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Confidentiality

General Principles

1. Confidentiality is one of the most important rights a person seeking counselling has. Information revealed by you during a counselling session will be kept strictly confidential, and will not be revealed to any other person or agency without your written permission.


2. During couples therapy, if spouses have any separate session(s), whether with the same or with different counsellors, we respect confidentiality for each. While we do not disclose to one spouse information given to us privately by the other spouse, we encourage both of them to discuss with each other any information that appears to have a critical role in the success of their relationship.


3. During family therapy, if a family member has any separate session(s), we will keep that information confidential at our end. At the same time, we will encourage him/her to discuss relevant issues with some or all family members, as appropriate.


4. Parent-teen conflict is often a very delicate situation, as although the parent may be paying for therapy, our ability to disclose information about their adolescent son or daughter is limited. Although we want the parent(s) to be as aware and involved as possible, in order to guide and support the teen through the crisis and healing process, we have to keep the confidentiality limit where the teen sets it. Generally we encourage teens to discuss their struggles (depression, drug and alcohool use, pregnancy, etc.) with at least one family member, preferably a parent, but we can not disclose any of that information ourselves. If the teen becomes a danger to self or others, we have to disclose that protection issue to the appropriate authorities. Given our society's strong support for teen independence and privacy protection, we can provide teens with resources and knowledge in order to make informed decisions and access the appropriate agencies or support in the community (e.g. a detox, an adoption agency), but we can not make teens involve their parents in the process. Despite this limitation there is a lot we can do for parents during such crisis. We work with parents and other family members towards the appropriate nurturing and support that resisting teens need in order to build trust in and access family support through their struggles and recovery process. Also, as parents and other siblings are always affected by teen conflict and turbulence, we provide them with professional support through the generalized family crisis.

Emergency Care Permission
As a general rule, before starting therapy, we ask for the contact information and your written permission to contact other professionals in case of emergency. Such professionals include your family physician and (if it is the case) your psychiatrist or mental health worker. We would only contact them in case of medical, psychological or psychiatric emergency (e.g. physical illness, suicide risk, psychotic episode, etc.)

Exceptions to Confidentiality
According to provincial and federal law, a counsellor has the duty to report confidential information revealed during therapy, without permission, in the following cases:

1. If you become a danger to yourself or to others. This is actually the duty of any consciencious citizen. We all have to report risk of suicide, as well as occurence or intention of abuse - especially when it is done to the defenseless and/or disadvantaged, including children, the elderly, disabled persons, etc.


2. If the counsellor's case notes about you and/or your children are subpoenaed through a court order. This does not happen frequently, but we want you to be aware that it can happen if you are or become involved in a court litigation, and the other party convinces the judge that disclosure of your therapy file can be relevant to the resolution of the case. For example, during a custody battle, a non-custodial parent may request disclosure of your children's therapy files.

Better Confidentiality Protection With Us
The two exceptions to confidentiality described above are not unique laws for counsellors, they involve all professionals and service providers, including doctors, teachers, etc., although such professionals may never specifically inform you nor give you a confidentiality form to sign.

Your advantage of working with us, as a private agency, is that confidentiality of your records is more protected. Agencies fully or partially funded by the government have even less control protecting clients' confidentiality, as their case notes and files become public records and can be much easier accessed by other government agencies and ministries, including the court and justice system. Since we are a private agency, with no funding from the government, we can initially resist a court-ordered disclosure. This at least delays disclosure of your file, and eventually we may win arguments built on our professional duty to protect therapy confidentiality. However, the justice system has a mind of its own, and we can not give any guarantees of full confidentiality protection when the courts are involved.

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