Ethics and Confidentiality

We operate within the student services confidentiality policy. The Counselling Service also works within the Ethical framework for Good Practice produced by the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy.

Respect for privacy is essential to Counselling, which cannot work without trust. Although we discuss our work with counselling colleagues and external supervisors, names are not usually given.

We do not communicate with anyone outside the team unless:

• We have your consent to do so

• We believe there is a high risk of severe harm to yourself or others

• We are required to do so by law

Record Keeping

The Service works under the terms of the Data Protection Act 1998.

The factual data you give to the Service and the dates on which you attend for Counselling are stored in order to compile anonymous statistics on the use of the service.

Your Counsellor may also keep notes on your meetings to help him/her in their work with you, which are kept completely separate from the University student record system.