While maintaining confidentiality is the ethical duty of every Clinical Psychologist, ethical breaching of confidentiality is also equally essential to safeguard the well-being of patient/client.

Over the time, it is pleasure to see an increased amount of understanding and awareness people are developing towards mental health. Although a lot is still need to be done, but there is a gradual change which has set in.

Gradually people are coming in to see Mental Health professionals for seeking help for their emotional trouble.

Yes, honestly it is a tough decision and it’s difficult to take the first step. It is tough to finally accept that “yes I have a problem, which I need to resolve”, and “Yes I need help!” It is tough to decide whom to approach and how to approach.

People who begin to think of going to therapy, they experience a roller-coaster of emotions. They have enormous flow of thoughts; thoughts about their emotional trouble. But there is another flow of thought which rush into their mind when they think of going to therapy.

Here are a few examples-

“Where do I start?”
People have been struggling with their difficult thoughts for so long that they lost the track of how it all started, they feel what do they at all say, will it sound trivial, may be what I am going through is a small problem. People often have this dilemma, they feel anxious thinking where do I begin from. Often they feel distressed with the fact that sharing the difficult thoughts will remind of the difficult times- and this very thought prevents a lot of people from taking therapy.

“Will I be judged because of my problem?”
Often people are hesitant to approach therapy because of this feeling. They often question themselves if their problem is big enough to seek therapy, what if it’s a small problem, “what if I seem to be mentally weak for not being able to deal with my stress?”

“I hope whatever I say remain just between the two of us”
This is the biggest concern people have coming to the therapy. A major part of their stress and anxiousness of coming for therapy is the concerned over their confidentiality. People coming to therapy share deepest of their thoughts and experiences, thoughts closest to their personal and intimate experiences, wishes rooted deeply to their life and aspirations- to be precise, it can be anything.

Yes! It’s their right to be fully conscious about it and it’s their right to seek a reassurance on this, and trust me as Clinical Psychologist, it’s never felt offensive by the professional. Rather, we appreciate their sense of self, sense of commitment to recover themselves

But in order to throw a general light on this concept, it would be a good idea to know what therapist essentially believe about confidentiality and how core it is to our skill and practice.

Ever since a Clinical Psychologist get into a learning and training of becoming a Clinical Psychologist, they are trained to develop certain skills which are very crucial and critical to the practice of mental health, and one among them is Confidentiality.

It is the ethical and professional duty of every Clinical Psychologist to maintain utmost confidentiality of the issues discussed between the patient/ client and the professional.

There are a few times when the curious family members ask the Clinical Psychologist “what did he/she say?” “Did he/she mention anything about us?” “Is he/she seeing someone?” Well, these are common queries the Clinical Psychologists face.

But it is true across every professional to keep confidential about anything and everything being discussed. Not even the parents, spouse, or children require to know what have been discussed and unfolded by the patient/client. Clinical Psychologists are never obligated to even answer or entertain any such queries coming from the family members.

It is also important for the family members to know about the clause of confidentiality in therapy and that they should never ask or pursue the therapist to reveal about the contents of the session.

Clinical psychologist, after every session, are likely to communicate about the progress the patient/ client has made, what should be the role of the family and how to make the family environment more conducive for the individual with mental illness to recover and cope, or any other general query family members have. This should mark as the dignity and respect towards the individual with mental illness.

But there is a significant point to highlight. Even though Clinical Psychologist maintain utmost confidentiality and they take every measure to preserve confidentiality, there are certain situations where the Clinical Psychologists can ethically violate confidentiality.

The term “ethically violate” is thus used to signify a situation, wherein the confidentiality is breached, only to help and facilitate the patient, family members or the stakeholders who are involved.