Successful therapy requires that you be honest and open with your therapist. As a safeguard to you and the information that you share with your therapist, the state of California provides a legal statute which protects the confidentiality of the information that you disclose to your therapist. Your attendance in therapy, the verbal disclosures you make to your therapist, any written or other documentation you give to your therapist, and all of your therapist’s clinical notes are protected as confidential information.There are, however, circumstances when your therapist may be required by law to break confidentiality, such as in the case of reporting suspected child abuse, elder abuse or dependent adult abuse. Additionally, confidentiality may be broken when a therapist believes that the patient is in such mental or emotional condition as to be a danger to self or others.
