Confidentiality Commitment
Everything you tell me is confidential. This sets out exactly how.
This is a commitment, not a summary of one. It describes what I actually do, and I am willing to be held to every line of it.
1. What this covers
Everything you bring to a coaching engagement. What you say in a session, what you write to me between sessions, the situation you are trying to work out, the people involved in it, the organisation you work for, and anything you share in the intake form before we have even spoken.
It covers what you tell me whether or not you mark it confidential, and whether or not it seems sensitive at the time. You should not have to decide what is safe to say.
2. That we work together is confidential too
For some clients the content of a conversation is not the exposure. The exposure is that the conversation is happening at all.
I will not confirm or deny that you are, or have ever been, a client. Not to a journalist, not to a colleague of yours, not to someone who says they already know, and not to another client. If asked, I will decline to answer rather than deny, because a denial in one case makes silence in another case meaningful.
If you would like to tell people you work with me, that is entirely yours to decide, and I will follow your lead rather than the other way round.
3. Who else hears anything
Nobody. I work as a sole practitioner. I do not use a supervisor, a co-coach, an assistant, or a peer group, so the content of your sessions is not discussed with anyone, anonymised or otherwise.
The only exceptions are the narrow legal ones in section 7.
Administrative details are a separate matter and should be described honestly. Your name and email address pass through ordinary business systems: an email provider, an invoicing record, a calendar entry. Those systems hold the fact of an appointment and the details needed to raise an invoice. They never hold session content. How that administrative data is handled is set out in the Privacy Policy.
4. When an employer or organisation is paying
This is the question worth asking before you accept employer-funded coaching, so here is the answer in advance.
The organisation paying receives nothing about the content of your sessions. Not themes, not progress, not areas of development, not an impression, not a verbal summary over coffee. Whoever signs the invoice is buying you the time, not access to what happens in it.
Where a sponsor requires confirmation that coaching is taking place, that is limited to attendance or completion, it is agreed in writing before the engagement begins, and you see the exact wording before it is sent. If you are not comfortable with it, it does not go.
If a sponsor asks me for more than that during the engagement, I will decline and I will tell you that they asked.
5. Notes, recording and technology
Sessions are never recorded. Not audio, not video, not by me and not for any purpose including my own development.
No transcription, and no AI tools. Session content is never put through an automated note-taker, a transcription service, a summarisation tool or an AI assistant of any kind.
I keep the minimum notes needed to be useful to you between sessions: enough to remember what we agreed and what you were working on. They are brief, they avoid names of third parties wherever possible, and they are stored encrypted on a device only I have access to. You are welcome to ask what I hold about you at any point, and to ask me to delete it.
6. Results, testimonials and case studies
The results shown on this website are anonymised. Roles are described in general terms, organisations are not named alongside individuals, and no combination of details is published that would allow someone to work out who a client was.
Nothing you say is quoted anywhere without your explicit written consent, given after you have seen the exact wording. Consent to be quoted is not consent to be identified, and quotations remain anonymous unless you specifically ask otherwise.
Consent can be withdrawn at any time, and the material comes down.
7. The limits
A promise of absolute confidentiality would not be credible and would not be lawful. There are two circumstances in which I may need to disclose something, and both are narrow.
Risk of serious harm. If I believe there is a genuine risk of serious harm to you or to someone else, I may share the minimum necessary with the people able to help. Wherever it is safe and possible to do so, I will tell you first and involve you in the decision.
Legal compulsion. If I am required by law, by a court, or by a regulatory authority to disclose information, I will comply. I will limit disclosure to what is strictly required, and I will tell you unless I am legally prohibited from doing so.
These are the only two. Commercial pressure, a sponsor's request, a request from your employer, and curiosity from anyone at all are not among them.
8. After the engagement ends
This commitment does not expire. It applies for as long as the information exists, and it survives the end of our working relationship indefinitely.
Notes are deleted when they are no longer needed, and in any case within the retention period set out in the Privacy Policy. You can ask for them to be deleted sooner.
9. How this sits with the Privacy Policy
The two documents do different jobs and are both worth reading.
The Privacy Policy is a legal document about personal data: what is collected through this website and this business, why, on what legal basis, how long it is kept, and what rights you have over it under the GDPR.
This page is a professional commitment about what you tell me. Where the two overlap, the stricter of the two applies.
10. If you have a concern
If you believe this commitment has not been honoured, tell me directly at kr@sidrlabs.com and I will respond personally.
I hold the PCC credential from the International Coaching Federation and am bound by the ICF Code of Ethics. If you would rather raise something independently, the ICF operates its own confidential ethical conduct review process, which is open to clients and does not require my involvement.
11. Common questions
Is coaching with Sidrlabs confidential?
Yes. Everything you bring to a coaching engagement is confidential: what you say in a session, what you write between sessions, and anything you share in the intake form before we have even spoken. It applies whether or not you mark it confidential, and whether or not it seems sensitive at the time.
Will my employer know what I discuss in my sessions?
No. An employer who funds your coaching receives nothing about the content of your sessions. Where a sponsor requires confirmation that coaching is taking place, that is limited to attendance or completion, it is agreed in writing before the engagement begins, and you see the exact wording before it is sent. If a sponsor asks for more during the engagement, I decline and I tell you that they asked.
Are coaching sessions recorded or transcribed?
No. Sessions are never recorded, in audio or video, by me or for any purpose including my own development. There is no transcription.
Do you use AI tools on session content?
No. Session content is never put through an automated note-taker, a transcription service, a summarisation tool, or an AI assistant of any kind.
Would you confirm to anyone that I am a client?
No. I will not confirm or deny that you are, or have ever been, a client, to anyone. If asked I decline to answer rather than deny, because a denial in one case would make silence in another case meaningful. Whether you tell people you work with me is entirely your decision.
Are there any circumstances in which you would break confidentiality?
Two, and both are narrow. If I believe there is a genuine risk of serious harm to you or to someone else, I may share the minimum necessary with the people able to help. And if I am required by law, a court or a regulatory authority to disclose information, I will comply, limiting disclosure to what is strictly required. In both cases I will tell you wherever it is safe and lawful to do so.