A Russian ethics code tells the client before session one that online therapy may leak
- The Ethical Code of the All-Russian Professional Psychotherapeutic League (OPPL) has ten principles, and its preamble makes them binding on all League members. Principle 10 is titled "Psychotherapy online".
- Under Principle 10, a therapist working remotely acknowledges that they cannot guarantee the same high level of confidentiality and security as in person, must tell the client about possible leaks of personal information caused by the design of internet platforms, and must make the best possible effort to keep the work private.
- The online option is discussed with the client before therapy begins, and the client keeps the right to choose in-person or online work. Responsibility for lower quality caused by a technical failure is agreed in advance: the therapist, the client, or both equally.
- Principle 4 requires written confirmation of the client's consent to share personal information, as much de-identification as possible when a case goes to supervision, and storage of client materials for at least 5 years.
The League's code gained its online principle in 2020, according to Psychological Gazette; the PDF itself carries no adoption date, so the text read here is the version currently posted on the League's site. Most of Principle 10 is made of things a therapist has to say to a client, not only things a therapist does.
Clauses worth writing down
Principle 10.a says remote therapists cannot guarantee the same confidentiality and security as in-person work. Said before the first session, that sentence stops being a private worry and becomes a term of the agreement. Principle 10.c requires the online option to be discussed before therapy starts and keeps the client's right to choose in-person. The client who picks online then picks it with the risk named.
The code requires some clauses and leaves others open. It requires an instruction on a "sealed" space (my translation of the code's quoted word) and on the client's equipment, with training to adapt to the format (10.b). It requires an advance agreement on who bears the cost of a technical failure (10.d). It requires written consent for any transfer of information and a retention period of at least 5 years (Principle 4). It does not tell you where session notes, messages and recordings live, or who else on the platform side can see them. Those lines are yours to add.
If your intake form has one sentence about online work, it is the paragraph to rewrite first.
Before the first online session the therapist tells the client that confidentiality cannot be guaranteed at the in-person level, and agrees in advance who bears the cost of a technical failure.
The PDF carries no adoption date; the 2020 date for Principle 10 comes from a Psychological Gazette report. The code binds League members and is an ethics document, not a statute. It sets no wording for the agreement, so the clauses beyond those the code names are the author's reading.