Personal Counselling and Confidentiality

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"If I tell my Guidance Counsellor something, will they tell someone else??"

This is a very important question, and students deserve to have the facts, so here they are:

All sessions with a guidance counsellor are confidential. Counsellors have an ethical responsibility to take every reasonable precaution to respect and safeguard a student's right to confidentiality. But ... there are times when a guidance counsellor must disclose (tell someone else) something a student has told them. This ONLY happens when:

• a counsellor suspects abuse (physical or sexual) or neglect, based on what a student has told them.

• a student reveals that they are at risk of harming themself or an identifiable other person.

• a student requests disclosure.

• A disclosure is ordered by a court.

Still worried about something you are going to tell your counsellor? The best thing to do is talk to your counsellor about their limits of confidentiality before you disclose any information.