Counseling often involves sharing sensitive, personal, and private information between the student and counselor. Recognizing this, laws and ethical guidelines require that all interactions with the Counseling Center, including content of your sessions, your records, scheduling of or attendance at appointments, and progress in counseling are confidential. No record of counseling is contained in any academic, educational, or job placement file.
Confidentiality Statement
It is the policy of the Wayne State College Counseling Center to treat all communication with students as confidential. Information obtained through testing, individual counseling sessions, or any other means shall remain a private communication between the student and the Wayne State College Counseling Center. Students involved in group counseling are asked to treat the group sessions in a similar confidential manner.
The only situations in which this confidentiality will be breached are the following:
- Those in which the student threatens harm to themselves or others. Under those circumstances, the counselor is responsible to take whatever steps are necessary to ensure the safety of the individual and/or those in their environment who may be at risk.
- Counselors are required to report physical and sexual abuse of minors or the elderly to the State Department of Social Services.
- The Counseling Center may release records if required by a court-ordered subpoena.
Any other release of information, either written or verbal, will only occur after written authorization from the student.