Illustration by Heidi Wong ‘20
On a campus divided into lightside and darkside, it can be easy to fall into the trap of divisiveness, propagating a culture of othering. In this once-dark and dismal winter, however, there is one thing that can unite the campus: stress. Stress is ubiquitous in Hamilton life, and, as such, many students turn to the Counseling Center for therapy and emotional help.
But who receives the information that students divulge to the counselors? Who has access to your outpourings? Who has the ability to act on information given in a therapeutic setting? Will the counselors tell your parents? Your coach? The Dean? According to Counseling Center Director and Staff Psychologist David Walden, Ph.D, counselors are required by New York State law to maintain student confidentiality, with a few notable exceptions.
“Because we are licensed by the state in which we practice, then our confidentiality is governed by state law,” Walden said. “We can’t even divulge that a student is coming to (the Counseling Center).” As clients of the Counseling Center, students are entitled to the same level of doctor-patient confidentiality as any private practice.
“There are three circumstances in which we can and, according to law, should break confidentiality,” Walden says, “The rest is imminent risk of suicide, second is imminent risk of homicide, and third is if we know of active abuse of children or the elderly, so people who can’t defend themselves — which we almost never face in this environment.” Within the language of the law, however, there is room for interpretation.
“The language in the law is ‘imminent risk,’ which is an interpretable phrase. The way I interpret it and the way [the Counseling Center] interprets it is that there needs to be a very specific and time-defined intent that we feel we know about and can’t prevent in any other way.”
While students may feel as if there is a possibility of collusion between the Counseling Center and school of officials, and may fear repercussions from items discussed in therapy, the reality is that barring the three extenuating circumstances (suicide, homicide, abuse of the incapable), the Counseling Center is bound by law to maintain confidentiality.
In fact, according to Director Walden, the administration rarely makes attempts to access client information, and even if they did, the student always reserves the right to bar the voluntary sharing of information between the Counseling Center and the administration.
“My experience as the director of the Counseling Center has been that the administration has not pressured [me] to release information about students and in fact, the opposite is true. They have been incredibly respectful of my boundaries around that, and that makes my job much easier.”
So, do not hold back if you go down to the Counseling Center. The counselors there know what they are doing, and they are trained (and paid) to help in whatever ways they can. The only thing harder than opening up is keeping it bottled inside. Rest easy knowing your confidentiality is safe, and that you are not alone in your endeavor to live a better life. In the words of Director Walden, “We are all trying to look out for each other.”
