Confidentiality, Privilege, and Mandatory Reporting
This domain tests the difference between confidentiality and privilege and the narrow points where law compels or permits disclosure. Minnesota's privilege statute, Minn. Stat. § 595.02, extends to licensed marriage and family therapists' communications.
Confidentiality versus privilege
- Confidentiality is the ethical duty not to disclose; it is broad and yields only to defined exceptions.
- Privilege is an evidentiary rule that keeps communications out of legal proceedings. It belongs to the client and can be waived by the client, not the therapist.
When disclosure is permitted or required
- Valid written authorization that is specific, time-limited, and revocable.
- Subpoena versus court order: a subpoena signed by an attorney is not a court order and does not by itself override privilege. Notify the client, assert privilege, and seek a court order or authorization.
- Mandatory reporting: child abuse or neglect under Minn. Stat. § 626.556, reported immediately to the local welfare agency or law enforcement, with a written report within 72 hours if requested; vulnerable-adult maltreatment under Minn. Stat. § 626.557.
- Duty to warn: where a client presents a serious danger of violence to a reasonably identifiable person, the therapist may discharge the duty by warning the victim, notifying law enforcement, or taking other reasonable precautions; good-faith action carries immunity.
Worked example
A client says her boyfriend shook her two-year-old. The therapist must report even though the client is not the alleged perpetrator and reporting may strain the alliance. The statutory standard is reasonable suspicion, not proof; the therapist does not investigate first.
Traps that cost marks
- Treating a subpoena as a court order.
- Waiting for certainty before reporting.
- Reporting historical abuse of an adult client when no child is currently at risk; § 626.556 targets current child protection.
- Disclosing more than necessary when a narrow warning or report suffices.