I have disclosed to my T that I was sexually abused, it took all my strength and his reaction was good, although he did say that a crime had been commited and i need to consider if others were at risk. I said i believe not. There is no way ever I could press charges, this happened 25 years ago and i cannot let my family down. I have not told him who the abuser was, but I am so scared he is going to report it or make me report it, I text him the day after and asked him to remind me of the confidentiality agrrement and his reply was this. "i do not discuss your work with anyone without your specific permission. If I bleieve that someone is at risk then I will discuss with you any steps needed to get help with that risk. I treat my ethical duties and trust in our relationship with the utmost respect. I will not betray that trust. You are safeguarded by my proffesional status."
What does this mean? Is he going to make me tell? Please help I feel like this is my abuse, i have ownership over that crime and I cannot have someone take that control from me, i have to protect my family!
If he tells i will say i made it up, then i will look really mad I am thinking of quitting therapy now. If it helps I am from the UK.

Welcome Barnacle!

Congrats on your first post - it can be scary.

quote:

"i do not discuss your work with anyone without your specific permission. If I bleieve that someone is at risk then I will discuss with you any steps needed to get help with that risk.

I think that your T has a pretty clear policy right here. It sounds like if he does feel you should press charges, it will be something YOU do, and not him. It sounds like he'd work through the steps you would need to go to do so, with you in session.

quote:

I treat my ethical duties and trust in our relationship with the utmost respect. I will not betray that trust. You are safeguarded by my proffesional status."

Again, this sounds like he keeps everything you share in session completely confidential, and he holds himself to the highest level of professionalism, meaning to me, that he won't say anything about what you say to him without
a: discussing it with you in session and helping YOU speak up
or
b: without your explicit (likely written) permission.

Again, welcome to the forum, and I hope that you work through this with your T. Control issues are a big thing for me and my T is helping me work through them (even though I often don't like what she says!)

My T1 said there wasn't anything she could do to report someone. I didn't ask why, but maybe it has to do with how many years have passed or perhaps it is indeed related to confidentiality, but she did say she wouldn't be able to tell anyone.