My Daughter has been seeing a therapist now it is court ordered that her father and I attend as well. Her father and I are divorced. Well last night her father wanted to speak to the therapist without our daughter or myself present. So we were ask to leave however my ex was already back in the office so I ask her is his new wife in the room she responded yes. I told her court papers does not include her. But she allowed it anyway. I allowed my ex to have a meeting just him and the therapist but not the new wife. I disageered to that so without me signing a consent and having full custody of the child was the therapist violating hippa by allowing the new wife to be a part of the therapy?

Depends on what was being said, if it involved the home environment at his home, or what he should be doing. And honestly he did not really need YOUR permission to speak privately to the father since he was court ordered to be there.

In this type of situation, the doctor may want or need to talk to everyone in the home environments

I wasn't asking if it was okay for him to talk with the therapist alone. I was saying it was court ordered for my ex, myself, and our daughter so would it be a hippa violation foe my ex's new wife to be seeing the therapist with him discussing his and my situation?

Well Thanks for your help! I just take it that now my husband will be allowed to be involed since he has not been for the past 3 month's and I doubt the therapist will drive 100 miles to visit there home. Court order state's all 3 for family therapy not one on one not any wives but if it doesn't somehow violate right's hey why not all of the family!!

No it is not a violation. In fact having her there and judging the situation is a good thing. The 3 of you are participating in therapy. Sometimes you have to broaden the brush to get a better picture. Is there a reason you object to this?

Only if the therapist discusses matters or information learned from you. If the present wife only speaks about information gained in the session with your ex and his currrrent wife, it wouldnmt be a HIPAA violation, although it could be an extremely difficult not to cross the line. For that reason other professional ethical rules may very well come into play.

KaylaL, like it or not, your child's stepmother is a part of the family, and may be able to provide valuable insight during therapy sessions on their home situation. She didn't sit in on your therapy session, she had a separate meeting with the therapist and your ex. You may be able to lodge a complaint if she was included in the family therapy session, but she wasn't. You seem to be very angry about this, is there a larger problem?

I will agree, it sounds like there is still a lot of hate or at least anger in this and these feelings flowing to the child ** I bet a lot was said that the child heard about this event
Can cause or add to issues

The fact that step parents are coming and supporting is a great thing. I would think you would be supportive of any and everyone that is involved being a part of this

First, HIPAA (not HIPPA) protects a patient from having their medical treatment and diagnosis discussed with a third party by their medical practitioner without their permission. So HIPAA would not apply unless the therapist talked about the treatment or diagnosis either you or your daughter in front of the step mother. Unless you know what was discussed during this private session, you can't know if any violation occurred. You also need to trust the therapist to understand the boundaries.

The second issue is the court order. You stated the order specifies that you and the father participate in the sessions with your daughter. And only the three of you. So the therapist would have been wrong in allowing the step mother to sit in. But there is nothing in the court order preventing the therapist from meeting separately with the father and step-mom. So I don't see that the therapist crossed any boundaries there either. Again, what was discussed during the session if key. And again, you need to trust the therapist to stay within boundaries.

So my suggestion is to ask the therapist for some one on one time to discuss your feelings about the session. You can ask the therapist to reassure you that nothing was discussed that would violate the rights of your or your daughter.

At the same time, you might discuss controlling your anger towards your ex. This anger came through clearly in your posts. And I don't think your therapy sessions will be effective until you deal with that anger.

Out of greenies I cannot agree more!