Personal Information and Privacy.
When we first meet I will give you a form requesting your contact details, including details of someone who can be contacted in an emergency. These details are collected and securely stored on paper copy. This is so I can contact you if necessary in between sessions and assist the smooth running of the therapeutic relationship. I will keep an electronic copy of your email address for ongoing management of the therapeutic relationship. All records that relate to you and your therapy will be held securely in accordance with EU GDPR and destroyed 3 years after the therapy has ended. Financial records will be kept for 7 years.
Your being in therapy with me and the contents of our sessions are confidential. However, to best take care of our relationship and in keeping with my professional guidelines, I am in regular supervision with a senior practitioner and share clinical material with my supervisor. They are bound by the same code of ethics and conduct as I am.
If you are in distress and we identify that you are at serious risk of harming yourself, I may ask you to extend the confidentiality of our sessions to include someone else. For example, you may need my support in contacting another professional involved in your care such as a doctor. In these circumstances, any communication with a third party will only be with your consent and I will share anything I write with you.
Statutory limits on confidentiality
My priority is always to preserve the sanctity of our relationship, however you should be aware that under the law, psychotherapists are required to breach client confidentiality and inform the relevant authorities in some circumstances (see below). If for any reason this becomes an issue within our therapy, this is something we would talk through in detail.
Circumstances in which statutory requirements might require a therapist to share information:
- You disclose that you are at risk of carrying out serious harm to yourself or others
- You make me aware of a minor being harmed and that there are issues that invoke the law as it relates to child protection
- You make me aware of matters relating to an act of terrorism
- A request is made by the authorities in the context of legal proceedings