I have been seeing a counsellor for the past two years who seems to be a good fit. I attended sessions at her home until she moved house and since then she has offered sessions from a small meeting room along the corridor at the local church hall to keep a base for her local clients. It also has other rooms for hire.
I am now no longer anonymous. I go on the same day of the week and usually arrive a few minutes early and wait in the main hall from where my counsellor collects me. Volunteers offer teas and coffees to anyone who drops in, There is usually a mother and baby group and there are various older ladies around without kids who all know each other not my last session,as I approached the church hall there was a lady sitting on the bench outside who told me that it was all locked up (it turns out it wasn’t) and I said it couldn’t be because I had a meeting. She immediately responded with “Are you having counselling? Who with? I have counselling too“. When I got inside, one of the ladies approached me saying that there were no teas and coffees this week and was I there for the counselling room along the corridor. She even tried to send me along there. I seated myself well away from their group, but one of the other ladies came up close to me with her phone. I don’t think she was taking a photo of me but she had no reason to come over and I felt exposed.
I did mention the two exchanges to my counsellor at the end of the session, but she didn’t pass comment. Once when she was still doing counselling from her home I accidentally arrived an hour early and she was concerned that I could have crossed paths with another client. So clearly she thinks confidentiality is important.
How would you feel about continuing with counselling at a similar venue? Even though I don’t know any of the people who gather there, I now feel uncomfortable going back for my next session and I wonder whether something similar will eventually happen if I switch to another day.