The condition of confidentiality is a basic one for a trusting counselling relationship. We offer some guidelines:
* NEVER disclose ANY information acquired in a session to any third party, however trivial it may seem to you.
* If you think that the condition of confidentiality is not being met by your partner, share your fears with them. There is no need to be accusative, but DO be explicit!
* Imagine you are talking to a co-counsellor and you realize they are giving you information from someone else's session. However trivial it may seem, point out the breach of trust and on that basis politely decline to listen further.
This may seem over dramatic, but gossip patterns are well fixed in most people and breaches of trust can destroy co-counselling pairs and damage co-counselling communities. However tough it sounds, people who do not keep their mouths shut will not keep their counsellors!
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