Counselors,confidences, and the civil liberties of clients

Counselors can and do injure counselees by prying improperly into private matters, by passing information along without the counselees' informed consent, and by using privileged information as a basis for recommendations to others. The danger is especially great where counselors work within organizations, and even greater when their clients are fellow members. Safeguards against this danger would appear to take an uncounselorlike form. Although counselors are not usually sympathetic to a legalistic approach, it is from our constitutional traditions that we can best deduce the kinds of protection that we need.