Is Therapy Completely Confidential?
Considering talking through your difficulties in therapy but lacking trust in what might happen with your information? It may be useful to check out the following guidelines in order to put your mind at ease and get the support you need.
Therapy is tremendously beneficial in allowing you the freedom to talk through your life experiences without fear of judgement or betrayal. There may be experiences you’ve felt unable to talk to anyone about that are impacting your everyday life and your emotions, things that may have brought us a sense of sadness, shame, guilt, anger, or overwhelm. Things that have knocked our confidence or self-esteem, that make us feel we aren’t worthy of love, or that have created unhealthy coping mechanisms in us.
Whatever you bring to counselling, you will be heard and respected. Your counsellor is there for you and will do their utmost to support you through your challenges in order to lead you to a better understanding of yourself and the impact of your experiences on you and your wellbeing.
Confidentiality is paramount to building a trusting relationship with your therapist if you are to be able to be fully open and honest and vulnerable with them, to allow them insight into your deepest insecurities and feelings about yourself and the world you are a part of.
Our lives can take us in a variety of different directions and it’s your therapist’s job to put themselves in your shoes and understand your world from your perspective. They will be non-judgemental and respectful of who you have become and the behaviours you may have adopted, even if they don’t share your beliefs and values.
Your therapist will be bound by confidentiality and will not share your information with anyone outside of the counselling sessions except in the following 4 circumstances:
You disclose intent to seriously harm yourself or take your own life
Although your therapist will respect your right to choose whether or not to live or die, they will also understand that you are entering therapy in an attempt to work this through and that at this point you are struggling to manage your feelings and see a way forward. They will have contracted with you in your first session exactly what steps they will take to keep you safe under these circumstances. This is standard procedure.
This usually involves contacting your next of kin to ensure you have support upon leaving the session.
Where this isn’t possible, they may contact your GP to check on you or, if they are worried about your immediate safety, they may contact emergency services to conduct a welfare check.
You disclose intent to harm someone else (this could also relate to someone else perpetrating harm to another person that doesn’t involve you).
Although your counsellor is there to support you, they also have a duty to protect members of the public and, if you share information that involves the harm of others, they will need to report this to the appropriate authorities. They will, where appropriate, discuss this with you to explore your responsibilities and the impact on you of any harm befalling another person and/or them reporting this to the police.
You disclose actual or intended acts of terrorism
This is a legal requirement and any reports to police will not be discussed with you in the first instance as this may be deemed to be harmful to any subsequent investigation.
You disclose criminal activity involving drug trafficking and/or money laundering
Therapists have a legal obligation to report these offences to the police.
Your therapist will also:
Take notes of your sessions
These are for their own use as a prompt about where the work they are doing with you is up to. These are a factual and accurate record of the content of the sessions. These aren’t shared with anyone unless their notes are requested by a court of law.
Take their work to a supervisor
Therapists have regular, ongoing supervision with a dedicated supervisor who is on hand to support them to do their best for you. Your therapist may discuss the work they are doing with you with their supervisor in order to ensure they aren’t missing anything relevant, are working appropriately and responding in a therapeutic manner, and to get another perspective that may be useful to you in your therapeutic process. In the same way that your therapist is working in your best interests, their supervisor also has a duty of care for you and will ensure that they also keep your information confidential. Your full name is unlikely to be used in supervision sessions.
Confidentiality will NOT be broken in the following circumstances:
If you are at risk of harm from someone else, your therapist will support you to manage this for yourself. They may discuss signposting you to other services for additional support alongside your counselling. The only time confidentiality may be broken is if you are a vulnerable dependent being abused by someone you are in the care of.
Historic abuse against you. It is your choice whether or not to report this.
Historic criminal activity by you, unless this resulted in significant harm to another person and it was in the public, or victim’s, interest to resolve the case.
It is hoped that this guidance offers you some reassurance and you feel more confident in making contact to begin your therapy journey. If you are in need of therapeutic support and are worried about disclosure, it may be worth considering initially reaching out anonymously to talk this through. Confidentiality and boundaries to confidentiality are always discussed in your first consultation session and is therefore also a great opportunity to ask any questions you may have.
If you are ready to reach out and put your trust in one of our experienced and reliable therapists, you can find our team here or you can go straight to the contact page here to arrange your first session.
