Confidentiality and Safeguarding Statement

Navigate:

→ What to expect from me regarding confidentiality

→ Confidentiality when supporting children and young people

→ Exceptions and my legal duties –

1. Legal duties for breaching confidentiality

2. Ethical and moral responsibilities for breaching confidentiality

3. Self harm: Children and young people

What to expect from me regarding confidentiality

All our interactions either in therapy sessions or directly relating to your therapy with me will remain strictly confidential. This includes:

  • interactions that are face-to-face, via email and telephone, including messages
  • any scheduling or appointment notes (which will be anonymised using only client initials)

As part of my professional practice, I am required to keep notes of our sessions together, which will be stored according to current General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) guidelines.

As all your details will remain strictly confidential, I will not share any of your information with anyone including your GP, and in the case of supporting a child, the child’s school, unless you choose to give me your signed consent in writing to release any or specific information about you to any person or agency that you designate.

All professional bodies in the UK require hypnotherapists to have regular clinical supervision; therefore, to ensure that you receive the most appropriate, safest and highest standard of therapeutic care possible, I may share details of my work with you or your child with my supervisor. All details that I share will continue to uphold confidentiality and you or your child will not be identified.

Prior to starting support, we will discuss and agree on what we should do if by chance we have an accidental meeting outside of our sessions and scheduled appointments. I am respectful of your private life and therefore we can agree to acknowledge each other and exchange a greeting or alternatively, we could choose to not acknowledge to knowing each other.

With regards to social media platforms, any attempt to interact or befriend on anything other than the Meadows business profiles will be discouraged and not reciprocated by me in order to keep our relationship professional and boundaried.

← Back to top

Confidentiality when supporting children and young people

At the start of working with a child or young person, I discuss safeguarding and confidentiality in line with their age and level of understanding. 

For example, I will explain that our time is a safe space and that whatever they say or talk to me about will stay between us unless I have worries about their safety. I explain that it is part of my role to keep them safe and so, if they say something that worries me, I may have to talk to another adult, but that I would always let them know what I was doing, who I will speak with and what the outcome was.

← Back to top

Exceptions and my legal duties -

Although all information is confidential, there are some circumstances in which I will not be able to maintain your confidentiality.

Some of these exceptions are legal duties and some, I feel, are my duty as an ethically and morally responsible therapist.

Whenever possible I would always inform you of any impending breach and aim to gain your consent for sharing information.

These are:

2 – Ethical and moral responsibilities for breaching confidentiality

Danger to yourself – If I felt that you were in danger and there was an imminent risk of serious self-harm or suicide, or you were at risk of abuse or neglect, I may need to contact the necessary safeguarding organisations, such as your GP or the police, to allow me to help keep you safe. This is a permitted reason for breaking confidentiality.

Danger to others (children) – If I learn or believe that you pose a danger to any person under the age of 18 (either sexually, physically, emotionally or through neglect, including Female Genital Mutilation) I will follow the necessary safeguarding children’s procedures for Kent County Council. If I feel that discussing my concerns with you will increase the risk of danger, I will raise my concerns without your knowledge or consent. This is a permitted reason for breaking confidentiality.

Danger to others (vulnerable adults) – If I learn or believe that you pose a danger to any vulnerable person over the age of 18 (either sexually, physically, emotionally, financially or through neglect, including human trafficking and modern slavery) I will follow the necessary safeguarding vulnerable adult’s procedures for Kent County Council and contact the Police as necessary. If I feel that discussing my concerns with you will increase the risk of danger or harm, I will raise my concerns without your knowledge or consent. This is a permitted reason for breaking confidentiality.

3 – Self harm: Children and young people

If during a session with a child or young person they share thoughts relating to hurting themselves or that they have self harmed, I would create a safety plan with them in that session. 

I would discuss with them about sharing this information with their responsible adult as a way of keeping them safe.

I will also signpost both the child or young person and their responsible adult to other sources of help, information and support.

After the session, I would contact my Clinical Supervisor for further guidance on how to support the child or young person. 

← Back to top