Therapist May Face Discipline for Discussing Case : Counseling: Social worker Susan Forward appears to have violated Nicole Simpson’s privacy by revealing comments, an official for state examiners office says.

Encino social worker Susan Forward may face professional disciplinary action for violating the privacy of her former client Nicole Brown Simpson when Forward revealed comments Simpson made during therapy.

Forward, a licensed clinical social worker, said during numerous media interviews Tuesday that she had counseled Nicole Simpson on two occasions and that Simpson told her she had been battered and threatened by O.J. Simpson.

Nicole Simpson, divorced from O.J. Simpson in 1992, was slain outside her Brentwood condominium late Sunday night.

An official of the state Board of Behavioral Science Examiners, which governs licensed clinical social workers, said Wednesday that Forward appears to have violated Nicole Simpson’s privacy--even in her death.

And Forward said Wednesday that she had erred in discussing those therapy sessions publicly.

The author of “Men Who Hate Women and the Women Who Love Them,” Forward said in a television interview she made an honest mistake and violated a doctor-patient confidentiality privilege in disclosing the nature of her conversations with Nicole Simpson.

The case, however, raises the sensitive question of how far the patient-therapist privilege extends.

Private therapy conversations are, in most cases, legally protected from public disclosure, experts say, even when the patient is dead. Moreover, most professional therapy codes generally forbid disclosure of a deceased patient’s records or comments.

“A dead person has the same confidentiality rights as a living person,” said Sherry L. Skidmore, a forensic psychologist in Riverside who is an expert on professional ethics codes for therapists.

Both the state Business and Professions Code and the state Civil Code forbid the unauthorized release of any medical records--including mental health records--except under very specific circumstances, such as a subpoena or search warrant, said Kathleen Callanan, executive officer of the Board of Behavioral Science Examiners.

Based on these codes, the board is considering disciplinary action against Forward, she said.

“Clearly, it does appear there was a breach of confidentiality,” Callanan said. “At this point, the board is considering opening an investigation into this matter and is gathering information.” Forward may be subject to the suspension or loss of her license.

Legal experts, however, said it is not clear whether Forward actually broke any laws.

Forward did not return repeated phone calls Wednesday. She did appear on the CNN program “Sonya Live” Wednesday to say that she had made a mistake in discussing Nicole Simpson with the media.

Forward has said in interviews that she had counseled Nicole Simpson during her divorce. In two sessions, Forward said, Nicole Simpson confided that the former football star had, on occasion, beaten, stalked and threatened to kill her.

Forward operates the Susan Forward Therapy Center on Ventura Boulevard in Encino, a large practice where several therapists maintain offices.

Several mental health professionals said they were disturbed by Forward’s revelations and fear people will think they cannot trust their therapists to keep their conversations private.

“I read (Forward’s comments), and I was stunned,” said Dr. Peter B. Gruenberg, a Beverly Hills psychiatrist and vice chairman of the ethics committee for the American Psychiatric Assn. “The vast majority of (therapists) would never say something about a deceased patient.”

The code of ethics for psychiatrists clearly disallows such disclosure, he said.

An ethics code governing licensed clinical social workers does not specifically address the rights of the deceased, said Elizabeth DuMez of the National Assn. of Social Workers, a professional group with 150,000 members.

But, she said, the code does state that privileged information should not be disclosed except for “compelling professional reasons.”

“Apart from that, the general sense is that simply because the client has died doesn’t automatically release one from a sense of responsibility to that client,” she said.

Forward is not a member of that professional group, she added.

According to legal experts, a patient possesses the confidentiality privilege, and only the patient can waive it. If the patient is dead, it can be waived only by a legal representative, usually the executor of the estate or an administrator appointed by a court.

“Generally, the privilege stays after the death,” said Michael Perlin, a New York University law school professor.

But there are several legal exceptions to the confidentiality requirements, experts say. For example, if a patient threatens to harm himself or someone else, the therapist is required to report the threats to authorities and to any potential victim.

Therapists are also required to report child abuse. The privilege is also waived when a patient threatens the therapist with harm.

A patient also generally loses the privilege when he or she files litigation against anyone in which mental distress is claimed. The therapist can be required to turn over notes and to testify about conversations with the client.

It is less clear whether a psychotherapist has a duty to report threats a patient says she has received, such as those Forward said Nicole Simpson told her about.

“I don’t think there is an easy answer there,” said Dr. Paul Appelbaum, professor and chairman of the department of psychiatry at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. “Ordinarily, therapists abide by patients’ wishes.

“I could imagine circumstances in which a therapist believed a patient was in fact in serious danger and was not competently making the decision not to reveal that information. The therapist might feel compelled as an ethical matter to take steps to protect the patient, which involve breaching confidentiality. But that would be quite an exception to the usual rule.”

Several social workers have called the Board of Behavioral Science Examiners to complain about Forward’s comments, Callanan said. And she said she is concerned about the public’s reaction.

“I think there is reason for concern,” she said. “You certainly would not want people thinking that just because they die that the therapist can release everything in therapy.”