Confidentiality

Confidentiality is a professionally and legally complex issue, not subject to a thorough explanation in a few sentences. Usually, information that a student shares with her/his counselor/therapist in the course of a counseling session will be treated as confidential material. Treating information confidentially means not releasing it to anyone outside the agency without the student's permission.

The main - although not only - exceptions to confidentiality arise in situations involving child or adult abuse or neglect, court orders or subpoena of records, or danger to self or others. Information regarding students is routinely shared internally among Counseling & Psychological Services' staff, primarily for case consultation and counselor/therapist supervision. The data you provide may be used in aggregate form, i.e. all information uniquely identifying any individual is removed, for the purposes of maintaining accurate statistics and conducting research.

If you are a student majoring in a professionally regulated area (e g., Law, Medicine, Nursing, etc.), or if your work requires government security clearance (e.g., Department of Defense), please be advised that those regulatory boards may ask you to authorize disclosure of your Counseling & Psychological Services records.

Any communication you have with a counselor at CAPS outside of a counseling session may be recorded in your file at CAPS. Communication could be information shared face to face with your counselor, e-mail messages, phone calls, etc. Please be aware that if you use e-mail to communicate with your counselor, we cannot guarantee a prompt response or that your e-mail message will be secure in transit.

We train graduate students from the mental health professions, and you may have one as a counselor/therapist. Professional staff supervises graduate students, and they may ask your permission to record sessions for confidential supervisory purposes. You have the right to know your therapist's supervisor's name and how to contact that supervisor; your therapist will provide this information at your first meeting.