Complications with confidentiality in Employee Assistance situations

Confidentiality is essential for effective and helpful therapy. However, in the case where a therapist is paid by a secondparty (the EAP organization), which is working for the employer, sometimes the boundaries get fuzzy. I have had some difficulty in the past with situations in which the EAP payor expected me, the therapist, to answer questions which seemed to me to violate the client's right to privacy. The expectation seemed to be that because the client had signed a release (vaguely worded), the secondary party had a right to ask pretty much whatever they wanted, in the interests of the employer. Any thoughts on this?

• Thoughts by William Reid, 1/4/99