Describe Psychologists Confedentiallity?

Question

I used to have a professor at college who told my class MANY stories from her experiences as a psychologist. She shared many stories about people she helped and spoke to. THe only thing she didn't mention are names.

I always thought that psychologists couldn't talk about ANYTHING they spoke about with their patients.

Are psychologists aloud to speak about their stories but just not mention names? Was the professor violating psychologist/patient privacy rights?

Answer 1

The rules and codes regarding confidentiality are in place to protect both the client and the therapist.   It helps a client feel more relaxed and trusting to know that the therapist must keep the information to him/herself, and that builds the therapeutic relationship.

As you know, the therapist can break that code of confidentiality if the client becomes or may become harmful to him/herself or others.  Now, on the issue of using your own previous clients as examples in a lecture, that's a tough call that is up to the discretion of the therapist.  Many professors do use their experiences with clients as examples for their students.  It really doesn't breech the ethics code if the names are left out of the examples because it doesn't put anyone in harm's way.  As long as the professor leaves out physical details about the person which might help indicate who the client was, then it really doesn't cause any harm.  As a matter of fact, some clients will give permission to their therapist to use their story for learning purposes.