You therapist is required to maintain confidentiality about everything said in sessions between the two of you, just like a doctor is required to keep your records private. While there are laws and regulations in place to protect your privacy, confidentiality is also a key part of psychology's code of ethics.
Therapists take confidentiality seriously. They understand that clients need a safe place to disclose their most private thoughts and feelings. In almost all cases, your personal information is held in strict confidence. Only in extreme cases will your therapist need to break confidentiality to keep you or others safe.
Generally, if you can share with people who love and support you, it's a great idea. But if you know that there are going to be detractors, then you should reconsider. Also consider the issues at hand. If it's a personal issue, then it's something you can keep to yourself.
In certain cases – for example, in order to protect you from serious harm – a mental health professional may have to disclose private information about you to someone else, such as your parents or carer, Family and Community Services, or, in very rare situations, a court, the police or an ambulance worker.
Overall, mindful and intentional self-disclosure can act as a powerful technique in the therapeutic relationship [that] can normalize client issues, model healthy behaviors and increase clients' own self-exploration.
Over 90% of therapists self-disclose to clients (Mathews, 1989; Pope, Tabachnick, & Keith-Spiegel, 1987; Edwards & Murdock, 1994), however, the implications of therapist self-disclosure are unclear, with highly divergent results from one study to the next.
Inappropriate self-disclosures are those that are done primarily for the benefit of the therapist, clinically counter-indicated, burdens the client with unnecessary information or creates a role reversal where a client, inappropriately, takes care of the therapist. Types Of Self-Disclosure.
Counsellors and Psychologist are required by law and ethics to report abuse, ongoing domestic violence, or neglect of a vulnerable person i.e. children, people with a disability or the elderly.
The Privacy Act 1988 (Privacy Act) is the principal piece of Australian legislation protecting the handling of personal information about individuals. This includes the collection, use, storage and disclosure of personal information in the federal public sector and in the private sector.
So, rest assured that it's probably fine to ask your therapist how they're doing and other small talk questions, but Dr. Babbel says there are definitely some questions you shouldn't ask, like how old they are, or if they've ever been married.
Whatever you decide to do, ultimately it is up to you to judge whether disclosing your therapy to others is appropriate or relevant and, of course, there is no obligation of confidentiality upon you as there is on your therapist.
So, among the very few things we would say you shouldn't tell your therapist are the chatty details of your day. Avoid the safe subjects you don't have any big feelings or deep thoughts about and the conversation topics you use to put others at ease in casual social situations.
Most professionals are obligated to report when a person in therapy, regardless of age, is in imminent danger. That danger could be significant risk of suicide or conditions of abuse/neglect.
Legally, Therapists Can See Two People Who Know Each Other
There is no law that prohibits therapists from seeing two people who know each other, or even two members of the same family. In some small communities, there may not even be a choice.
If you've been in therapy for a period of time and feel like it's going well, you may want support from your therapist in the form of a hug. After all, the process of therapy can be very intimate and emotional.
The 'limits of confidentiality', it is argued, are set by the wishes of the client or, where these are not known, by reference to those whose right and need to know relate to the care of the client.
A classic example of a breach of confidentiality is mistakenly sending Client A an email that was meant for Client B. In this instance, you've shared Client B's sensitive information with a third party without their consent. This could either be by you as the business owner or one of your employees.
Scheduling Carefully. Another way many counsellors and therapists protect themselves is to make sure they leave enough time between sessions to take care of any emotional issues in themselves that may come up.
The age by which you have automatic confidentiality rights is: 14 years and over in the Northern Territory. 16 and over in New South Wales and South Australia. 18 and over everywhere else in Australia.
Health Practitioner Regulation National Law (NSW) No 86a
Under the National Law, registered health practitioners, employers of health practitioners and education providers are mandated to report if they form a reasonable belief that a notifiable conduct has occurred.
When a psychologist departs from the standards in the code, we might take regulatory action to protect the public from harm. Codes are admissible in legal proceedings as evidence of what constitutes appropriate professional conduct or practice for the profession.
It may be possible to talk it out and repair the relationship. But if you find your therapist repeatedly oversharing in a way that makes you uncomfortable—especially if they keep doing it even after you tell them you want them to stop—your best bet is to walk away.
Five stages of self-disclosure have been defined by the proponents. These are orientation, exploratory-affective, affective, stable and depenetration. Orientation is the first impression stage and stable is where self-disclosure is highest.