Home⇛Psychology and Education: A Multidisciplinary Journal⇛vol. 18 no. 6 (2024)

Breaching Client Confidentiality in Psychotherapy: A Scoping Review

Joie Mendoza-Mojedo

Discipline: Education

 

Abstract:

Confidentiality, like privilege, is based on the idea that some extremely sensitive information exchanged by a client with a treating professional is sacrosanct and should be kept hidden. However, there are times in which confidentiality is violated either by intentional or unintentional means. The current study will be guided with the general question of how varying the perspectives on breaching/breaking client confidentiality in psychotherapy is? And following are three specific queries: (1) to what circumstances call for breaking client confidentiality? (2) to what extent it can impact the therapeutic alliance? And (3) what are the common practices to resolve this ethical dilemma? To investigate these issues, the researcher conducted a scoping review using the outline of the method outlined by Arksey and O'Malley and Levac et al. Identified studies in this review suggests that there is no clear and direct path on resolving breaching client confidentiality but most of the literatures revealed that (1) Law protects psychotherapists and clients, given that there are justifiable circumstances (2) Preventive and protective measures are implemented before establishing any therapeutic alliances such as securing psychological contract from both parties. Psychotherapeutic practice should be re-examined to ensure that it meets the needs of the client without jeopardizing their safety, and practitioners should be safeguarded whenever information disclosure is required. This study presents an opportunity to rethink and redesign the framework within the ethical norms used to provide conventional psychological care.



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