Protecting your privacy and confidentiality is extemely important to me and an integral part of establishing a working relationship and mutual trust. My privacy policy is designed to be individualized and especially strict,
particularly to accomodate clients who consider themselves high profile, individuals with security clearances, or other issues for which anonymity is crucial. Regardless of your situation, I take your privacy very seriously.
My therapy policy for individuals
Confidentiality is one of the most important components between a client and therapist. Successful therapy requires a high degree of trust with highly sensitive subject matter. For the most part, I cannot speak to anyone about
you or your treatment without written authorization from you in a release of information form that I will provide you. It is your choice if you would like me to have permission to speak with anyone. It is also up to you to
decide the limits of information which I can discuss with an outside party. I may recommend a release to include an emergency contact and/or physician, but ultimately the decision is yours. See below for the Limits to
Confidentiality.
My therapy policy for couples and families
My policy for couples and families is identical to my policy for individual clients regarding disclosing information outside of sessions but we will also need to discuss how privacy is handled within the couple or family in the
first session.
My under 18 policy
If you are under the age of 18 your parents have to give you legal consent for you to receive services and may have legal rights to obtain your records. However, we can meet together with your family and agree upon a privacy
policy before therapy is initiated. I encourage families to agree to keep what is said in individual sessions between you (minor) and me private except where limits to confidentiality are applicable.
Limits to Confidentiality
There are a few rare instances where I am legally and ethically obligated to break our confidentiality
- If you are a danger to yourself or others
- If you tell me about current abuse by you or someone else against a child, elderly, dependent or elderly person
- If I am subpoenaed and ordered by a judge to divulge records/session content; this may include cases of workman's compensation claims if this pertains to your treatment with me
In the rare event that any of these situations arise, I will make every effort to discuss them with you during our session before taking any action. In most cases, you and I will make a plan together in order to deal with breaking our confidentiality.
