Whole Thread Therapy

Confidentiality Policy

How confidential information is held and protected across all Whole Thread Therapy services

Confidentiality is a cornerstone of therapeutic work and of ethical professional practice more broadly. Everything shared with Whole Thread Therapy — in therapy sessions, group programmes, commissioned work, or CPD training spaces — is treated with care and discretion. This policy sets out what confidentiality means in each context, and when and how its limits apply.

1:1 therapy

Everything shared in individual therapy sessions is held in confidence. Information about you will not be disclosed to anyone outside of the therapeutic relationship without your knowledge and consent, except in the specific circumstances set out in the limits to confidentiality section below.

Supervision

As part of good clinical practice, all therapeutic work is discussed in regular clinical supervision with an accredited supervisor. Supervision is a professional and ethical requirement — it protects the quality of your care. Any material discussed in supervision is anonymised; your identity is not disclosed to the supervisor unless you have explicitly given permission for this.

Notes and records

Brief session notes are kept for clinical continuity purposes. These are stored securely in accordance with the Privacy Policy. You have the right to request access to your records at any time.

Third parties

Where therapy involves a parent or carer alongside a young person, clear agreements are made at the outset about what will and will not be shared with each party. These agreements are revisited as the work develops. As a general principle, the young person's confidentiality is protected within those boundaries, except where a safeguarding concern applies.

Group programmes

Confidentiality in a group setting requires a shared agreement between all participants — not just between each individual and the therapist. At the start of every group programme (including Finding Your Thread and Strengthening Your Thread), a group confidentiality agreement is established and agreed by all members. This covers:

What stays in the room: personal disclosures, feelings, and experiences shared by any group member remain within the group. Participants do not share identifying information about other group members outside the group space.
What can be taken away: participants are free to take away insights, tools, and learning from the group — what they cannot take away is information about other people.
The facilitator's role: the facilitator holds all disclosures from individual group members with the same confidentiality as in 1:1 work, including the same limits. If a concern arises about any group member's safety, the same safeguarding process applies as in individual therapy.
Breaches within the group: if confidentiality within the group is broken by a participant, this will be addressed directly — first with the individual concerned, and if necessary with the group as a whole.

For parents and carers of group participants: General themes and the young person's progress may be discussed with you as part of our regular communication. Specific disclosures made by other group members, or the identity of other participants, will not be shared.

Commissioned and school-based work

Where Whole Thread Therapy delivers commissioned programmes — including school-based delivery, local authority partnerships, and community provision — confidentiality operates within an additional layer of institutional responsibility.

Reporting to commissioners: commissioning organisations may receive summary reports on programme delivery, attendance, and general outcomes. These reports do not contain identifiable information about individual participants unless explicit consent has been given.
Institutional safeguarding: in school or local authority settings, the host organisation has its own designated safeguarding lead (DSL). Where a safeguarding concern arises during commissioned delivery, Whole Thread Therapy works within the host organisation's safeguarding procedures as well as its own. This may mean sharing relevant information with the host DSL.
Participant awareness: at the start of any commissioned group or programme, participants are informed of these arrangements — who the commissioner is, what is reported back, and where the limits of confidentiality lie in that specific context.

CPD training

CPD training brings qualified professionals together in a shared learning space. Confidentiality in this context operates differently to clinical work, but it is no less important.

Within the training room: personal reflections, professional experiences, and any disclosures made by participants during a course are held confidentially by the facilitator and by all participants present. What is shared in the room stays in the room.
Client material: participants are encouraged not to share identifiable information about their own clients in training spaces. Where clinical examples are used for reflective purposes, they should be anonymised.
Facilitator disclosures: where the facilitator shares personal or professional experience as part of course delivery, this is offered in a spirit of professional transparency and is not for wider circulation or attribution outside the course.

Limits to confidentiality

Confidentiality is the default — but it is not absolute. There are specific circumstances in which Whole Thread Therapy has a professional and, in some cases, legal duty to share information without consent. These are:

Confidentiality may be broken where

Risk of serious harm to you: if there is reason to believe you are at serious, imminent risk of harm to yourself, action will be taken to keep you safe — which may include contacting emergency services or your emergency contact.
Risk of harm to others: if there is reason to believe that someone else is at serious risk of harm as a result of information shared, this will be acted on.
Safeguarding concerns: if there is a concern about the safety or welfare of a child or vulnerable adult — whether or not they are the person in therapy — the Safeguarding Policy applies and a referral to the appropriate statutory body may be made.
Legal requirement: if a court order is received requiring disclosure of records or information, compliance is required by law.
Terrorism: under the Terrorism Act 2000, there is a legal duty to report information relating to acts of terrorism.
Drug trafficking: under the Drug Trafficking Act 1994, there is a legal duty to report certain information relating to drug trafficking offences.

Wherever possible, you will be told first. If a decision is made to break confidentiality, the aim is always to tell you this is happening before it happens — unless doing so would put you or someone else at greater risk. Only the minimum necessary information will ever be shared.

Data protection and records

Confidentiality and data protection are related but distinct. This policy covers how information shared with Whole Thread Therapy is held in confidence within professional relationships. How personal data is collected, stored, retained, and processed is covered separately in the Privacy Policy, which should be read alongside this document.

Raising a concern

If you feel that confidentiality has been breached — in any context covered by this policy — please raise this using the relevant complaints process.