Counsellors feel their duty of providing their clients with safety is "compromised" when worried about being forced to hand over their notes in court cases, a psychologist and sexual violence survivor has said.

The use of counselling notes in rape or sexual assault cases has been discussed frequently in recent weeks with the promise of new laws protecting women against violence announced by the Justice Minister after campaigning by People Before Profity-Solidarity’s Ruth Coppinger.

Currently in Ireland, during a trial, if the survivor has gone for therapy, those counselling notes can be used in any subsequent court case.

While survivors and some TDs have fought for a change in this area – this change has yet to be seen.

Professionally, senior clinical psychologist Dr Niamh Ni Dhomhnaill is aware of this happening and as a survivor of sexual violence, it was a factor in the court case she was involved in.

On Moncrieff, Dr Ni Dhomhnaill said the therapeutic and healing part of surviving sexual violence should be “distinct and separate” from a legal process.

She said psychologists are becoming very cautious in what they take down in their notes as they could be used against the person seeking therapy in court.

“We should be able to record what we feel is necessary and important, because don't forget, like a lot can be said in 50 minutes,” Dr Ni Dhomhnaill said.

“We see many people in a day and it's important that we're able to document what someone has said.

“If someone has told us something, or there's something there that we kind of want to return to, maybe they've just said a particular word or particular phrase, you want to be able to hold on to that in some way.

“My fear here is that we're actually all quite scared now that there is literally someone listening at the door - we can't have that.”

Unhappy woman suffering from domestic violence. Image: Alamy

Dr Ni Dhomhnaill said not knowing who is going to be reading those notes is “incredibly destressing” for the victim.

“I can speak from my own personal experience that a my therapy notes were requested by the defence - it was really distressing,” she said.

“I pushed back and I requested them in the meantime and spoke with my therapist at the time around even just the process of reading those notes back.

“It's incredibly difficult to read someone else's thoughts on how you presented when really, really distressed,

“Even though you might totally agree and you might know it was true, that's not nice to read back on - then to consider that there's a whole host of people who are going to read it that's like, that's incredibly distressing.”

Guidelines

Dr Ni Dhomhnaill said her question is - what is the purpose of requesting and reading these notes?

“When people look for these notes, do they have a set of guidelines within which they can mine for information? Can they just cherry pick?” she asked.

“I can't conceive of any other situation where notes like these - medical records - would be requested without there being some kind of guidelines as to how they're used.

“I don't understand why we as the therapists or clinicians working with the person aren't actually invited to maybe write a report or to speak to what happened.”

Pictured is a mural on Chancery Street in Dublin, featuring the words "Stop Killing Women". 05/01/2022 Photograph: Leah Farrell / RollingNews.ie

Dr Ni Dhomhnaill said she thinks there is “an arrogance” about just taking those notes and not knowing what was meant by them or how to interpret them.

“If I reflect back to my own experience, the therapy notes were requested, I pushed back a fair bit, and I don't know if I was ever given a reason why the notes weren't used,” she said.

“But conversely, I remember saying, ‘Well, I have a really significant diagnoses of post-traumatic stress disorder - surely you would want proof that I have that. I can get you proof - would you like it?’ And I was told, ‘No, we don't need that’.

“So that's kind of interesting because my understanding is that the point here is that it's the right to a fair trial.

“So in my experience, the notes were requested, but when I offered evidence as to impact, I was told that's not necessary - that doesn't add up.”

Compromised

Dr Ni Dhomhnaill said, professionally, at the moment she feels compromised knowing that she might have to hand her notes away.

“There's no legislation there, there's no guidance,” she said.

“My duty to my clients is to create safety and I actually feel that that's being completely compromised right now, with absolutely no guidance or legislation, no discussion from the state or the DPP with any of us as clinicians or psychologists.”

Listen back here:

A woman looks out of a window, Alamy.