ABSTRACT
The concept of respect for client confidentiality is a value of central importance to counselling, psychology and psychotherapy practice, but it is also one which seems to be increasingly under siege. All training courses will place heavy emphasis on the crucial necessity of maintaining client confidentiality. However, the difficulties of translating this into day-to-day practice are often left to the individual therapist to negotiate for themselves, relying upon guidance of somewhat variable quality from their employing organisation. Some of the resultant problems arise from the fact that confidentiality may well be a key value informing ethical practice, but it is also one, which is heavily constrained by contextual factors. These factors can include whether the therapist is working in a statutory or voluntary agency, or in private practice. Confidentiality is at the same time a legal concept with many different connotations. The deceptively simple concept of keeping client information ‘confidential’ is often beset with challenges or constraints, which make this a highly problematic issue to work with in actual practice.
