Dante Painter

I view confidentiality as crucial to therapeutic trust and effectiveness. I am happy to update parents/guardians on overall progress and general information, but details and specifics are kept confidential with the client. Confidentiality is only broken when required as a mandated reporter, and even this would be a collaborative and transparent process. If your teen is 17 and older in Illinois, they also have the right to access therapy without guardian permission. In that case, I will inform the client of their rights to confidentiality and access to their own profile.

Patience is the most important. I will typically engage the client in Play Therapy or other interactive process instead of just talking. Or we can simply spend time together for a while. I let the child/teen lead and will wait as long as they need me to. Sometimes the most healing thing is to just have an adult who will sit with you.