1 to 1 Counselling

Confidentiality

In the counselling session, everything you disclose will remain confidential with some possible exceptions:

• If you reveal you intend to harm yourself or another person.
• If you reveal that a child is being or is in danger of abuse.
• If the counsellor is compelled to reveal information by a court order.
• If you reveal you are a member of a terrorist organisation – it is a requirement of law under The Prevention of Terrorist Act 1989 that this is reported to the police.
• If you reveal you are laundering money from the sale of drugs – this must be reported to the police.

This list is not exhaustive, for example:

I may discuss our session during my monthly supervision to gain advice, to ensure good practice is maintained and/or explore alternative options for therapy – at no stage will your identity be revealed to the supervisor.

As a BACP (British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy) member, I am bound by BACP’s Code of Ethics and Practice and its Complaints Procedure. Regarding confidentiality, the BACP states that counsellors must offer the highest possible levels of confidentiality in order to respect the client’s privacy and create the trust necessary for counselling. However, in exceptional circumstances, where there are good grounds for believing that serious harm my occur to the client or to other people, and / or where there are good grounds for believing that the client is no longer willing or able to take responsibility for his / her actions, confidentiality may be broken.

In the event of any concerns about any of the above exceptions, the session will be stopped. This will be discussed fully with you in the hope of reaching mutual consent for the course of action or disclosure to take place.

Finally, to remind you there is no 100% guarantee for either Internet and telephone security.