Confidentiality and Record Keeping
Anything you share with me will remain confidential, with the exception of the limits to confidentiality below. This means that I must protect your privacy and not share information about you with others, whether the information is provided to me verbally or in written form. This privacy extends to your attending counselling with me. I have a legal obligation to protect this information, and I do so by ensuring that all paper records are kept in a secure filing cabinet, to which nobody else has access; that all electronic records are kept in secure documents to which nobody else has access; and that I keep information with your identity separate from your session/contact notes.
I will keep your counselling records for at least seven (7) years, and in some cases I may be required by law to retain records for a longer time.
Limits of Confidentiality
It is important that you understand there are certain (very limited) circumstances under which I will share information about you or about what you have told me, with the priority of keeping yourself and others safe. These situations are:
- Where you have explicitly given me permission to share information, such as informing your emergency contact of an emergency situation, or when you have signed your permission for a referral.
- Where I consider you to be at risk of harming yourself or someone else.
- Where I consider a child to be at risk. or cases where a significant crime may be or has been committed.
- Where your counselling records, or part thereof, have been requested by a court of law.
I will always discuss these situations with you first of all, wherever possible.
At times, I may also discuss aspects of our work together with my professional supervisor. This is an important part of meeting my professional responsibilities. I will not provide information that could identify you in these discussions.