Confidentiality

We regard the information you share with us with the greatest respect so we want to be as clear as possible about how it will be handled. In general, the professional you work with will tell no one what you tell them. The privacy and confidentiality of our conversations and our records is a privilege of yours and is legally protected by federal and state law, including HIPAA, and by professional ethical principles in all but a few rare circumstances. A copy of our privacy and confidentiality policy is given to each client at the first session.

There are two situations in which we must, by law, tell others some things you might tell us: when there is a reasonable belief that you intend to harm yourself or another person and when we believe a child (or elder) has been or will be abused or neglected. In some other rare and special circumstances, your confidentiality may be compromised.

If you have concerns about confidentiality please raise them with the professional you see or our director so that we may resolve them. Otherwise, we do not and will not tell anything about your treatment, diagnosis, history, or even that you are a client, without your full knowledge and (usually) a signed Release of Information Form. Children under 18 years of age require the signature of a parent to release information. If this is of concern to you, ask for a blank copy of our Release of Information Form to review.

We ask each patient to abide by the Golden Rule which would preclude your disclosing the identity (or names) of any other clients you encounter here in the office.

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