CONFIDENTIALITY

 

Anything that you say during an appointment is confidential and will not be discussed with anybody else, but there are some rare exceptions:

 

• If you disclose that you are laundering money or that you are a terrorist then any counsellor is legally obliged to inform the appropriate authorities.

 

• If you disclose that you are actively physically or sexually abusing children or that you intend to do so then I will inform the social services.

 

• If you disclose that you are actively planning to do serious physical harm to another person then I will inform the appropriate authorities

 

• If we continue to work together after our first meeting then I will ask you for the contact details for another person who you would be happy for me to contact should you suffer any medical emergency whilst we are meeting.

 

• Sometimes the people that I work with willl be experiencing profound difficulties which may lead them to consider ending their own life.  I will ask you for the contact details for another person who you would be happy for me to contact should I have such concerns about you.  For example, if you have discussed considering suicide and if you fail to to turn up to an arranged appointment without cancelling it or advising me that you are not able to attend.  This person could be your next of kin, a friend or your doctor.

 

I respect the right for you to have the confidentialty that you require and for you to make your own decisions about your life. You do not have to provide this additional contact information.  If you choose not to do so then I will ask you to sign a written disclaimer saying that you choose not to do so.

 

Should there be circumstances where I feel that I have to disclose information about you to a third party, I will discuss this with you beforehand whenever possible.

 

It is also a requirement of membership of all of the professional registration bodies for counsellors and therapists that they undertake regular supervision with another professional.  What this means is that the issues that you discuss may be shared with another therapist but not in a way that would identify you personally.  These supervising therapists and also bound by confidentiality.

 

You may wish to know that I may keep the briefest of records usually containing only your initials and a few words, perhaps 10 or so, which I use as a memory aid to remind me of the main topics of our previous work.  I do keep contact details and the dates of our meetings electronically but these are held in a password encrypted form.

 

In some circumstances, perhaps where you may disclose details of experiences that you've had, you may prefer me to keep notes. Where I think that this may be the case I will ask you if you would like me to do so. If you do, you should bear in mind that I may be asked by police to disclose any such notes on a future occasion.

 

As a counsellor in private practice I have no connections with your doctor or any of the health services so you can be sure that you have the utmost confidentiality.  Unless you choose to tell somebody, nobody will know that we have worked together or the content of any discussions that we have had.

 

You can also be assured that if we were to meet accidentally outside of the time that we are working together in appointments, it would be your choice as to whether we acknowledged each other, so you need have no concerns about explaining how we knew each other.

If you'd like a little more information about confidentiality then please watch the video on this page.