Confidentiality & security

Confidentiality

There are a few limits on confidentiality, as described below. Otherwise, everything you tell me is completely confidential. I will not discuss you with anyone else unless you have given me permission and we both think it would be helpful. I may discuss aspects of our work together with my supervisor, without identifying who you are. Supervision by a senior counselor is a requirement of my professional organization and is an important part of my continuing professional development. Most counsellors have regular supervision. I keep records of my counseling contacts for my own reference.

I password protect my client records, which are kept in a password protected folder on a password protected computer. Records are destroyed after 5 years, in accordance with professional association guidelines.

The circumstances in which I would break confidentiality are:

If you are at risk of severe harm or someone else is at risk of sever harm
If the law requires it: this applies for terrorist activity or money laundering

If you have online counseling, it is not permissible for you to publish, forward to a third party or otherwise share the texts of our online communications.

Online security

I use a highly secure virtual meeting service (VSee). I ask that you create an account for VSee if we agree to work online.

If you decide to start online counseling, it’s important to know how to communicate in a secure and confidential way. Follow these guidelines:

Use a computer in a private place where no-one can see what you are doing
Always log in and log out of your email service and VSee, don’t save your password
Send all counseling emails as encrypted attachments. We can share the encryption password at the start of our contact

Clearing your computer history:

Your computer automatically keeps a history of the web pages you visit and may save graphics, cookies and other files to your computer. This means others can find out which websites you have visited by looking through your computer's history or cache file. You can clear your history or empty your cache file in your browser's settings.

Click on Internet Explorer
Click on the Tools menu (in the row at the top of the browser).
Select Internet Options from the drop down menu.
Select the tab labelled 'General'.
Under the title, 'Temporary Internet Files', click on 'Delete Files'.
You can also check the box that says delete all offline content.
Then, under 'History' click on 'Clear History.'
Then click OK, at the bottom.