Client Confidentiality

I just had a client ask me about confidentiality.  This is not the first time I have gotten the question--and it comes up a lot around the holidays because people want to give their friends/family members a gift of a spiritual reading, but in some cases they have also had me do root work on said friends and family members during the year!  I just recently wrote a post on what types of behavior a reader/worker might expect from their clients, and this is part of the other side of that equation--what type of behavior can a client expect from their reader/worker as far as confidentiality goes?  What I tell my clients is that I am like a doctor.  Everything that we discuss and any work I do for you is strictly confidential as far as I am concerned.  I am ethically obligated to let the proper officials know if someone's physical life is in danger and if I encounter a client in a situation with rampant physical abuse I will let them know upfront that if I feel that they or any innocent parties (like children) are in danger then its my call to let the authorities know, but other than that all secrets are safe with me.  Of course, there are situations where a client will want someone to know what came up in their reading and in those cases I try to be as cooperative as possible.  But the most important thing to know is that the information you get during a reading or doing rootworker services is strictly for your ears only as far as I am concerned.