anything unlawful, abusive, or invasive of someone else’s privacy — including details about your own therapy, or anyone else’s, that you would not want public. Comments are a public space, not a confidential one.
We moderate comments and may edit or remove any of them, without being obliged to explain why.
Acceptable Use
Do not attempt to break into the site, scrape it at volume, overload it, probe it for vulnerabilities, impersonate anyone, or use it to send unsolicited messages.
Third-Party Websites and Services
We link to other sites and use third-party services for scheduling, payment and email. We do not control them and are not responsible for their content, their availability, or their handling of your information. Their terms apply once you are using them.
Disclaimer of Warranties
The website and its content are provided as they are and as available. We do not promise that the site will be uninterrupted or error-free, that defects will be corrected, or that any particular result will follow from reading, buying or using anything here.
To the fullest extent the law allows, we disclaim implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement. Some states do not allow certain disclaimers, so parts of this section may not apply to you.
Limitation of Liability
To the fullest extent the law allows, WhysCounselor and Denise Dugan are not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages arising from your use of this website, and our total liability for any claim relating to the website is limited to the greater of the amount you paid us in the twelve months before the claim, or one hundred US dollars.
This section limits liability for the website. It does not limit, and is not intended to limit, any liability arising from the professional care Denise provides — that cannot be waived by a website notice, and nothing here attempts to.
Indemnification
If your use of the site in breach of these terms causes a third-party claim against us, you agree to cover the reasonable costs of defending it.
Governing Law and Disputes
These terms are governed by the law of the State of California, without regard to its conflict-of-law rules. Any dispute about the website will be brought in the state or federal courts located in San Bernardino County, California, and you and we both consent to those courts.
Nothing here affects your right to complain about a licensed clinician to the relevant state board — the California Board of Behavioral Sciences or the Washington State Department of Health.
Changes to These Terms
We may update these terms. The “Last updated” date at the top of the page shows when we last did. If a change is significant we will flag it on the site, and continuing to use the website after that means you accept the new version.
If Part of This Is Unenforceable
If a court finds any provision here unenforceable, the rest stays in force and the provision is narrowed only as far as necessary. These terms, with our Privacy Policy and any separate service agreement, are the whole agreement between us about the website.
Contact
Questions about these terms:
WhysCounselor Family Therapy Services
11755 Malaga Dr. Unit 1014
Rancho Cucamonga, CA 91730
denise@whyscounselor.com
(909) 413-4733