At Issue: Counseling Confidentiality, by Charlie Butts, One News Now, October 24, 2011

At Issue: Counseling Confidentiality

By Charlie Butts
One News Now
October 24, 2011

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Legal/Default.aspx?id=1463170

A nun who counseled a murder suspect is being called upon to testify in his trial -- and that poses an interesting legal question.

Jose Feliciano is on trial for allegedly stabbing a priest to death after being required to obtain a background check for continued employment at a New Jersey church. Mat Staver of Liberty Counsel tells OneNewsNow it is wrong to obtain testimony from the nun with whom the suspect shared that information.

"What they're trying to do is breach that counseling confidentiality," Staver explains. "If they do that, then that means that counseling from either a clergy -- or in this case a nun or counselor -- falls apart, because if the counselee cannot be assured that what they're saying to the counselor is protected by confidentiality, they're not going to open up."

While there are exceptions to that rule, Staver suggests that is apparently not the case in this particular trial. "When that person is engaging in a specific counseling relationship, then those communications are protected," he states. "If it's just an off the cuff conversation, it's completely different."

In this case, the nun has a doctorate in ministry, is trained (but not licensed) as a therapist, and serves as a counselor at a Catholic counseling center.