Our privacy commitments: what we will and will not do

Privacy in this field is usually a word on a homepage. This page is a list. Each item below is a specific thing Iron Ridge does or does not do, written so that you can check it, and signed by the people responsible for it. Where we cannot promise something, we say that too, because a promise you cannot check is worth nothing to a man who has a great deal to lose.

Before you tell us anything

1. You do not have to give us your name to have a first conversation. The consultation call can be anonymous. The self-assessment on this site keeps your answers on your own device unless you choose to send them.
2. The inquiry form asks for the minimum. A first name, a way to reach you, and how you would like to be reached. No last name, no employer, no reason for contact.
3. The chat on this site is an AI, and says so. It runs under a signed Business Associate Agreement, transcripts are retained for a limited period and deleted on request, and nothing typed into it is used for advertising. It is not a person, and it will tell you that if you ask.
4. We do not record your screen or your keystrokes. There is no session-recording software on this site. Analytics are anonymized, receive no form contents, and are never tied to your name.

When you call or write

5. A clinician reads your inquiry and follows up with you personally. Not a call center, not an intake script. The person who calls you back is licensed. Calls answered live by our team, Mon–Fri 8am–9pm CT.
6. We reach you the way you tell us to. If you say no voicemail, we leave none. If you say no email, we send none. If you say text only, or call only between certain hours, that is what happens. You set this on the form or on the first call, and it is written on your file.
7. Calls on our published lines are recorded for clinical accuracy unless you ask us not to. Say so in the first sentence and the recording stops. We would rather have the call than the recording.

Your record

8. Your clinical record is held by a licensed mental health provider under the confidentiality obligations that apply to any therapist's record. It is not shared with anyone without your written authorization.
9. Insurance is involved only if you choose. Iron Ridge is out-of-network. We can bill your PPO out of network, or give you a superbill to submit yourself. If you pay privately, we do not bill insurance, contact carriers, or seek authorization: no claim is filed and no diagnosis is placed on a carrier's record. Which path you take is your decision alone. A card or HSA charge appears on your statement as Iron Ridge Recovery, the business name and nothing more; no program, condition, or clinician is named on the line.
10. We do not contact employers, licensing boards, partners in your firm, family members, or anyone else. Nobody at Iron Ridge will confirm or deny that you are a client.
11. Your partner's record is hers and yours is yours. If she is in the partner program, she has her own clinician and her own file; neither of you can see the other's, and coordination between clinicians happens only with both people's consent.
12. Outside therapists hear from us only with a signed release, at the points you agree to.

In the room

13. Every group is men with compulsive sexual behavior, and nothing else. No detox clients, no substance-use groups, no one working on something different, no one joining who has not been through the same intake.
14. On video, every man shows his room before group starts, so that everyone in the session knows no one else can hear it. Cameras stay on. Your confidentiality in that room depends on the other men's, and theirs on yours.
15. The clinic has no shared waiting room with other practices. Suite 410, on-site parking, evening groups. Men who prefer not to be seen entering a clinic take the same program by video.

If you want a person, not a form

16. A co-founder takes calls and texts directly. Ian Brown, at (310) 421-5564. His own phone, outside our call system, not recorded. Call, or text if you would rather set up a time than talk now; he will arrange the consultation around your schedule. He is not a clinician and will not assess you; he will answer questions about the program and about privacy, and hand you to a clinician only if you ask.

What we do not publish

17. No client testimonials, no client reviews, no before-and-after stories. Asking a man in this program for a public review would be asking him to identify himself. We will never do it, and the absence of client reviews on our profiles is that policy, not a gap.

What we cannot promise

18. That no third party could ever compel a record by legal process. No provider can promise that, and one who does is not being straight with you.
19. That your own licensing body's rules create no obligations for you. If you hold a professional license, what you are and are not required to disclose is a question we will answer honestly on the first call, rather than reassuringly.

These commitments are the responsibility of the founders: Ian Brown, Ian Birdwell, LPC, CSAT, and Roxcy Brown, LMFT-Associate, CCPS-C (supervised by Billy Myers, LMFT-S, Texas license 201183). Questions about any of them go to intake@ironridgerecovery.com and are answered by a person. The full privacy policy covers the website mechanics in detail.

If you are in immediate danger or thinking about harming yourself, call or text 988 — the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, available 24 hours a day — or call 911.