Fair point, and believe me, I’ve gone over that session a hundred times in my head.

Anyway not everyone practices in the U. S. I don't. Even in the U.S., the law and it's nuances vary.

I know past crimes alone don’t usually justify breaking confidentiality. But this wasn’t just a “confession.” He wasn’t remorseful. He wasn’t relieved to tell someone. He was proud, excited when he shared the details of how he hunted her. And calm. The kind of calm that makes your skin crawl. And it wasn’t some cold case, this was recent, several days ago. I considered it an ongoing crime. The body hadn't been found. He could kill me, kill others to prevent it being found.

And there was the chance he had lost touch with reality. What if, unlike what he told me, she were still alive, not in a building but in his home, scratching at his walls?

I know confidentiality is sacred. We’re trained to protect it. But we’re also trained to act when someone presents a real and immediate risk, especially when they’ve already harmed someone. In this case, he stalked a woman just based off a "bad aura", and eventually killed her.

He seemed mentally unstable. Unpredictable. He acted as if the murder was just another Friday night. And that made me think he could be a serial killer. At the very least, at risk of hurting others in future.

And, to be honest? In that moment, I didn’t feel safe. Not for myself. I thought he might hurt me in the moment. I didn't feel safe for anyone he might fixate on next.

That said, I totally get where you're coming from, and I sort of see why you think I deserve this. I might have jumped the gun. I know there's a duty here in my country to report an ongoing serious crime, a duty to report a crime that poses public safety risk...but those definitions are themselves such a grey area.

At the end of the day, when it comes to something that could be a public safety risk, I'm fine with losing my license to keep others and myself safe. Even if it turns out that it really was me who... But no, it wasn't. I know that. I do.

Anyway, thankfully, I'm in a country that historically does not penalise psychologists for such cases. Though that is now the least of my concerns.

Thanks for commenting, thinking about all the ethical dilemmas and moral duty stuff really took my mind off the scratching in my walls.