Meath councillor warns over use of counselling records in court
A Sinn Féin councillor has called on Meath County Council to support a complete ban on the use of counselling notes in criminal trials involving sexual offences, describing the current practice as “retraumatising” survivors.
Speaking at the February full council meeting, Cllr Helen Meyer said many people may not realise that “deeply personal” counselling notes, meant to help survivors heal, are “routinely used against them” in court.
“When I discovered this last year, I was horrified. I hope you share that sense of injustice today,” she said.
The councillor said the Minister for Justice intends to bring proposed amendments before the Dáil for a vote later today, Wednesday, January 28.
She explained: “The Justice Department is recommending that a judge be given access to decipher counselling notes and decide whether some or all of them can be admitted in cases of sexual violence. However, a judge reviewing these notes as evidence cannot fully account for the complexity of trauma. Treating these notes as evidence fundamentally misunderstands their purpose.”
Cllr Meyer said the proposed amendment to Section 19A would “bypass a victim’s right to consent” to the disclosure of their counselling records.
“Stripping away this consent removes one of the few elements of autonomy survivors retain within an already disempowering process,” she added.
She said front-line therapists and survivors had warned of the harm caused by using therapy notes in court.
“The use of these notes in court forces survivors into an impossible choice: seek therapy or seek justice. You can’t have both,” she said.
“Imagine the distress a victim feels when seeking counselling—a space meant to be private, safe, and restorative—while knowing their most intimate thoughts and trauma could be accessed and weaponised against them in court. This cannot be allowed to continue.”
“This approach once again sends a clear message to victims: from the outset, the Irish legal system is not on their side.”
“Statistics tell us that every person in this room knows someone who has experienced sexual or gender-based violence, even if that person has never spoken about it,” Cllr Meyer said.
“If the unimaginable happened to someone you love, how would you want the people in positions of power to respond? How would you feel knowing your daughter or son’s private thoughts shared in therapy at their most vulnerable could be aired, dissected and used against them in open court? That is what is happening now and will continue to happen unless the use of therapy notes in court cases is banned.”
Calling on Meath County Council to contact the Justice Department for a total ban on the use of counselling records in trials, she said: “Anything less risks retraumatising survivors and undermining confidence in the justice system. Nothing less than a total ban will suffice.”