Be honest for a second. When you typed “private therapy” or “confidential counselling,” what did you actually mean?
Most people mean this: only me and the therapist. No trainee sitting in. No relative who “just came along.” And please — nobody from my office, my neighbourhood, or my family recognising me in the waiting room or the corridor outside.
That fear is real. In Kathmandu, or anywhere people know each other’s faces, being spotted in a clinic queue can feel worse than the session itself. So you look for a quiet place, a discreet entrance, a closed door. Fair.
Now the harder question for your own peace of mind: is that the whole of privacy? Or is it the part you can picture — while forms, video links, and notes also need safeguarding?
Your waiting-room picture — we take it seriously
Yes: you should know that only your therapist is in the room unless you agreed otherwise. Yes: you can ask how we handle scheduling so you are not left face-to-face with someone you know in the waiting area when we can help avoid that.
We also want you to know what happens to your information after the door closes. Privacy here is not finished in the lobby. It continues through registration, the session channel, and where notes are kept.
What “private” and “confidential” mean in our care
For you, both words should cover this when you work with us:
- Your therapist does not tell your family, boss, or community what you said — unless a narrow safety or legal limit applies, and that limit was explained before you went deep
- Therapy itself does not run on Zoom, Google Meet, Teams, FaceTime, or WhatsApp
- The form you fill lands in a healthcare clinical portal — not a free consumer survey tool as the permanent home
- Notes live in a controlled clinical record with named access — not as the main copy in everyday chat
- Not every staff member can open your file with one shared password
- The session is not recorded or auto-transcribed
- Your name and story are not pasted into a public AI tool to write notes
That is the safeguard we build around you — from the day you decide to join us through ongoing care.
What we do not use for therapy — and why
Free consumer apps are excellent for life. We do not use them as the container for psychotherapy, because they were not designed to carry clinical history the way healthcare systems are. So at this clinic:
- We do not hold therapy hours on Zoom, Google Meet, Teams, or FaceTime
- We do not do trauma work or ongoing therapy chat on WhatsApp, Viber, Messenger, or SMS
- We do not keep clinical notes as the primary record in personal email or chat apps
- We do not use free consumer form tools as the permanent home for your intake history
- WhatsApp and phone stay for booking and short logistics only — if clinical history starts there, we move it to secure intake or a session
This is our method. It is how we keep APA-aligned confidentiality in the systems, not only as a spoken promise.
Questions you can ask us — out loud
Before or in a first session with us, you can say any of these. You are not being rude. You are deciding whether to trust us with your story.
- “When you say private — do you mean only the waiting room and the closed door, or also my forms and notes?”
- “Will anyone else be in the room? What if I might see someone I know here?”
- “Do we use Zoom, Meet, or WhatsApp for the therapy itself — or only to book?”
- “Where do my intake answers go, and who can open them?”
- “When you write notes, where is the permanent copy?”
- “Who else in this practice can open my file?”
- “Do you record or transcribe sessions?”
- “Does any of my identifying information go into an AI tool?”
- “When would you have to break confidentiality — and will you tell me that before we continue?”
- “If I stop coming, what happens to my records?”
How your care path is safeguarded here
- Booking — name and number for a time; logistics only, not your whole history in chat
- Intake — why you came, written into a healthcare clinical portal
- Session — private room or encrypted clinical video; not recorded
- After — clinician notes in the controlled clinical record
- Ongoing — named access and an audit trail; file not used for marketing if you pause or end
Also read: Full care-cycle detail on how we protect your information →
Before you book with us
You were right to care who sits with you, and who might see you wait. Keep that. Then know this as well: after you speak with us, your story is meant to stay inside healthcare systems we chose for that duty — from registration through notes.
Read the privacy page. Ask us anything that is still unclear. You should know how we safeguard you before you open up — not after.