Privacy & confidentiality
Privacy & confidentiality
The work of therapy depends on trust. Here's how your information is protected, what stays between us, and the specific situations where Ontario law requires me to disclose information without your consent.
The principle
What you share in therapy stays in therapy.
The starting point of every conversation here is confidentiality. What you say in session, what we work on together, the records that accumulate over time — none of it is shared without your consent, with five specific exceptions required by Ontario law.
The work depends on that. People can't bring their actual difficulty into the room if they're worried about who else might hear it.
PHIPA
How your information is governed.
Ontario's Personal Health Information Protection Act (PHIPA) is the provincial law that governs how health professionals collect, use, store, and disclose your personal health information. It applies to this practice.
In plain terms, that means:
- Information is collected only when it's relevant to your care.
- It's used for the purpose you consented to when you signed on as a client.
- It's stored on PHIPA-compliant infrastructure hosted in Canada.
- You have the right to access your records and to request that corrections be made if something is inaccurate.
Record-keeping
How long records are kept.
CRPO requires that clinical records be kept for a minimum period after our work ends:
- For adults — at least ten years from the date of our last session.
- For minors — at least ten years past their eighteenth birthday.
Records are stored securely inside Jane App on PHIPA-compliant, Canadian-hosted infrastructure. After the retention period, records are destroyed in a manner that meets PHIPA and CRPO requirements.
The legal limits
When confidentiality has to be broken.
Confidentiality has five specific exceptions under Ontario law. These aren't buried — you should know about them before our first session.
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Risk of serious, imminent harm
If there's a credible, immediate risk that you or someone else may be seriously hurt or killed, I'm required to take steps to prevent that — which may include contacting emergency services, a hospital, or a person who can help keep you safe.
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Suspected abuse or neglect of a child under 16
Under Ontario's Child, Youth and Family Services Act, anyone with reasonable grounds to suspect that a child under 16 is being abused or neglected is required to report it to a Children's Aid Society.
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Suspected abuse of a long-term care resident
Similarly, suspected abuse or neglect of a resident in a long-term care home must be reported to Ontario's Ministry of Long-Term Care.
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Court order or subpoena
If a court orders the disclosure of records, I'm required to comply. Where possible, I challenge overly broad requests.
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Sexual abuse by a regulated health professional
Under Ontario's Regulated Health Professions Act, if I learn during the course of practice that a client has been sexually abused by another regulated health professional, I'm required to report this to that professional's regulatory college. The report names the alleged abuser, but it does not include your name unless you give written consent.
Where it's safe and possible, I let you know in advance if a disclosure has to be made, and I share only what's necessary for the specific situation — nothing more.
Working with minors
Consent and confidentiality for kids and teens.
Working with a young person involves balancing two things: their right to a private therapeutic space, and parents' responsibility for their child's well-being. Here's how that's typically handled.
Children, ages 6–12
A parent or legal guardian consents to therapy on behalf of the child and is usually closely involved in the work. Themes and progress are shared with parents in general terms; the specific words a child uses in session stay between us, unless a safety concern arises.
Youth, ages 13–17
Ontario's Health Care Consent Act does not set a fixed age of consent. A young person who has the capacity to understand the treatment and its consequences can consent to therapy on their own. In practice, most teens 13 and up can consent independently; for younger teens, parents are usually more involved.
In the first session — often with parent and teen together — we set out clearly what gets shared with parents (general progress, safety concerns) and what stays between teen and therapist (the specifics of what comes up). This is talked through up front so nothing is a surprise later.
The five legal limits above apply regardless of age. Safety concerns are shared with the people who can help keep a young person safe, even when other content stays private.
Clinical supervision
Who else sees the work.
As a Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying), CRPO requires me to consult regularly with a clinical supervisor — an experienced regulated practitioner whose role is to support the quality and ethics of my work.
In those supervision conversations, identifying details about clients are minimized: first names or initials only, with the rest framed in clinical terms rather than as personal story. The supervisor is bound by the same confidentiality obligations under PHIPA and CRPO that I am.
Supervision exists for clinical and ethical guidance — not for sharing your story with anyone else. If at any point you have questions about how supervision works in relation to your care, ask; I'm happy to talk through it.
Technology & data
Where your information actually lives.
- The platform
- Sessions, scheduling, intake forms, clinical notes, and billing live inside Jane App — a Canadian healthcare-practice platform that is PHIPA-compliant and hosted on Canadian infrastructure.
- What is stored
- Your contact information, appointment history, intake responses, session notes, and billing records are stored inside Jane for as long as record-retention requirements apply.
- What is not stored
- Live video sessions are not recorded. I do not save audio or video files of our sessions.
- About email
- Email is convenient for scheduling and brief logistics, but standard email is not an encrypted channel. Please avoid sharing detailed clinical or sensitive information by email — save it for session, or use Jane's internal messaging.
Privacy questions
Who to contact.
Under PHIPA, I am the Health Information Custodian for this practice. That means questions, requests, or concerns about your personal health information come directly to me.
That includes: requests to access your records, requests to correct something in them, questions about how your information is being handled, or a complaint about a privacy practice.
Direct
vaveena@yathrapsychotherapy.ca
Independent oversight
Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario →
You always have the right to file a complaint with the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario if you believe your privacy rights under PHIPA have not been respected.