Confidentiality
What your club is told, what it is never told, and the three real limits.
In almost every other kind of therapy the person in the room is also the person paying. In sport they are frequently not: you are in the room, your coach arranged it and your club is paying the invoice. That is a genuine conflict and pretending otherwise is how athletes get hurt.
Here is how I resolve it, in writing, before a first session and regardless of who is paying. It has cost me work with two clubs and I would do it again, because a service an athlete cannot trust is not worth selling to the club either.
What your club is told
- That you attended
- Dates only, and only if they are paying for them. An invoice needs a date on it.
- Whether you are engaging
- A yes or a no, if they ask. Not why, not how it is going, not what we are working on.
- Themes, only if you authorise them
- In writing, specifically, each time, and you can decline without giving a reason or facing a consequence. Most people decline.
What your club is never told
- Anything you said
- Why you came
- Any diagnosis, or whether there is one
- Anything about a teammate, a coach, an agent or your family
- Whether you were upset
- Whether you are considering leaving the club
The three real limits
A page that promises absolute confidentiality is lying, and you should distrust anyone who does. There are exactly three circumstances in which I would break it, they are the same three every registered psychologist works under, and wherever possible I would tell you first.
- Risk to your life
- If I believe you are in immediate danger. I would tell you I was going to act, and who I was going to contact.
- A child at risk
- A legal obligation, not a judgement call, and it applies to anyone under eighteen.
- A court order
- Rare, and it would be resisted as far as the law allows before anything was handed over.
If your club is paying
The invoice carries your name, the dates and the fee. Nothing else — no summary, no progress note, no 'she's doing well'. If a club will not accept an invoice on those terms, I will tell you, and you can decide whether to pay privately instead. Two clubs have refused; both athletes continued privately and neither club found out they had.
If you are under eighteen
A parent or guardian consents to the work and is told that it is happening. They are not told what is said in it, except under the three limits above. I explain that to them and to you in the same conversation, so nobody is negotiating it later.