Privacy in Online Therapy

HIPAA is the federal law that protects your health information. In practice, it means your therapy is confidential: sessions are held over a secure, compliant platform, records are protected, and what you tell me is not shared with anyone without your written permission. Your employer, your family, and your social circle do not get access to your therapy — that protection is the default, not an upgrade.

Payment happens through a secure client portal as well, so the practical side of therapy is protected by the same standard.

The one part of online privacy I cannot control is your side of the screen — and clients get creative in good ways. A bedroom with a door, a parked car, a walk with headphones, a white-noise machine outside the door for thin walls. Sessions happen during the day, Monday through Thursday, which for many people means an empty house or a quiet office.

If privacy at home is genuinely hard to come by, say so. It is a solvable problem more often than it first appears.

Confidentiality in therapy is broad but not absolute, and you deserve to know the edges. Therapists are legally required to act if someone is in danger of harming themselves or someone else, and to report suspected abuse of a child, an elder, or a dependent adult. Records can also be subpoenaed in some legal proceedings, though I would always discuss that with you first.

These limits exist to protect life and safety. Everything short of them stays between us. That is the whole shape of it.