Confi dentiality is an ethical duty. The Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct (the Ethics Code; American Psychological Association [APA], 2010b ) describes the protection of confi dential information as a "primary obligation" (p. 7). It has been variously defi ned as "a standard of professional conduct that obliges a professional not to discuss information about a client with anyone" ( Koocher & Keith-Spiegel, 2008, p. 194 ), "the secret-keeping duty that arises from the establishment of the professional relationship that psychologists develop with their clients" ( Younggren & Harris, 2008, p. 589 ), and "a duty to keep private things private" ( Haas & Malouf, 2005, p. 32 ).Confi dentiality is also a legal duty. Many laws provide legal support for the profession ' s ethical rule. In many states, the Ethics Code has been incorporated into psychologists ' licensing regulations, thereby giving the profession ' s confi dentiality standards the force of law. It confuses matters, however, that certain other state laws can severely limit confidentiality by requiring psychologists to disclose information without the client ' s consent.Historically, psychologists were ethically free to begin client relationships by saying, "Everything you tell me stays in this room," because they usually were free legally to keep that promise. As laws began to require psychologists to disclose certain client information, strong voices within the profession, including a former APA president ( Siegel, 1979 ), argued that psychologists nevertheless should protect confidentiality absolutely. Some still advocate that therapists of all professions should refuse to disclose client information under any circumstances, regardless of the legal consequences ( Bollas & Sundelson, 1995 ;Kipnis, 2006 ). But neither the mental health professions nor the law now treat confi dentiality as an absolute value. Because laws often require confi dential client information to be disclosed, the APA Ethics Code now explicitly permits psychologists to make exceptions to the ethical rule. In other words, both the profession and the law now place some conditions on the client ' s right to confi dentiality.Ethically speaking, this "conditional confi dentiality" can be complicated to practice. In part, this diffi culty arises from the fact that, although all psychologists must uphold the same ethical standards about confi dentiality ( APA, 2010b ), each state imposes different legal limitations on their ability to protect clients ' confi dences. Although confi dentiality might seem to be an easy concept on the surface, it becomes quite complex when exceptions differ from circumstance to circumstance and from state to state ( Younggren & Harris, 2008 ). Confusion about confi dentiality was increased by the fact that while states were enacting some laws that protected confi dentiality (i.e., privileged communications laws), they also were enacting other laws that required clinicians to disclose confi dential information (e.g., mandated reporting laws...