Legal Considerations

The legal considerations in offering a Climate Emotion Support Group vary tremendously based on group format, attendees, fees, and many other variables.  Here are a few general guidelines and suggestions for legal questions. This page is not designed to offer legal advice - and you are encouraged to seek your own legal consultation for specific questions regarding your license, state, and the type of group you are facilitating. 

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Climate Cafes are Not Therapy

Some groups, like Climate Cafes, are not offered as "therapy groups" - and, even if you are a trained and licensed psychotherapist, you will not be offering these groups in your clinical capacity. When this is the case, it will be important you make your role, and the limits of what you'll be offering as a facilitator, very clear to your group participants. 

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If you are establishing your role at the beginning of your group, it might be helpful to state:

"I am therapist, but this is not a therapy group and I'm not offering therapy or any healthcare service here. 

If you want or need a therapist, I'm happy to offer you referrals." 

It's often helpful to remind group participants that you can offer referrals at the end of the group.

You can also share CPA-NA's Climate Aware Therapist Directory for therapist referrals. 

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Some clinicians use a waiver at the start of their group to clarify legal questions, while others choose not to offer waivers. 

Here is a sample of a Climate Cafe waiver.

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Please check to see what you or your organization needs regarding a healthcare disclaimer. 

This one is a sample waiver for Climate Cafes, but you should consider a professional and/or legal consultation to see what would fit your unique situation.

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Is a Climate Cafe a "confidential" space?

Legally, a Climate Cafe is not a confidential space. Confidentiality is a legal term that is defined in detail in the state and provincial laws and regulations and the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. 

However, as facilitators, we can ask all attendees to honor the privacy of other people who attend and the group's overall need for respect.

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Are some climate emotion support groups considered therapy groups?

Yes.  Even though a Climate Cafe is not a therapy group, some climate emotion support groups are designed to be therapy groups.  Generally, therapy groups are offered to persons with a diagnosed mental health condition to ameliorate symptoms of that condition.  Therapy groups typically meet for multiple group sessions and offer participants a frame unique to therapy settings.  Therapy groups have agreements about confidentiality, licensed facilitators who are offering therapy in the group setting in the state of their licensure, and specific guidelines established by the clinician for their group.  If you are offering a climate-related therapy group you will want to thoroughly understand the specific responsibilities and legalities in your state for your type of licensure. 

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