The following are the terms and conditions (the “Agreement”) which govern your access and use of our online platform through which counseling may be provided (collectively the “Platform”). The Platform is owned and operated by Cocoon Connects Ltd. (the “Company”). The Platform may be provided or be accessible via multiple websites or applications whether owned and/or operated by us or by third parties.
By accessing or using the Platform, you are entering into this Agreement. You should read this Agreement carefully before starting to use the Platform. If you do not agree to be bound to any term of this Agreement, you must not access the Platform.
The Platform is intended to provide users with general information. We do not recommend or endorse any specific professionals, tests, products, procedures, opinions, or other information that may be mentioned on the Platform. You are solely responsible for the content of any posting you make to the Platform and any consequences arising from such posting. We assume no responsibility for materials posted by our users or any other actions, conduct or omissions of our users. We act as a service provider for users to distribute and publish their materials. We do not undertake responsibility for screening or monitoring our users’ materials. Reliance on any information provided by us, our employees, others appearing on Platform at our invitation or other visitors to the Platform is solely at your own risk. Your use of the Platform is a privilege.
The Platform is not intended to be a substitute for professional advice. Under no circumstances will we be liable for any loss or damage caused by your reliance on information obtained through the Platform. It is your responsibility to evaluate the accuracy, completeness or usefulness of any information, opinion, advice or other content available through the Platform. Please seek the advice of professionals, as appropriate, regarding the evaluation of any specific information, opinion, advice or other content. Never disregard professional advice, including medical advice, or delay in seeking it, because of something you have read on this Platform. Further, we do not endorse, and nothing on the Platform shall be deemed to be an endorsement, representation or warranty of, any third party (including Counsellors and users whether in relation to such third party’s products, services, websites, experience or background or otherwise. We do not make any representations or warranties with regard to any materials posted by our users or Counsellors which information is provided exclusively by participating professionals.
When you register with the Platform, we will ask you to expressly agree to these terms of use. If you do not register, some information and functionality will not be available, but these terms of use still apply.
When the terms “we”, “us”, “our” or similar are used in this Agreement, they refer to the Company.
The Platform may be used to connect you with a counselor (the “Counselor”) who will provide services to you through the Platform (the “Services”).
We require every Counselor providing Services on the Platform to be a licensed professional based on their jurisdiction upon their application to the Platform. No further or ongoing verification or validations is or will be undertaken.
Counselors are independent providers who are neither our employees nor agents nor representatives. The Platform’s role is limited to enabling the Services while the counselor services themselves are the responsibility of the Counselor who provides them. If you feel the counselor services provided by the Counselor do not fit your needs or expectations, you may change to a different Counselor who provides services through the Platform.
While we hope the Services are beneficial to you, you understand, agree and acknowledge that they may not be the appropriate solution for everyone’s needs and that they may not be appropriate for every particular situation and/or may not be a complete substitute for a face-to-face examination and/or care in every particular situation. The Platform is not intended to be a substitute for professional advice. Under no circumstances will we be liable for any loss or damage caused by your reliance on information obtained through the Platform. It is your responsibility to evaluate the accuracy, completeness or usefulness of any information, opinion, advice or other content available through the Platform. Please seek the advice of professionals, as appropriate, regarding the evaluation of any specific information, opinion, advice or other content. Never disregard professional advice, including medical advice, or delay in seeking it, because of something you have read on this Platform.
IF YOU ARE THINKING ABOUT SUICIDE OR IF YOU ARE CONSIDERING HARMING YOURSELF OR OTHERS OR IF YOU FEEL THAT ANY OTHER PERSON MAY BE IN ANY DANGER OR IF YOU HAVE ANY MEDICAL EMERGENCY, YOU MUST IMMEDIATELY CALL THE EMERGENCY SERVICE NUMBER IN YOUR JURISDICTION AND NOTIFY THE RELEVANT AUTHORITIES. SEEK IMMEDIATE IN PERSON ASSISTANCE. THE PLATFORM IS NOT DESIGNED FOR USE IN ANY OF THE AFOREMENTIONED CASES AND THE COUNSELORS CANNOT PROVIDE THE ASSISTANCE REQUIRED IN ANY OF THE AFOREMENTIONED CASES.
THE PLATFORM IS NOT INTENDED FOR THE PROVISION OF CLINICAL DIAGNOSIS REQUIRING AN IN-PERSON EVALUATION AND YOU SHOULD NOT USE IT IF YOU NEED ANY OFFICIAL DOCUMENTATION OR APPROVALS FOR PURPOSES SUCH AS, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, COURT-ORDERED COUNSELLING OR EMOTIONAL SERVICE DOG CERTIFICATION. IT IS ALSO NOT INTENDED FOR ANY INFORMATION REGARDING WHICH DRUGS OR MEDICAL TREATMENT MAY BE APPROPRIATE FOR YOU, AND YOU SHOULD DISREGARD ANY SUCH ADVICE IF DELIVERED THROUGH THE PLATFORM.
DO NOT DISREGARD, AVOID, OR DELAY IN OBTAINING IN-PERSON CARE FROM YOUR DOCTOR OR OTHER QUALIFIED PROFESSIONAL BECAUSE OF INFORMATION OR ADVICE YOU RECEIVED THROUGH THE PLATFORM.
Protecting and safeguarding any information you provide through the Platform is extremely important to us. Information about our and privacy practices can be found on our Privacy Policy (The ‘Privacy Policy’).
BY AGREEING TO THIS AGREEMENT AND/OR BY USING THE PLATFORM, YOU ARE ALSO AGREEING TO THE TERMS OF THE PRIVACY POLICY. THE PRIVACY POLICY IS INCORPORATED INTO AND DEEMED A PART OF THIS AGREEMENT. THE SAME RULES THAT APPLY REGARDING CHANGES AND REVISIONS OF THIS AGREEMENT ALSO APPLY TO CHANGES AND REVISIONS OF THE PRIVACY POLICY.
Unless otherwise stated, we or our licensors own the intellectual property rights in the Platform and material on and available for download from the Platform. Subject to the licence below, all these intellectual property rights are reserved.
Except as expressly stated in these Terms of Use, we reserve all rights to all materials on the Platform, including, without limitation, written content, graphical and design elements (including the Platform’s “look and feel”), and service marks and trademarks. By submitting material to any area of the Platform, you automatically grant, or warrant that the owner of such material has expressly granted, to us the royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive right and license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate and distribute such material (in whole or in part) worldwide and/or to incorporate it in other works in any form, media or technology now known or hereafter developed for the full term of any copyright that may exist in such material. You may not sell, transfer or assign any products or services or your rights to any products or services provided by us to any third party without our express written authorization. You may not copy, modify, alter, or excerpt (or encourage or help others to copy, modify, alter, or excerpt) the Platform materials. You may not use (or encourage or help others to use) the Platform for any purpose or in any manner that is prohibited by these Terms of Use or by applicable law. You acknowledge and agree that these Terms of Use in no way convey any right, title or interest to you in any materials on the Platform, including, without limitation, any statutory or common law copyright, patent or other intellectual property right in such materials.
You may view, download for caching purposes only, print pages, download PDF documents and other electronic files which are specifically offered within the content pages from the Platform for your own personal use, subject to the restrictions set out below and elsewhere in this Agreement.
This Platform is intended to provide users with general information. We do not recommend or endorse any specific Counsellors, professionals, tests, products, procedures, opinions, or other information that may be mentioned on the Platform. Reliance on any information provided by us, our employees, others appearing on Platform at our invitation or other visitors to the Platform is solely at your own risk.
You must not use our Platform in any way that causes, or may cause, damage to the Platform or impairment of the availability or accessibility of the Platform; or in any way which is unlawful, illegal, fraudulent or harmful, or in connection with any unlawful, illegal, fraudulent or harmful purpose or activity.
You must not use our Platform to copy, store, host, transmit, send, use, publish or distribute any material which consists of (or is linked to) any spyware, computer virus, Trojan horse, worm, keystroke logger, rootkit or other malicious computer software.
You must not conduct any systematic or automated data collection activities (including without limitation scraping, data mining, data extraction and data harvesting) on or in relation to our Platform without our express written consent.
You must not use our Platform to transmit or send unsolicited commercial communications.
You must not use our Platform for any purposes related to marketing without our express written consent.
Access to certain areas of our Platform is restricted. We reserve the right to restrict access to other areas of our Platform, or indeed our whole Platform, at our discretion.
If we provide you with a user ID and password to enable you to access restricted areas of our Platform or other content or services, you must ensure that that user ID and password are kept confidential.
If at any time during the term of this agreement we come to the understanding that you misled us or at any time if we deem in our sole discretion to be necessary or appropriate, we may disable your user ID and password in our sole discretion without notice or explanation and/or terminate your account and/or your access to the Platform.
You are prohibited from violating or attempting to violate the security of the Platform, including, without limitation:
Violation of these rules may result in civil or criminal liability. We will investigate occurrences which may involve such violations and may involve, and cooperate with, law enforcement authorities in prosecuting users who are involved in such violations.
In these terms of use, “user content” means material (including without limitation text, images, audio material, video material and audio-visual material) that you submit to our Platform, for whatever purpose.
You grant to us a worldwide, irrevocable, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to use, reproduce, adapt, publish, translate and distribute your user content in any existing or future media. You also grant to us the right to sub-license these rights, and the right to bring an action for infringement of these rights.
You warrant and represent that your user content will comply with these terms of use.
Your user content must not be illegal or unlawful, must not infringe any third party’s legal rights, and must not be capable of giving rise to legal action whether against you or us or a third party (in each case under any applicable law).
Your user content (and its publication on our Platform) must not:
Your user content may not contain:
You may not use your user content to:
Your user content must be appropriate, civil, tasteful and accord with generally accepted standards of etiquette and behaviour on the internet.
You must not use our Platform to link to any website or web page consisting of or containing material that would, were it posted on our Platform, breach the provisions of these terms of use.
You must not submit any user content to the Platform that is or has ever been the subject of any threatened or actual legal proceedings or other similar complaint.
We are under no obligation to monitor user content, but we may monitor such at random. Any user content we find in our sole discretion to violate these Terms of Use may be removed. If we are notified by a user that any user content on the Platform violates these rules, we may investigate and determine in good faith whether we agree with such allegation, in which case we may remove or request the removal of user content. We are not required to make any such investigation or to remove any user content, and we will not be liable to any user for taking or not taking such actions. We reserve the right and may, without any notification, monitor, moderate, edit or remove any or all user content submitted to our Platform, or stored on our servers, or hosted or published upon our Platform.
The Platform may contain other content, products or services which are offered or provided by third parties (“Third Party Content”), links to Third Party Content (including but not limited to links to other websites) or advertisements which are related to Third Party Content. We have no responsibility for the creation of any such Third Party Content, including (but not limited to) any related products, practices, terms or policies, and we will not be liable for any damage or loss caused by any Third Party Content. Further, we explicitly disclaim any responsibility for the accuracy, content or availability of information found on a site that links to or from the Platform (a “third-party site”). We cannot ensure that users will be satisfied with any products or services that are purchased from such a third-party site, since such sites are owned and operated by others. We do not endorse any of such products or services, nor have we taken any steps to confirm the accuracy or reliability of any of the information contained in any third party sites. We do not make any representations or warranties as to the security of any information (including credit card and other personal information) users might be requested to give a third-party site. We strongly encourage users to make their own investigation of third-party sites before proceeding with any transaction with such third parties.
We respect the rights of all copyright holders. If you believe that your work has been copied in a way that constitutes copyright infringement, please provide us with the following information required by the Online Copyright Infringement Liability Limitation Act of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. §512.
We are the sole interpreter of the Platform uses described in these Terms of Use. Users who violate these rules may have their access and use of the Platform suspended or terminated at our discretion. We may at any time take any action with regard to user content that we deem in our sole discretion to be necessary or appropriate.
You understand that some of the information published is submitted by users and that we may not review, approve or edit such information. We do not warrant the completeness, reliability, timeliness or accuracy of the information published on this Platform; nor do we commit to ensuring that the Platform remains available or that the material on the Platform is kept up-to-date.
To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law we exclude all representations, warranties and conditions relating to this Platform and the use of this Platform (including, without limitation, any warranties implied by law of satisfactory quality, fitness for purpose and/or the use of reasonable care and skill).
Any opinions, views, reviews and/or knowledge submitted and published on this Platform by any individual user are their own and do not necessarily represent the views, opinions, knowledge and/or position of the the Company.
YOU HEREBY RELEASE US AND AGREE TO HOLD US HARMLESS FROM ANY AND ALL CAUSES OF ACTION AND CLAIMS OF ANY NATURE RESULTING FROM THE SERVICES OR THE PLATFORM, INCLUDING (WITHOUT LIMITATION) ANY ACT, OMISSION, OPINION, RESPONSE, ADVICE, SUGGESTION, INFORMATION AND/OR SERVICE OF ANY COUNSELOR AND/OR ANY OTHER CONTENT OR INFORMATION ACCESSIBLE THROUGH THE PLATFORM.
YOU UNDERSTAND, AGREE AND ACKNOWLEDGE THAT THE PLATFORM IS PROVIDED “AS IS” WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO MERCHANTABILITY, NON-INFRINGEMENT, SECURITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE OR ACCURACY. THE USE OF THE PLATFORM IS AT YOUR OWN RISK. TO THE FULLEST EXTENT OF THE LAW, WE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED.
YOU UNDERSTAND, AGREE AND ACKNOWLEDGE THAT WE SHALL NOT BE LIABLE TO YOU OR TO ANY THIRD PARTY FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, SPECIAL, PUNITIVE OR EXEMPLARY DAMAGES.
YOU UNDERSTAND, AGREE AND ACKNOWLEDGE THAT OUR AGGREGATE LIABILITY FOR DAMAGES ARISING WITH RESPECT TO THIS AGREEMENT AND ANY AND ALL USE OF THE PLATFORM WILL NOT EXCEED THE TOTAL AMOUNT OF MONEY PAID BY YOU OR ON YOUR BEHALF THROUGH THE PLATFORM IN THE 3 MONTHS PERIOD PRIOR TO THE DATE OF THE CLAIM. EACH PARTY WAIVES TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW ANY RIGHT TO TRIAL BY JURY IN ANY ACTION, SUIT OR PROCEEDING BROUGHT TO ENFORCE, DEFEND OR INTERPRET ANY RIGHTS OR REMEDIES ARISING UNDER, RELATING TO OR IN CONNECTION WITH THESE TERMS OF USE.
To the extent that the Platform and the information and services on the Platform are provided to you free-of-charge, we will not be liable for any loss or damage of any nature.
We will not be liable to you in respect of any losses arising out of any event or events beyond our reasonable control.
We will not be liable to you in respect of any business losses, including (without limitation) loss of or damage to profits, income, revenue, use, production, anticipated savings, business, contracts, commercial opportunities or goodwill. The limitations and exclusions of liability in this paragraph will apply whether or not the liability in question arises out of any reckless, deliberate, personal and/or repudiatory conduct or breach of contract.
We will not be liable to you in respect of any loss or corruption of any data, database or software.
If the applicable law does not allow the limitation of liability as set forth above, the limitation will be deemed modified solely to the extent necessary to comply with applicable law.
This section (limitation of liability) shall survive the termination or expiration of this Agreement.
You hereby confirm that you are legally able to consent to receive or provide Services, as applicable, or have the consent of a parent or guardian, and that you are legally able to enter into a contract.
You hereby confirm and agree that all the information that you provided in or through the Platform, and the information that you will provide in or through the Platform in the future, is accurate, true, current and complete. Furthermore, you agree that during the term of this Agreement you will make sure to maintain and update this information so it will continue to be accurate, current and complete.
You agree, confirm and acknowledge that you are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your password and any other security information related to your account (collectively “Account Access”). We advise you to change your password frequently and to take extra care in safeguarding your password.
You agree to notify us immediately of any unauthorized use of your Account Access or any other concern for breach of your account security.
You agree, confirm and acknowledge that we will not be liable for any loss or damage that incurred as a result of someone else using your account, either with or without your consent and/or knowledge.
You agree, confirm and acknowledge that you are solely and fully liable and responsible for all activities performed using your Account Access. You further acknowledge and agree that we will hold you liable and responsible for any damage or loss incurred as a result of the use of your Account Access by any person whether authorized by you or not, and you agree to indemnify us for any such damage or loss.
You agree and commit not to use the account or Account Access of any other person for any reason.
You agree and confirm that your use of the Platform, including the Services, are for your own personal use only and that you are not using the Platform or the Services for or behalf of any other person or organization.
You agree and commit not to interfere with or disrupt, or attempt to interfere with or disrupt, any of our systems, services, servers, networks or infrastructure, or any of the Platform’s systems, services, servers, networks or infrastructure, including without limitation obtaining unauthorized access to the aforementioned.
You agree and commit not to make any use of the Platform for the posting, sending or delivering of either of the following: (a) unsolicited email and/or advertisement or promotion of goods and services; (b) malicious software or code; (c) unlawful, harassing, privacy invading, abusive, threatening, vulgar, obscene, racist or potentially harmful content; (d) any content that infringes a third party right including intellectual property rights; (e) any content that may cause damage to a third party; (f) any content which may constitute, cause or encourage a criminal action or violate any applicable law.
You agree to the publication of comments, reviews and/or feedback relating to you, by others, on our Platform. You acknowledge that such comments, reviews and/or feedback may be critical or defamatory or otherwise unlawful; and you agree that you will not hold us liable in respect of any such comments, reviews and/or feedback, irrespective of whether we are aware or ought to have been aware of such comments, reviews and/or feedback.
You agree and commit not to violate any applicable local, state, national or international law, statute, ordinance, rule, regulation or ethical code in relation to your use of the Platform and your relationship with the Counselors and us.
If you receive any file from us, or from those using the Services, whether through the Platform or not, you agree to check and scan this file for any virus or malicious software prior to opening or using this file.
You will indemnify us, defend us, and hold us harmless from and against any and all claims, losses, causes of action, demands, liabilities, costs or expenses (including, but not limited to, litigation and reasonable legal fees and expenses) arising out of or relating to any of the following:
This clause shall survive expiration or termination of this Agreement.
You confirm and agree to use only credit cards or other payment means (collectively “Payment Means”) which you are duly and fully authorized to use, and that all payment related information that you provided and will provide in the future, to or through the Platform, is accurate, current and correct and will continue to be accurate, current and correct.
You agree to pay all fees and charges associated with your Account on a timely basis and according to the fees schedule, the terms and the rates as published in the Platform. By providing us with your Payment Means you authorize us to bill and charge you through that Payment Means and you agree to maintain valid Payment Means information in your Account information.
If you have any concerns about a bill or a payment, please contact us immediately by sending an email to support@cocoonapp.ca. We will evaluate your issue on a case by case basis and, at our discretion, take steps to resolve any issue, including but not limited to issuing partial or full refunds where applicable.
Without prejudice to our other rights under these terms of use, if you breach these terms of use in any way, or if we reasonably suspect that you have breached these terms of use in any way, we may:
Where we suspend or prohibit or block your access to our Platform or a part of our Platform, you must not take any action to circumvent such suspension or prohibition or blocking (including without limitation creating and/or using a different account).
You understand, agree and acknowledge that we may modify, suspend, disrupt or discontinue the Platform and/or Services, any part of the Platform and/or Services or the use of the Platform and/or Services, whether to all clients or to you specifically, at any time with or without notice to you. You agree and acknowledge that we will not be liable for any of the aforementioned actions or for any losses or damages that are caused by any of the aforementioned actions.
The Platform depends on various factors such as software, hardware and tools, either our own or those owned and/or operated by our contractors and suppliers. While we make commercially reasonable efforts to ensure the Platform’s reliability and accessibility, you understand and agree that no platform can be 100% reliable and accessible and so we cannot guarantee that access to the Platform will be uninterrupted or that it will be accessible, consistent, timely or error-free at all times.
Our logo belongs to us. We give no permission for the use of our logo without express written permission in advance, and such use may constitute an infringement of our rights.
The other registered and unregistered trademarks or service marks on our Platform are the property of their respective owners. Unless stated otherwise, we do not endorse and are not affiliated with any of the holders of any such rights and as such we cannot grant any license to exercise such rights.
We may provide notices or other communications to you regarding this agreement or any aspect of the Platform and/or Services, by email to the email address that we have on record, by regular mail or by posting it online. Notices sent to us must be delivered by email to support@cocoonapp.ca. Notices to you will be sent by mail or by email to the addresses you provide when registering. Notices shall be deemed given on the day actually received by recipient, if received as provided in this paragraph before 5pm on a business day in the recipient’s location. Notices received after 5pm or on a non-business day shall be deemed received on the next business day.
The Board of Behavioral Sciences receives and responds to complaints regarding services provided within the scope of practice of (marriage and family therapists, clinical social workers, or professional clinical counselors). You may contact the board online at www.bbs.ca.gov, or by calling (916) 574-7830.
This Agreement and our relationship with you shall both be interpreted solely in accordance with the laws of the Province of Ontario, Canada excluding any rules governing choice of laws.
You irrevocably agree that the exclusive venue for any action or proceeding arising out of or relating to this Agreement or our relationship with you, regardless of theory, shall be the courts located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. You irrevocably consent to the personal jurisdiction of the aforementioned courts and hereby waive any objection to the exercise of jurisdiction by the aforementioned courts.
We may change this Agreement by posting modifications on the Platform. Unless otherwise specified by us, all modifications shall be effective upon posting. Therefore, you are encouraged to check the terms of this Agreement frequently. The last update date of this Agreement is posted at the bottom of the Agreement. By using the Platform after the changes become effective, you agree to be bound by such changes to the Agreement. If you do not agree to the changes, you must terminate access to the Platform and participation in its Services.
If you register for an account on this Platform we will record your acceptance of these terms of use at the time of creating your account. From time to time when amendments are made to these terms of use we may reset your account to reaccept the new terms the next time you log into your account.
We and you are independent contractors of each other.
Neither party shall be deemed in default for failure to comply with any provision hereof, if such failure results from acts or events beyond its reasonable control, other than payment of money.
No waiver of any provision of these Terms of Use shall be deemed a further or continuing waiver of such provision or any other provision.
These Terms of Use shall be binding upon the parties, their legal representatives, successors and permitted assigns. We may freely transfer or assign this Agreement or any of its obligations hereunder; subject to the foregoing these Terms of Use are for the benefit of you and us, and are not intended to benefit any third party or be enforceable by any third party, and the exercise of our and your rights in relation to these terms of use is not subject to the consent of any third party.
The paragraph headings in this Agreement are solely for the sake of convenience and will not be applied in the interpretation of this Agreement.
If any provision of this Agreement is held by a court of competent jurisdiction to be illegal, invalid, unenforceable, or otherwise contrary to law, the remaining provisions of this Agreement will remain in full force and effect.
All provisions of these Terms of Use, except provisions that grant you access to or use of the Platform, shall survive the termination of the agreement between us and you. To clear any doubt, all clauses regarding limitations of liabilities and indemnification shall survive the termination or expiration of this Agreement.
THIS AGREEMENT CONSTITUTES THE ENTIRE AGREEMENT BETWEEN YOU AND US. YOU CONFIRM THAT YOU HAVE NOT RELIED UPON ANY PROMISES OR REPRESENTATIONS BY US EXCEPT AS SET FORTH IN THIS AGREEMENT.
Last Updated: July 21, 2023