I was recently asked by a Police officer to send him a copy of an ex-client’s therapy notes as part of a criminal case investigation in which she was the complainant. I responded in my usual way that I only hand over client notes when instructed to by a Judge.
(who can send me to prison if I refuse). I was trained to do this when I was a Paediatrician working with Child Protection cases. This was to protect the child from defence lawyers using the notes to try to assert that the child was to blame for the abuse in some way. I explained that I would be happy to write a report for the Police if my ex-client gave her consent. She did so and I drafted a report and asked her to read it before I sent it to the Police. She asked me to make a minor change which I did.
I was quite surprised when the ex-client asked me to hand over the therapy notes to the Police which I suspect they had encouraged her to do. The Police Officer had asked for my report but said he would also apply to a Judge to require me to hand the therapy notes over. I explained to the client that my concern was that defence barristers in criminal cases of child abuse may try to discredit her in any way they can and this can be quite brutal. I also explained that the therapy notes were confidential to both her and myself as I record Supervision notes and also the things I say to my clients.
On January 12th 2026 the Minister for Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls Jess Phillips reported new guidelines. Under the new rules, police requests for counselling notes must be necessary, proportionate, and relevant – as set out in a new victim information request code of practice. Requests for counselling information must also be cleared at the chief inspector level – significantly raising the bar for these types of requests.
I mentioned this case to a couple of colleagues and got the impression they might not have the nerve to resist the Police request. I’d be interested to know what others do in these situations.
Jan Marion
Trauma Therapist and EMDR Consultant
www.treasuredspace.co.uk
ANOTHER THERAPIST SAID
Here is the guidance that has been in place for a while now: https://www.cps.gov.uk/prosecution-guidance/pre-trial-therapy
This January 2026, the law was updated – https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-rules-on-police-requesting-counselling-notes-come-into-force–2In practice, we now need to see the police sending us a request authorised at the Chief Inspector level – here’s more about the practical application of the law: https://counsellingtutor.com/new-police-guidance-on-accessing-counselling-records/
I have the link to the pre-trial guidance in my client agreement and educate my clients about it.
ANOTHER THERAPIST SAID
Thank you to everyone who has given their experience and knowledge to this question. It matches with my own experience, although in my case the client was a young person, and the court case was against the child’s parents, but the child still lived with the parents during investigation. I did as others have stated: when asked by police for all notes I said no, only with court order, but the pressure from parents on the young person to ask me to provide notes to police was enormous and he was unable to withstand it.
The only additional suggestion I can add to all the excellent advice is to make use of the legal help lines and support of your professional insurance company. I did, and they were excellent.
ANOTHER PERSON RECOMMENDED
This is a resource: Bluestar Project Bluestar offers training and practice guidance to therapists. Their aim is to improve and inform about best practice ‘pre-trial’ therapy and support services (i.e. best practice for all contracting and note-keeping). It is up to date with the latest guidelines and practices. They say ‘Access to pre-trial therapy and support services is absolutely critical for survivors of trauma as they go through the criminal justice process. Many myths about pre-trial therapy exist and everyday a survivor somewhere in the UK is told they can’t access essential care services while their case is under investigation. This simply isn’t true.’