Psychological assessment and treatment involve discussing personal issues, such as your thoughts, feelings, wishes, experiences and actions.  The services I provide are bound by professional codes of conduct.

 

In general, the content of sessions is confidential between us.  However, there are some exceptions to this:

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•        Clinical Psychologists are duty bound to engage in confidential clinical supervision and as such I will discuss our sessions during supervision in order to maintain high standards of practice.  However, your name will not be disclosed.

•        If applicable and with your agreement, I will from time to time write to your GP (and/or referrer) with an outline of your difficulties, treatment, recommendations and progress.  I will discuss with you the content of such letters before sending them. If you are seeing me by arrangement with an insurance company, I will fill in and return any forms they send me.

•        If there are concerns relating to your safety or the safety of others then I am duty bound to pass this information on to relevant services.  For example, if I believed there to be a significant risk to you (e.g. suicide, or significant risk to you from others) or to someone else (e.g. child protection, vulnerable adults, major criminal acts) I am obliged to pass on information to other professionals.  In such circumstances, I will aim to tell you that I am obliged to pass on such information and discuss this with you first.

•        If you are involved in Court proceedings or an administrative procedure (e.g. an Employment Tribunal) you may wish to tell the Court/relevant authorities about your therapy.  However, if you do this, please be aware that we may not be able to keep your records or information about your therapy private in Court. If I receive a subpoena or a Court Order requesting your records, I will be required to provide any relevant information.

 

In some cases, it may be necessary to get details of your medical history from your GP. If this is the case, I will ask for your permission before doing so.

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Email confidentiality

You can send me any sensitive information you deem relevant to your care.  It is important to understand that (as with all emails) correspondence sent to my email address (stated above) is held in the sender’s and my email domain servers.  Therefore, I cannot guarantee the confidentiality of the information held there. However, any email correspondence I receive will be accessed on password protected devices and email accounts. I uphold the Health and Care Professions Council practice guidelines on confidentiality and am registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). All information you share will be treated sensitively and confidentiality.  Information will be stored according to the Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) laws. I describe this in more detail on the next page.