Counselor Licensure, Confidentiality, and Privileged Communication: Implications for Private Practice in Rehabilitation

Abstract

This article addresses the importance of confidentiality and privileged communication in the counselor-client relationship. State licensure statutes are reviewed in regard to their confidentiality and/or privileged. communication provisions. The implications of legal confidentiality and privileged communication on the private-for-profit practice of rehabilitation are discussed.

The Need for Counselor Licensure: A Rehabilitation Counseling Perspective

“…Matkin stated that "failure to ensure the client's privacy couldresult in charges of breach of privacy, breach of contract, defamation, or malpractice (negligence)" (p. 209). Cottone, Pullen, and Wilson (1983) concluded that legal confidentiality and privileged communication provisions in professional counselor licensure statutes would help to ensure that rehabilitation counselors would not be placed in a position of conflicting loyalties. Legal confidentiality would act to protect a client's privacy, and privileged communication would help to prevent testimony on a client's case without client permission.…”