Sport and Exercise Psychology Review - Sport Psychology Goes to ...

Mark B. Andersen
While I continue to keep this Oath unviolated,
may it be granted me to enjoy life and the practice
of the art, respected by all men, in all times.
But should I trespass and violate this Oath,
may the reverse be my lot.
The issue of confidentiality is the last item in
the Hippocratic Oath and is immediately followed
by the two sentences I have added to
the usually cited passage. These two sentences
are beautiful end punctuations to
how serious Hippocrates believed these standards
of practice to be. He essentially finishes
off the Oath with ‘If I violate these laws
of practice (e.g. doing no harm, confidentiality,
no sexual intimacy with patients),
then I should be damned.’ Hippocrates, like
Darwin and Freud, to me, have near god-like
stature. The rest of us, however, are mere
mortals and subject to human – all-toohuman
– responses to clients, media, and
our own needs and desires. The world does
not need to know that David Beckham and
any psychologist have a professional relationship,
and giving the world that information
does nothing to help David Beckham,
violates the territory of confidentiality, and
serves the psychologist through possibly
increasing credibility, perhaps satisfying selfaggrandising
narcissistic needs, and maybe
even helping secure some future financial
gain. Many breaches of confidentiality in
(sport) psychology service are actually subtle
forms of exploitation.
The ethical principle of confidentiality is
the foundation upon which a viable and
healthy working alliance is formed. Clients
need to feel safe and secure in disclosing
anything to their psychologists. If they do
not, then trust and respect cannot develop,
important material may not emerge, and
therapy or counselling will probably be relatively
ineffective. Confidentiality is embedded
in the warp and weft of the therapeutic
relationship fabric, and it stands along with
respect for human dignity and freedom,
unconditional positive regard, and the creation
of an environment free of threat (see
Rogers, 1957). The message of confidentiality
informs the client that whatever is said
(with a couple extreme exceptions) the
information will be treated with respect, the
right to privacy will hold (see previous section)
and that one need not fear that secrets
will be communicated to others. This threatfree
and respectful environment supplies the
basis of permission for the clients to be
themselves, with their joys, fears, hopes,
dreams, peccadillos, and warts and all. It also
allows for the healthy development of positive
transference and countertransference
(cf. Andersen, 2005). Simply put, we can’t
deliver service without it.
Confidentiality and the identified client
Confidentiality, at first, appears relatively
straightforward, but it is not (see Kremer,
2002). As sport psychologists, we are bound
to keep the client’s confidence, but the
questions arise: (a) who is the client? and
(b) what are the contractual obligations?
In many cases, sport psychologists are
employed by national governing bodies
(NGB), by team administrators, by sports
medicine groups, or by parents and not by
individual athletes. A contract with an NGB
implies certain obligations to that organisation.
It may be that the sport psychologist is
employed to figure out where things are
going well for the athletes and coaches and
where they are not. Interviews and encounters
with the athletes and coaches then need
to be couched in terms of the sport psychologist
being brought in to help the NGB create
a more salubrious environment. This
service is similar to the work of many organisational
psychologists. A sport psychologist
in this role would not specifically relate to
the NGB what individual athletes and
coaches had said, but would report on the
general atmosphere of the team, what needs
of coaches and athletes were being met,
which needs were not being addressed, and
so forth. Individual confidentiality would be
maintained, but general confidentiality
would be waived. The psychologist would
then make suggestions for changes, actions,
or other interventions to help improve
the sport for all involved. For an example
6 Sport & Exercise Psychology Review Vol 1 No 2