Therapists should communicate with parents and family by remaining open with the line of communication and share any successes and discuss any areas of treatment that could require tweaking and parents should be an active part of therapy treatment.
Therapists only need to tell parents about any suicide ideas and thoughts you may have or about any harm you may be thinking about to yourself or others or if you're a danger to yourself or others.
Therapists will only tell parents if you're thinking of self harm, suicide or thinking of harming others.
In general though all other secrets will be kept confidential and your parents won't be told anything else you've said to them.
Your therapist cannot tell your secrets to anyone else and they must keep things you say to them confidential.
The rules of confidentiality in therapy are the therapist cannot leave revealing information on text or voicemail, the therapist cannot acknowledge to any outside parties that a client has an appointment with them and the therapist cannot discus any contents of the therapy with a third party without the explicit permission of the client.
The exceptions to the therapist confidentiality rule is that the therapist can tell someone else about things such as.
Detailed planning of future suicide attempts.
Other concrete signs of suicidal intent.
Planned violence towards others.
Planned future child abuse.
Formerly committed child abuse.
Experiencing child abuse.
Things that are not confidential with a therapist are you being a danger to yourself or others or threatening to harm yourself or others or if you threaten to assault someone or kill them.
Or if you're admitting to child abuse or admitting that there is child abuse in your family going on or you as a child are being abused then those things are not confidential and must be reported.
A therapist cannot tell the police if you did something illegal as doing so violates the patients confidentiality laws and they could lose their license.
You can tell a therapist about illegal things and they cannot report it to the police on the grounds of confidentiality laws.
You can tell a therapist anything and anything you say to the therapist they cannot share with others.
Even if you confess to your therapist that you are guilty of multiple robberies, rapes, or murders, therapists cannot report this information to the police, as it violates patient confidentiality laws if they do.
The amount of information you share with a therapist is entirely up to you.
After all, you're the client.
Still, the more honest you are with your therapist, the better.
Giving your therapist a window into your thoughts, feelings, and experiences provides them with context and details, so they can best help you.
If you're a minor you cannot go to a therapist without telling your parents.
To be seen by a therapist you will need to provide informed consent from a parent or legal guardian.
Minors cannot provide the consent needed for therapist treatment or mental health treatment on their own.
A small number of states make exceptions for sensitive issues like mental health but the majority of states require parental consent to be treated or seen for mental health including going to a therapist.
However while you require parental consent to be seen by a therapist the therapist cannot tell your parents what you discuss with them unless you're really young.
Therapists are confined by confidentiality laws that protect what you say to the therapist.
So the therapist will not tell your parents what you say unless you consent to the therapist doing so in writing.
Legally speaking, people under the age of 18 do not typically have a right to confidentiality in therapy.
However, some therapists ask parents to agree to the therapist's confidentiality rules before they will treat the client.
While state laws cover alcohol and drug abuse, some specify only one or the other.
Some states prohibit disclosure to parents, some leave this to the physician's discretion, and others require disclosure under certain circumstances.
Therapists who break confidentiality laws may be sued by clients in some cases, and they can get into trouble with state licensing boards as a result.
HIPAA does also allow a therapist to secure a client's permission to share relevant information with a health insurer for the purpose of being reimbursed for claims.
Even if you confess to your therapist that you are guilty of multiple robberies, rapes, or murders, therapists cannot report this information to the police, as it violates patient confidentiality laws if they do.
The amount of information you share with a therapist is entirely up to you.
After all, you're the client.
Still, the more honest you are with your therapist, the better.
Giving your therapist a window into your thoughts, feelings, and experiences provides them with context and details, so they can best help you.