Confidentiality

Confidentiality is a means of providing safety and privacy to young people. Off The Record has established high standards of practice and clear policies to protect confidentiality in all of it's work.

We are a member of the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy and strictly adhere to its codes of ethics and practice, including guidelines on confidentiality. All counsellors are trained and receive regular supervision.

We provide a warm receptive environment with friendly and non-judgemental staff and strive for high standards of counselling being of mutual benefit to both client and counsellor.

Our philosophy is to value and respect each client and counsellor as an individual.

Our Confidentiality Policy is a means of providing you, the client, with safety and privacy.

Confidentiality between you and your counsellor is of fundamental importance.

Exceptional circumstances may arise which would give the counsellor grounds for believing that you could cause serious physical harm to others or yourself, or have harm caused to you. In such circumstances, your consent to a change in the agreement about confidentiality would be sought unless there were reasons for believing that you are no longer responsible for your own actions.

Whenever possible, the decision to break confidentiality between you and your counsellor would only be made after consultation with a counselling supervisor or another experienced counsellor.

We have a procedure for when confidentiality is professionally judged to need breaking. Back up support for Off the Record's supervisors is always available. (A supervisor is a more experienced counsellor who is qualified to monitor and support counsellors to ensure that our clients receive the highest level of care).