Massage & Bodywork

September/October 2009

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CLIENT CONFIDENTIALITY Our willingness to keep clients' sessions confidential is a major part of what makes us ethical professionals. Clients need to know they can be vulnerable both emotionally and physically—to tell us their secrets, to reveal their less-than-perfect bodies—and that we will honor their privacy. If we are careless with confidentiality, clients can't fully trust us or be at ease with us. None of us would want to deliberately embarrass or harm a client, but sometimes we may not be aware of the finer points of respecting clients' confidentiality. Here are three challenging ethical situations to test your knowledge. THE SECRET Your client Sally, who is also your friend, tells you during a session that she is three months pregnant. She mentions several people in your mutual circle who know her good news and she doesn't tell you it's a secret. Soon after, Martha, who is a friend of Sally's, comes for a session and complains that Sally has seemed preoccupied and unavailable lately. Thinking you're doing Sally a favor by explaining, you say, "That makes sense. After all, she's pregnant." Later, an outraged Sally calls: "I specifically didn't want Martha to know that I'm pregnant yet. She is so negative and pessimistic and I wanted to be further along in my pregnancy before I told her. I assumed that what I told you in a session would be private." Does she have a right to be so angry? After all, you were only trying to be helpful. This situation has an easy answer: anything a client says or does in a session is covered by your commitment to confidentiality and cannot be shared without the client's permission. This commitment extends even to the content of friendly conversations or small talk between you and the client while in your office. (Emergency exceptions are discussed later.) The rule also covers any communication with, or about, the client that is related to your professional association with that client, such as a phone call, e-mail, or fax. connect with your colleagues on massageprofessionals.com 115

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