What happens to what you tell me

Most sites bury this. It should be one of the first things you read.

Short answer

I am not a licensed health professional, so HIPAA does not apply to our work, and I will not claim it does. Instead I hold a confidentiality standard I set myself: I keep almost no written records on purpose, I do not discuss you with anyone, and there are exactly three situations in which I would break confidence. They are listed below and they will be in your agreement.

Why I am not going to say I am HIPAA compliant

Because it would not be true. HIPAA governs health care providers and the businesses that handle data on their behalf. I am neither. Plenty of coaches put a HIPAA badge on their website anyway, and it is a false claim about a federal law made by someone asking you to trust them with your private life. Draw your own conclusion about that.

What actually protects you here is not a badge. It is a stated standard, in writing, from someone who has to keep it.

The standard I hold

I do not discuss you with anyone. Not by name, not anonymously as an example, not to my partner, not on social media.
I do not sell, share, or trade your information, ever.
I do not record calls. Placeholder: recording policy to be finalised.
If I ever wanted to use something from our work as an example, I would ask you first, in writing, and a no costs you nothing.

⭐ Why I keep almost no notes

This is the part most people have never been told, and it matters more than anything else on this page.

Coaching does not carry legal privilege. What you say to a licensed professional is protected in ways that what you say to a coach is not. My notes are ordinary business records. In a legal dispute, they can be subpoenaed.

Think about who that actually affects. If you are working with me about a marriage, and that marriage ends up in a contested divorce, the other side's attorney can come after the notes of the person you have been talking to every week about it. I could do everything else right and still hand somebody a weapon.

So the design of this practice is simple: what is not written down cannot be produced. I keep your name, the dates we spoke, how long, and the goals you told me in your own words. I do not keep a narrative of what was said. Placeholder: retention period to be finalised.

The trade is real and you should know about it. It means I hold less of the history in a file and more of it in my head, and it means if you want a detailed record of your own progress, you keep it, not me. Most people, once they understand why, prefer it this way.

The three situations where I would break confidence

These will be written into your agreement in exactly these words, so that this is a promise rather than a claim about my legal status:

If you tell me you intend to seriously harm yourself or another person.
If I learn of abuse or neglect of a child or a vulnerable adult.
If I am ordered to by a court.

Outside those three, what you tell me stays with me.

What goes in the intake form, and what does not

The form on the booking page asks for very little on purpose: your name, how to reach you, and one line about what you want to work on. Please do not put anything sensitive in it. Not because it is unsafe, but because a web form is the worst possible place for the detail and the phone call is the right one. Save it for the call.

Placeholder The client agreement, the retention period and the data handling details are being finalised and will be published here before the first client is taken.