Counselling takes place when a counsellor sees a client in private and confidential setting to explore a difficulty the client is having, distress they may be experiencing or perhaps their dissatisfaction with life or loss of a sense of direction and purpose. It is always at the request of the client. The overall aim of counselling is to provide an opportunity for the client to work towards living in a way which he or she experiences as more satisfying and resourceful. The counsellor’s role is to facilitate the client’s work in ways which respect the client’s values, personal resources and capacity for choice within his or her cultural context.
CONFIDENTIALITY
Counselling offers the highest level of confidentiality consistent with the law and the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy’s 2020 Ethical Framework For the Counselling professions. Nothing you tell me will be disclosed to others except in the following circumstances:
1. I am required to have counselling supervision. Supervision is a formal relationship which enables counsellors to discuss their counselling work. I will refer to you by your first name only in supervision unless you wish me to use a pseudonym. I am willing to give you the names of my supervisors when we meet. My supervisor is the only person who would have access to the details on your Personal Record Sheet in the event of my death or incapacity in order to be able to contact you.
2. I may make brief handwritten notes after our sessions for supervision purposes. You will not be identified and they will be securely stored. I do not record notes on my computer. Your signature on the Personal Record Sheet will be taken to be agreement to the keeping these notes. All written notes will be shredded after supervision. Please see attached sheet about the privacy of your personal information under the General Data Protection Regulation 2020.
3. If you tell me about a crime involving significant risk of serious harm to another person’s life or of serious abuse of another person (especially in relation to a child or young person) I cannot guarantee confidentiality.
4. Statutory law requires me to tell the relevant authorities if I become aware of international terrorist activities or money laundering from drug trafficking.
5. Where you give me consent for confidentiality to be broken (e.g. to your GP, Psychiatrist, Social Services or the Emergency Services or parent if you are under 18).
6. If you tell me that you intend to kill yourself or cause yourself serious bodily harm or if you abuse or threaten me in a way which violates my personal safety I cannot guarantee confidentiality.