The Importance of Confidentiality in Groups

Brad Aldrich   -  

Making your Group safe is a very important issue that each Group and each Group Leader needs to pay attention to! Talking about confidentiality is actually an essential conversation. It many have been years since you have had a conversation about what confidentiality looks like for your Group. Set up the confidentiality standard of making sure everyone understands that what is shared in the Group needs to stay in the Group.

A challenge for any Group is when that confidentiality gets broken. It happens sometimes when someone, even well-meaning, ends up sharing something that happened in the Group outside of the Group. If that happens, you need to work on the repair for the Group. That might be discussing the specific situation and working through forgiveness, or it might just mean re-discussing the topic of confidentiality and making sure everyone is clear on the expectation. If there is a violation of trust, your repair is essential for your Group to regain its sense of safety. It isn’t an easy conversation, but it can actually bring your Group to a different level of trust and forgiveness.