Community & Peer Support Guidelines

What to expect inside our community spaces, what we ask of you, and what these groups are not. Read this before you join, it sets the tone for everything that follows.

The spirit of this document

We run community spaces because, in our experience, real change happens in relationship with other people. The Men's Peak Tribe, the RAK ON Tribe, and the smaller groups we host are built around honest conversation, accountability, and the slow work of paying attention to your own life.

This is not a contract with a wagging finger. It is a description of how these spaces work and what they ask of you. If you read it and recognize yourself, you'll fit. If something here doesn't sit right, that's useful information too.

What these communities are

What these communities are not

To make the rest of this document make sense, here is what you should not expect:

• We are not a crisis service. If you are in a mental health crisis, a medical emergency, or in danger of harming yourself or someone else, our community is not the right place to get help. Call 911, call or text 988, or go to your nearest emergency department.
• We are not a monitoring service. Nobody on our team reads every message, every journal, every chat, or every post. We will not notice if you go quiet. We will not catch a relapse. We will not see a crisis disclosure in real time, and in many cases we will not see it at all.
• We are not a therapy group. Even when emotional content surfaces in the room, we are not providing mental health treatment. If you are working through something that needs a therapist, a psychiatrist, or a medical provider, you should be working with one outside this group.
• We are not a diagnostic or treatment relationship. Anything Dr. Rak says inside a community space is general wellness information. It is not medical advice for you specifically. Participation in these communities does not itself establish or expand a physician-patient relationship between you and Dr. Rak or anyone else; if you are already a clinical patient of Dr. Jotwani, that relationship is governed separately by your Patient Services Agreement and clinical channels, not by the community.

Confidentiality

What people share in the room is not for outside the room. We ask every member to honor this. Specifically:

• Don't repeat other members' stories, names, or identifying details to people outside the group.
• Don't screenshot what someone shared in chat. Don't quote them publicly. Don't post about it on social.
• If something a member shares stays with you and you want to talk about it, talk about the impact on you, not the specifics of what they shared.

We take this seriously. We will remove members who violate it.

What we cannot promise: we cannot guarantee that every other member will honor confidentiality. We cannot listen in on every private message. We cannot prevent someone from talking about the group outside of it. Confidentiality in a peer space is a culture, not a guarantee. Please share what you are comfortable having heard.

Recording

Our peer-support communities are not recorded. The Men's Peak Tribe is not recorded. Live group sessions are not recorded, photographed, livestreamed, or transcribed.

If we ever propose to record a specific session, for example, a one-time educational segment that would benefit a broader audience, we will tell every participant in advance and ask for explicit, written opt-in consent. If anyone in the room is not comfortable, we will not record. The default is always no recording.

We ask members to follow the same rule: no recording, no screenshots, no transcripts. If you want to take notes for yourself, that is fine. Anything that captures another member's voice, image, or words is not.

Crisis disclosures

Sometimes members share things in group that are heavy, painful, or scary. That is part of why these groups exist. We are not afraid of the hard moments.

But we also need to be honest about what the group can and cannot do:

• If you disclose thoughts of suicide, self-harm, harm to others, or another acute crisis, the facilitator will pause the group conversation and direct you to crisis resources. This is not rejection. It is the right level of care for that moment.
• The group is not a substitute for therapy, psychiatric care, or emergency services, and we will say so clearly when the moment calls for it.
• If you have a clinician you are working with, please loop them in. If you don't have one and you need one, telling the facilitator after group is a good first step toward getting connected.

How members are expected to treat each other

• Listen first. When someone is sharing, your job is to receive what they said, not to fix it. Advice-giving, "you should try…," and unsolicited diagnoses are not what these groups are for.
• Speak from your own experience. "I" statements. Your story. Your observations. Not what you think someone else is "really" doing.
• No clinical advice. Even if you are a clinician, do not give other members medical, psychological, or psychiatric advice in the group. Refer them to their own provider.
• No selling, no recruiting, no proselytizing. These spaces are not for marketing your services, recruiting members into something else, or pushing a religious or political agenda.
• No harassment, no threats, no hate. Disagreement is fine. Cruelty is not. We will remove members who threaten or harm other members, full stop.
• Confidentiality, as above.

How the facilitator (and Dr. Rak) shows up

We want to be clear about how facilitators (including Dr. Rak when he is the facilitator) participate, because the line between "peer member" and "physician" can blur if we are not careful.

• Facilitators are present to hold the structure of the group, the timing, the prompts, the safety culture. We are not there as your clinician.
• Dr. Rak does not provide clinical care, medical advice, prescriptions, referrals, or diagnoses inside a community space. If you need any of those, the clinical practice is a separate relationship you would enter separately, with its own agreement.
• We do not monitor members between sessions. We will not message you to check in. We will not intervene if you go quiet. If you need that level of attention, this group is not it, and we should help you find what is.
• If a member needs more than the group can offer, the facilitator may say so out loud, kindly, and suggest external resources. That is not abandonment. It is the right shape of care for that moment.

Membership, conduct, and removal

Membership in any community we run is a privilege, not a right. We may remove a member for:

• Violating confidentiality
• Recording or screenshotting other members
• Harassing, threatening, or harming other members
• Repeatedly missing sessions you have committed to attend
• Using the community to sell, recruit, or proselytize
• Posing a credible safety risk to other members or to yourself that the group is not equipped to handle
• Any other conduct that meaningfully harms the group or violates these Guidelines or our Website Terms of Use

Where we have to remove someone, we will do it with as much grace as the situation allows, and we will follow our refund and cancellation rules as described in the Website Terms of Use, Section 5.

Reporting a problem

If you see conduct in the community that violates these Guidelines, or if something happens that does not feel right, please tell us. You can report:

• By emailing support@rakyourlife.com
• To the facilitator directly, in or after the session
• Anonymously, if you prefer; you can say "I'm reporting this anonymously" and we will respect that

We will not retaliate against anyone for reporting in good faith. We will not disclose your identity except where we are required to by law or where disclosure is necessary to protect someone's safety.

How this fits with the rest of our documents

These Guidelines apply specifically to our peer-support and community spaces. They are part of, and incorporated into, our Website Terms of Use. Where these Guidelines are more protective of community members, these Guidelines control; otherwise the Website Terms of Use apply.

If you are also a clinical patient of Dr. Jotwani, your clinical relationship is governed separately, by your Patient Services Agreement and our HIPAA Notice of Privacy Practices, not by these Guidelines. Information you share in community spaces is not part of your medical record unless a clinician separately incorporates it into your chart.

If something here doesn't fit you

If you read these Guidelines and they feel too strict, or too cold, or too loose, please tell us. We would rather hear that now than after you have joined and felt unsettled.

And if you read them and they feel about right, welcome.

Contact

Rakesh Jotwani, MD, PC
Email: support@rakyourlife.com
Mail:
1347 Linda Mar Shopping Ctr, Unit #2020
Pacifica, CA 94044