Is it okay to keep secrets from your therapist?

Therapy is Confidential If you are worried about confidentiality, remember that everything you say in your therapist’s office short of harming yourself or somebody else must remain confidential. Almost all therapists discuss confidentiality in the first session.

Should I tell my therapist my secrets?

Also, if you tell your therapist that you are going to hurt or kill someone else, your therapist is required to intervene not only to stop you, but to warn your potential target. Under any of these circumstances, your therapist would be ethically and legally required to breach confidentiality.

Is keeping a secret being dishonest?

Keeping secrets is being dishonest. Honesty is always the best policy, and most of us have a moral code that tells us that keeping secrets is akin to lying. For most of us, being dishonest is only acceptable when we are in dire straits – like trying to save someone’s life or survive a disaster.

Do therapists lie to their clients?

Curtis and Hart (2015) were among the first to study patterns of therapist concealment and deception. They found that 96\% of therapists reported intentionally keeping information from clients “in order to protect the client,” while 81\% reported directly lying to their clients.

Is it sometimes better to keep a secret?

Keeping a secret can cause stress and anxiety, and even depression. Even small secrets, things you live with every day, can keep lingering at the back of your mind. Once you reveal it, you will let go of negative feelings and clear your mind.

Why do people keep secrets in therapy?

Keeping secrets are at the heart of the process of psychotherapy. Patients keep secret, most of the time, the details of their therapy. It is often not even shared with spouses. Therapists keep secret everything about therapy, even if they learn something in therapy that might be harmful to a member of their family.

Why shouldn’t you keep secrets?

Keeping these kind of secrets allows the detrimental behavior to continue. Confess such secrets to the right people and it becomes much harder for the harm such secrets enable to continue.

What are some examples of keeping secrets?

All-to-common examples of this include addiction (to alcohol, drugs, gambling, sex, and so on) as well as infidelities (to spouses, business partners, friends, and so on). Keeping these kind of secrets allows the detrimental behavior to continue.

Should you confess your secrets?

Such situations are always nuanced and need to be considered on a case-by-base basis, but if you dodecide to confess, it will likely: Reduce your guilt. Though people who maintain such secrets do so ostensibly to prevent the last two scenarios I listed above, keeping such secrets has its costs.