Confidentiality is a basic principle of the psychotherapeutic work with people, which implies that everything that has been shared in the contact between therapist and client, is to be kept in secret and cannot be discussed with other people. There are exceptions from this rule only in two cases: (1) when the client admits he has committed a violation against the law, and (2) when the assessment of his current psychic condition shows that he is dangerous and can cause harm to himself or others. In such cases the therapist has the right to violate the rule of secrecy and to turn to the law-enforcement authorities or the client’s relatives for cooperation and intervention. All remaining information however, is confidential and the therapist must not share it with third persons.

The rule of confidentiality in on-line (electronic) therapy is exactly the same and obliges me to keep the information about my clients confidential unless it involves either of the above-mentioned exceptions to the rule.

The ethics of the International Society for Mental Health Online (ISMHO) also compel me to warn you of the risks involving the sending of messages via Internet, namely: (1) The confidentiality of the correspondence may be broken by hackers, by the Internet providers, as well as by other people using your computer; (2) There exists the risk that the messages sent do not reach their destination at all or arrive at the wrong address due to technical faults.