Is Counselling Confidential?

Lemon Grove Counselling & Therapy Ltd

The process of counselling is based on respect and developing trust between you and the counsellor. Confidentiality is about offering you a safe space to talk about the issues and concerns than have been brought into counselling. If you choose to enter into a counselling relationship you should rightly expect that what you share with your counsellor will be treated as confidential.

At Lemon Grove, we work in accordance with the Ethical Framework for Good Practice in Counselling and Psychotherapy of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP).

Any information provided will be kept confidential within Lemon Grove and not revealed to any third parties without your permission, except in exceptional circumstances detailed below:

• If you show intent to seriously harm yourself or others.
  
  

• If the you disclose during counselling that you have committed a serious crime, or show intent to commit a crime.
  
  

• If we are ordered by a court to disclose information about you.
  

Where there is good reason to believe that the you, or someone else, may be at risk of serious harm,  we may have to reveal this to professionals outside of the service. Before considering breaching confidentiality, your counsellor would consult with one of the organisations directors and also our counselling supervisors. Your counsellor would inform the you of their intent to breach confidentiality and the reasons why this was necessary.

Please be aware that the breaking confidentiality is extremely rare and taken very seriously.

A copy of the BACP Ethical Framework can be viewed online at the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy website:

www.bacp.co.uk/ethical_framework/