Many people who seek counselling are unsure at first about their rights in a counselling relationship. You can expect that your counsellor will:

• treat you with care and consideration
• provide you with information about what to expect in counselling
• listen to your story
• not underestimate the impact of your experiences on you
• believe you
• respect your strengths and help you to identify and develop them
• provide you with a physically and emotionally safe environment
• respect your sexuality, cultural and religious background, class, age, your opinions and choices, and respect your decisions and needs
• provide information
• be trustworthy
• treat you as an unique individual, not only as a survivor of child sexual assault

Your counsellor should not:

• touch you sexually
• have a sexual relationship with you or any of their clients, either while you are currently seeing him/her or after the counselling has finished
• encourage any romantic feelings for him/her
• tell you what to do, think or feel
• make you do anything you are unsure about or do not want to do
• rush you into talking about things you are not yet ready to discuss
• tell anyone else about the content of your counselling sessions without your consent (unless there are safety concerns)