Therapy -- Patient Confidentiality and Privilege Rights

Therapy & Patient Rights

Under the usual conditions of therapy, patient therapy information is protected by legal concept of privilege. Privilege to determine how and when therapy records are disclosed belongs to the patient. A therapist has a professional obligation to maintain confidentiality. Essentially, this means that everything that is discussed in a therapy session must be kept in confidence, and that duty of confidence cannot be revoked by the therapist without the patient's approval. The rights of a patient and the rights of a therapist are absolute, except under certain conditions. The conditions that fall outside of the protection of privilege and confidentiality of psychotherapy are considered to be official exceptions. Under these exceptions, a psychotherapist is either allowed or required to break confidentiality. The exceptions to the confidentiality of psychotherapy discussed below reference the laws in the state of California, a...
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