As a member of BACP I am bound by their Ethical Framework to protect a client’s confidentiality. Therefore, everything that we discuss is confidential except in certain circumstances.

Harm To Self Or Others

I may have to break confidentiality if I think that you have become a danger to yourself, others or if other people are at risk of harm. I will attempt to discuss this with you and my supervisor first, but this may not always be possible.

In certain cases where you may have declared a clear and definite intention to end your life, or if I have reason to believe this to be true, we may after a careful discussion agree to put in place a ’keep safe policy’ where you will agree to take certain measures, such as get in touch with your mental health crisis team, or talk to the Samaritans as a way of safeguarding and ensuring your safety.

For Legal And Ethical Reasons

I am not bound by confidentiality if in good faith I feel that I can assist in the prevention or detection of a serious crime, this includes safeguarding issues regarding children or vulnerable adults, crimes regarding substantial financial gains and losses, and acts of terrorism.

Record Keeping Confidentiality

As a member of BACP I am required to keep accurate and appropriate notes of our work together. My session notes are anonymised and only record information that is relevant to our work together. My session notes are stored securely on a laptop that is only used by me, and this is password protected at both the level of the individual document and the laptop itself. Any paper documents are locked in a robust non-portable cabinet to which only I have access.