Therapists who find out personal information about people they know?

[Zun]

I guess this could apply to other professions, I’m looking for a relationship therapist and came across someone who’s married to a friend of the person I have an issue with. They don’t know me, but they know the person in question.

This must happen relatively frequently, I can’t imagine being privy to juicy gossip (relationship related, not medical) and not being able to do anything about it!

If they abide by their regulatory body then they mustn't discuss things in an identifiable way. So if they were to talk to someone who knew a client they'd have to be extremely careful not to identify what that specific person told them in confidence.

As I understand it, if the therapist realised they knew someone in common, they shouldn’t continue being therapist to that client.

I wouldn't feel comfortable if I knew there was a close overlap like that.

In smaller communities it isn't uncommon for people to have confidential information about other people's lives, whether as a doctor, lawyer, therapist, police officer or social worker. If you have a job where you have confidential information it's normal then keeping it confidential is also normal for you.

A good therapist would refuse to start working with a person if there was any known personal connection at all. Or if they became aware of one during therapy, they would work to end the therapy safely as quickly as was possible. A good therapist would also signpost the client to other reputable therapists

I think generally speaking most people wouldn’t go to a therapist who they have close personal connections to outside of the therapeutic relationship. If you are looking for a relationship therapist, then it would be for you and your partner. It wouldn’t be appropriate to see a therapist who was a friend’s partner. Obviously, you know this, so you can look for someone else. If it came out in the course of the therapeutic relationship, in many cases, I think the therapist would advise you see someone else (perhaps depending on the reasons you were seeing them to begin with).