To encourage people to freely explore all aspects of their lives, it is important that a high degree of confidentiality is maintained by the counsellor.  This is a key part of our Code of Ethics.  In certain situations, it may be necessary to break confidentiality and this will be discussed at the first meeting.  Generally speaking, these would be if there was the possibility of there being serious harm to the client or anyone else, or the possibility of a future crime being committed. In either case I would discuss this with the client before taking any action. 

I keep a record of the sessions which are stored securely in the cloud and are not on any laptops or tablets that could be lost or stolen. The information I hold is the client';s contact details and I make brief notes of what was spoken about in each session. I ask all clients to sign a consent form for me to do this, which also outlines the client's right under GDPR to access any information that I am holding.