Online reviews and public testimony are common ways to evaluate businesses. When it comes to reviewing medical services online, what licensed medical professionals can do and cannot do to respond to such reviews are very different from many other businesses. This is because we are bound to follow HIPPA to protect private healthcare information that belong to our patients or clients.
The American Psychological Association's Ethics Code writes it is unethical for a psychologist to solicit testimonials stating under Principle 5.05 Testimonials, "Psychologist do not solicit testimonials from current therapy clients/patients or other persons who because of their particular circumstances are vulnerable to under influence." I do not ask clients to provide testimonials or online review of my work because such activities potentially risk disclosure of their private information in public. If you feel compelled to write a public review of a therapist, I suggest you do everything you can to protect your privacy such as using a pseudonym or avoiding posting photographs. Another thing about public review is that while many small business owners are able to respond to reviewers' ratings and comments, psychologists are ethically unable to respond to reviews in any way that potentially risk clients' confidentiality including the fact that someone is or is not our clients. This means unlike other business owners, we are unable to address concerns raised without risking potentially compromising clients' confidentiality if initiated on the Internet.
I suggest my clients to communicate with me directly when they have concerns or complaints about therapy process so that we can actually resolve issues to improve our work together. Lastly, if someone is happy about my work and would like others to know about it, potentially the most helpful thing to do is to refer others to my practice. This would be preferable to me for than receiving a positive review on Google or Yelp.