The extended confidentiality used within a psychotherapeutic team (also known as “shared confidentiality”) is a special operating principle that extends the traditional confidentiality obligation between an individual therapist and patient to the entire treatment team.

What exactly does this mean?

The basis of traditional confidentiality

Normally, the exchange of information between therapist and patient is strictly confidential. The therapist may not share anything disclosed during sessions with third parties without the patient’s consent, except in legally regulated situations (for example, if the patient poses danger to themselves or others).

What changes in team-based work?

In team-based therapeutic care, several professionals work together on the same case — for example clinical psychologists, psychiatrists, psychotherapists, special education professionals, art therapists, and family therapists.

Under the principle of extended confidentiality, the information shared by the patient may also be discussed within this professional team, exclusively for therapeutic purposes and only among those professionals who participate in the patient’s care.

This means that confidentiality is not abolished, but rather extended to all members of the treating team.

Why is this beneficial?

The purpose of this approach is to ensure that professionals can think together in a complex and integrated way about the patient’s condition and the possible directions of treatment. Different specialists may notice different aspects of a problem, and shared professional reflection can contribute to more effective and safer care.

What guarantees protect the patient?

Extended confidentiality can only function ethically if every team member is bound by the same professional confidentiality obligations, information is used solely in the patient’s interest, only professionals directly involved in the case have access to the information, and the patient (or, in the case of minors, the parent/legal guardian) is informed about the team-based operating model.

In practice

At MURMO, professionals regularly hold team consultations and specialized case discussions in order to review clients’ situations within the framework of extended confidentiality. This model allows the therapeutic process not to rely solely on the perspective of one individual professional, but instead to be supported by the knowledge and experience of an entire professional community.