Encrypted Contact Modalities
Google Voice Encrypted Telephone
I sometimes use Google Voice to receive and return phone calls because they are encrypted (as explained by Google).
But they are encrypted only as long as you do one of the following two options, according to this detailed explanation given by the California Learning Resource Network: 1) Use GV directly on the internet page to make or receive calls to another encrypted number, or 2) as long as you forward your home or mobile number to your GV account, then it becomes encrypted as it is then handled by the Google Voice system. This does not hold true if you switch the forwarding around so that your GV number forwards to your home or mobile; if you do that your call becomes unencrypted, because it is being handed off to some other phone service provider, most of which are not encrypted.
If you are in the US or Canada, you can grab a GV phone number so that End-to-End encryption is always enabled when you call me (because then both of us have an encrypted phone connection — it is always on; you cannot shut off the encryption). Another good feature of GV is that the service makes it impossible for anyone to find your name, gmail address, or any other data connected to your Google Voice telephone number, which ensures privacy in a way that normal telephone service providers cannot (or will not). You can protect your direct phone number by routing your calls through GV which is also better than the normal carriers at eliminating spam and scam calls and messages.
I do not reveal my phone number on my website, so please send an e-mail or text message to request it.
Telegram Encrypted Messages and Telephone
Another way to call me by phone is by using Telegram Messenger service to make phone calls. The service does not require you to reveal your phone number to anyone when you make a call using the Telegram app on your mobile phone. You can leave me a text message or call me on Telegram via my username which is the same as my domain name (the URL of this website, without the ‘.com’ TLD)
If you have a Telegram account you can call other Telegram users for free from anywhere in the world through their username and/or phone number listed on their Telegram accounts (this holds true even if the phone numbers are unlisted, meaning they are in the account but do not show up on the public profiles of the users, as Telegram has various privacy settings available for each piece of account data.
You can find my Telegram account at kesslerphd using the popular mobile app or the desktop app (t.me) to either call me or start a ‘private chat’ which you have to enable using the button in the top right when you start a new chat session. Just drop me a note and I will reply when I can. As for phone calls on Telegram, I usually do not answer those unless we have an appointment. I often keep my Telegram app on silent mode except during my normal open office hours listed on the left side of this page.
Aside from encrypted telephone through GV and Telegram, you can also call me anonymously from most countries in the world using my GoToMeeting account. This is the account where I take phone calls during my open office hours, listed to the left, but subject to change when I travel, undertake writing projects, etc., thus, the hours listed below change sometimes, and can also be found in a static box at the top of my NEWS page.
GoToMeeting Anonymous Phone & Video Meetings
I have a GTM account which allows you to call me anonymously from more than 50 countries in the world (at my expense; free for you) to join me in a phone or video meeting with E2E encryption by default. (GoToMeeting has the highest level of encryption available on any video or telephone meeting platform, and it has been HIPAA compliant for more than a decade before any others, and the encryption is by default; one does not need to turn it on (through a separate setting and a separate add-on fee) so we can be sure E2EE is always enabled. Moreover, my account does not have a video recording capability (this is intentional; if I wanted that I would have to change my account type, and even if I did, there is a big red button that shines and shows “recording session” whenever a recording is being made. This way, you can feel safe and know that when you contact me, you are anonymous, and I don’t keep any transcripts or recordings, but I do take lots of hand-written notes while we talk, and these are available to you immediately if you want to take a screen shot at the end of our discussion while I hold up the papers of my hand-written notes. Transparency is is one of the main principles I use in my work. This also applies to our discussions insofar as I do not have any ‘hidden agendas’ when we are speaking. If I ask you a question it is not because I’m trying to fit you into a box. Usually before I ask questions I first tell you why I am going to ask the question; this way we can collaborate more easily and you can see where I’m going all the time in our discussions as nothing is every hidden from you. I believe that trust is something that has to be earned, so I do my part to earn your trust, not only because that is one of my guiding principles, but also because it makes our work go more smoothly, more courageously, and we accomplish much more than the average kind of psychotherapy session int he typical clinical seeing. I am different. What I do is very effective. You will see. We become a ‘team’ when we work together. I have worked extensively with hundreds of people over a dozen years, and I have refined a method of research and practice in combination. In fact, it works so well that I offer a money-back guarantee, which can read about on my Principles and Promises page.
If you would like to use GoToMeeting software for our communication, I will give you a meeting ID so you can join by phone or web-browser.
As a side-note, in the future I will do an experiment just to see how it goes: I will have regular open drop-in hours set aside (probably weekly) for anyone to anonymously call or drop-in anytime during the open hour session to ask me questions, or to set up formal meeting times. The way these sessions will work is that I will lock the session when someone drops in, then I will unlock the session upon departure so that the time slot becomes open and available again. In this case we will keep the quick drop-ins limited to 10 or 15 minutes so that others have a chance to drop-in as well.
Regular E-mail
Non-Encrypted
When you send a message using the form below it is auto-forwarded from WordPress.com to my encrypted mail service (Proton Mail) but it is not encrypted on the way. I reply using E2E encryption with a password attached to it so that it remains encrypted when you read my reply. To bypass the need to send mail with a password I recommend using Proton (it’s free) and if we both us Proton we can set our messages to auto-delete after a number of days, and there is no way to shut off that feature once a message is sent with that feature enabled. (It is the safest way I know of to send e-mail without using PGP keys.)
If you wish to bypass the mail form below, you may send mail to me directly using my domain name (the URL to this website, minus the TLD) at Proton.me
Log-in to Secure Area
If you would like to see my phone number or download my virtual card (vcf format for easy import into your contacts list) you may log-in to my private contact page with my domain name as the username (including the .com TLD) and the current year (four numerals) as the pswd.
Client Log-in Area
This link takes you to a different domain that is hosted at Secura GmbH. This company is run by super geeks and privacy specialists (they consult for banks, libraries, etc.) This secure area is based in Germany, one of the top nations in the world for stringent privacy and protection laws. Inside this secure area you will find a contact form that uploads a CGI script directly to my server using SMTP rather than going through external e-mail servers, so that I can retrieve your message only by logging into my server. You can easily check the CGI source code to see that your IP address is not logged, nor anything else, and no cookies are collected, as the script runs only through the encrypted Secura server without using any CMS ‘middle man’.
The client area also contains anonymous case reports, notes, and allows you the unrequited option to write to me without giving a name, email address, etc., and I actually cannot even connect these messages to anyone in particular, which means you’d have to tell me you sent me a message and give me a bit of detail so that I can trace the right message to you, otherwise I have no idea who any of the messages belong to. These messages are a way for you to add anonymous content to our research collaboration if you want to, it is not a requirement. Our collaboration helps to deepen my capacity to formulate a case study (and written report if you’d like, which is also written with no identifiable details; not even a date, but is available for you to retrieve from within your separated secure directory that only you and I can access). Your personal secure area is deleted after we are finished working together. It exists so that we can bypass email, and you can also upload anonymously using SFTP* in such a way that you cannot see the file after you upload it, and you cannot see the directory name where it lands, for further security and privacy (this is also to increase safety of the server itself).
U&P accessible client dirs are created for temporary use, and I delete them when we are finished working together. I only give you the U&P verbally: they are never written down. You may choose your own U&P otherwise I’ll make them for you.
I am the sole web dev and designer for all of my domains. I only do manual backups using SFTP; my hosts do not backup my website directories and root directories, which ensures further protection for you, as I only keep backups on external flash drives. I have learned the skills necessary to ensure that no one ever sees any of your data of any kind except me. I try to get as close to total and permanent anonymity as possible, but this partially depends on you, whether you make sure you are using encrypted means of communication at all times for your privacy. I only use SSL encrypted servers and E2E encrypted modes of communication for mail, online chat, video, telephone, and app messaging (e.g. Telegram, GoTo, and Proton).
The client area is only for established clients who are currently working with me.
The notes in the private client area are the same notes I write by hand: I scan my notes into PDF format, then I upload those PDFs into your private client log-in area.
rather than transcribing them as the research method I use is designed for conceptualization toward testable hypotheses leading to substantive or formal theory development. I.e., I’m only concerned with abstract patterns in the data rather than particular instances, as those would be for a descriptive methodology which is not what I use in my work psychotherapeutic work. I use induction to formulate a multi-variate hypothesis based on qualitative data that you give me. We develop the concluding hypothesis on your case together as a team in collaboration, and in this way you learn how I carry out the research method that leads to the next deeper level of work we do together regarding healing, integration, and release of ontological disturbances even if they have been entrenched for years or even decades. It all depends on whether we decide to do just a short interlude sort of psychotherapy which is totally fine, or a long-haul kind of psychotherapy that ventures outside to do intensive healing work in a natural setting. Either way is fine with me and we will discuss these options at various points during our decision-making process of what to do about what we discover through scientific research.
* Note: If you know how to use SFTP please mention if you would like to use it; but if you don't know what it is, I'm sorry I cannot teach you how to access it and use it. There is no problem at all if you do not upload RTF or TXT files using SFTP as there are plenty of other ways which are at least as secure which we will discuss when we begin working together (the most secure method is to simply write me a message, print it out, and send it via paper mail with no name and no return address).
Katrina Kessler, PhD — Traumatologist 