All aspects of your life that you disclose to me, including your identity, are held as confidential. A psychologist who violates confidentiality can be disciplined by the College of Psychologists of B.C. There are only three instances where confidentiality can be breached.

1)

You give explicit permission to do so, such as permitting us to give your physician, or other professional who referred you, a brief update on your progress.

2)

When there is concern of a serious risk of harm to a person, whether another person, or yourself, or especially if there is concern of risk of harm to a child. This is very rare.

3)

Another rare instance where confidentiality can be violated is if a psychologist is given a subpeona to appear in a court of law. This tends to happen when a couple is divorcing, and gets into a battle over custody and access to the children, and they wish to have the psychologist testify as to who is the better parent. At this point, I hire a lawyer, and resist the subpeona, because I (a) do not wish to appear in court in this matter, and (b) I wish to protect the confidentiality of my clients, and (c) custody and access is not my area of expertise.