Client Confidentiality Notice

Quantum Growth — Executive Coaching with Janika Smit
Effective Date: [DATE TO BE SET AT PUBLICATION]

A note on what this document is

Coaching only works when you can speak openly. That requires trust, and trust requires clarity about what stays in the room and what doesn’t. This notice is my commitment to you, in writing, about how I handle what you share with me.

It applies to every form of coaching engagement: one-on-one executive coaching, Growth Circle membership sessions, group coaching, and team facilitation work.

Read it. Ask questions. If anything is unclear before we begin working together, raise it on our discovery call or in writing. We don’t move forward until we’re aligned.

My commitment to confidentiality

Everything you share with me in the course of our coaching engagement is confidential. That includes:

• The content of our coaching conversations
• Written exercises, intake forms, journals, and assignments you complete
• Goals, challenges, decisions, and personal information you share with me
• The fact of our coaching engagement itself, where you’d prefer that not be public
• Any documents or materials you share with me during our work together
• Any AI-generated artifacts produced from our sessions (transcripts, recaps, themes, briefs) — held to the same standards as everything else above

I treat the substance of our coaching relationship as private to you. I don’t share it with your colleagues, your spouse, your team, your board, or anyone else, unless you specifically authorize me to do so or one of the limited exceptions below applies.

This commitment continues after our engagement ends. The fact that we no longer work together doesn’t reduce my obligation to protect what you shared while we did.

What “confidential” specifically means

I will not:

• Share the content of our sessions with any third party
• Confirm or deny that you are a client to anyone who hasn’t already learned it from you
• Discuss your coaching engagement with referring parties (recruiters, HR, sponsors) beyond confirming engagement and basic logistics like scheduling and attendance, unless we’ve agreed otherwise in writing
• Provide testimonials or references on your behalf without your consent
• Sell, share, or use your information for any purpose unrelated to our work together

How I draw on my coaching practice publicly

Telling stories from coaching is how the field teaches itself. It’s also how I bring new clients into my practice and how I’ll bring my forthcoming book Why We Leadto readers. The patterns I see, the dynamics I help leaders work through, the moments of insight that recur across executives I’ve coached — these are mine to share, and they’re a meaningful part of how Quantum Growth grows. What’s not mine to share is anything that identifies you specifically. Here is how I hold the line:

• Aggregate insights about leadership, patterns I see across many clients, observations from years of coaching: these are mine to share. They are not about you; they are about the work.
• De-identified composites that combine and alter details from real engagements, to the point where no individual client could reasonably be recognized, are part of how coaches teach. I use them carefully and sparingly.
• Specific stories that identify you, by name or by details that could reasonably be traced back to you, require your written permission for each use. A keynote in March doesn’t authorize a podcast in June. A book chapter doesn’t authorize a marketing campaign. Every use is its own conversation.

This commitment doesn’t change regardless of which AI posture (described below) you choose for our engagement.

Sponsored coaching engagements

If your coaching is sponsored or paid for by your employer, an executive sponsor, or a third party, the terms of confidentiality become more nuanced. In those cases:

• The sponsor pays for the engagement and may receive limited information: that sessions are happening, attendance, and high-level themes (e.g., “leadership presence” or “transition support”) if agreed in advance
• The sponsor does not receive: session content, specific things you said, your reflections, or details about what you’re working through
• We will agree in writing, before the engagement begins, on what the sponsor receives and what stays between us
• If a sponsor asks me for information beyond what we’ve agreed, I will tell you

You always know what’s being shared. Nothing about your engagement is reported back without your knowledge and consent.

The limited exceptions

There are three narrow situations where I may need to break confidentiality. I want to be clear about these upfront so there are no surprises.

1. Risk of serious harm to yourself or others

If, in the course of our coaching, I become genuinely concerned that you are at risk of seriously harming yourself or someone else, I may take steps to ensure safety. This could include encouraging you to seek emergency care, contacting emergency services, or notifying a person in your life who can help.

I would prefer to discuss this with you first. I would only take action without your consent if the situation made that impossible or unsafe.

Coaching is not therapy. If serious mental health concerns surface, my responsibility is to coach you in identifying your own path forward to obtain professional and medical support, not to treat the health issue itself.

2. Legal compulsion

If I receive a valid subpoena, court order, or other legal demand for information about our coaching engagement, I am required to comply. Where legally permitted, I will notify you before responding so you have the opportunity to challenge the demand.

I will resist disclosure to the extent the law allows.

3. Professional supervision and ethics consultation

As an ICF Professional Certified Coach, I participate in periodic supervision and consultation with other certified coaches. This is a standard practice that helps me serve you better.

When I do this, I never use your name or identifying details. I describe coaching situations in general terms to think through approach and ethics. The supervisor or consulting coach is also bound by confidentiality.

If at any point you would prefer I not discuss any aspect of our work in supervision, even anonymously, tell me and I will respect that.

How AI is used in our coaching engagement

AI is part of how I practice coaching. It does not replace the relationship, the sessions, or the work between us, but it does support both of us in ways traditional coaching cannot. Before we begin, you choose how much of this support you want.

What AI does in your coaching

When you and I work together with AI support enabled, here is what happens around our sessions:

• Sessions are recorded with your consent. Audio is captured for the sole purpose of generating a written record. Once a transcript exists, the audio is deleted unless you specifically ask me to retain it.
• Transcripts are processed by AI configured to think the way I think. It surfaces the themes we explored, tracks the commitments you made, and identifies the threads worth carrying forward into our next conversation.
• You receive a recap in my voice, reviewed and approved by me before it reaches you. The recap captures what we talked about, what you decided, and what comes next. It lives in your portal and is yours to revisit as often as you want.
• I receive a pre-session briefbefore each meeting. It draws on the rolling story of our engagement so I walk in with full context: the patterns we’ve explored, the commitments still open, the threads worth returning to.
• Over time, your portal builds an arcof your work: themes you’ve moved through, breakthroughs you’ve had, commitments you’ve kept and missed. This is yours. It’s the most concrete way I know to make growth visible to you.

The AI processing happens through Anthropic, the same provider behind the JanikAi assistant on my website. Your session content is used by AI only in the context of our coaching engagement, to support the work between us. It is never used to train any public AI model, never sold to data brokers, and never shared with anyone outside this engagement. The same confidentiality commitments that govern my human handling of your information apply to every AI-generated artifact it produces.

Your three options

You choose your AI posture at intake. I default to Standard and recommend it, because the system around our coaching is designed for it. You can move between Standard and Minimal at any time during our engagement.

Standard (recommended). Full AI-assisted coaching, as described above. Sessions captured, transcripts processed, recaps drafted in my voice and approved by me, themes tracked over time, pre-session briefs for me. Your portal becomes a record of your growth that compounds over the course of our work. This is how Quantum Growth coaching is designed to work.

Minimal.I take traditional notes for my own reference. You don’t receive AI-generated recaps. Your portal shows scheduled sessions and any resources I’ve assigned, but not the themes-over-time view, the journey arc, or written session summaries. The coaching itself is the same; the system around it is lighter. You should know what you’d be choosing against: most clients tell me the recaps and the visible arc of their work are some of the highest-value parts of the engagement.

Off the record (per session, available to anyone). Whatever your standing posture, you can flag any individual session as off the record before or during the meeting. Off-the-record sessions are excluded from any AI processing entirely: no recording, no transcript, no recap, no theme tracking. Nothing about the session enters the system beyond the fact that it happened. This is your release valve. If a session goes somewhere you don’t want recorded, you don’t have to ask twice.

Switching postures during our engagement

If you start on Standard and want to move to Minimal, tell me. From that point forward, no new AI processing happens. Recaps and themes already generated remain in your portal — they belong to you — but you can request deletion of any or all historical AI-generated content at any time, no questions asked.

If you start on Minimal and want to move to Standard, tell me. Future sessions get the full treatment. Past sessions remain as my traditional notes; there is no retroactive processing.

How I store what you share

Practical mechanics, because they matter:

• Session notes, AI-generated recaps, themes, and member portal data are stored in encrypted databases with access restricted to me and our authorized technology providers
• Written materials (intake forms, exercises) are stored in the same protected environment
• Session audio, when captured under Standard posture, is deleted once a transcript exists, unless you specifically request retention
• Transcripts and AI-generated artifacts are processed through Anthropic, our AI provider, which is contractually prohibited from training any public AI model on your content
• The JanikAi assistant on my public website is a separate system: it is trained on my published materials and coaching philosophy, not on any client’s session content
• Specific retention periods for each type of data are described in our Privacy Policy

Coaching is not therapy

This is worth saying directly. Coaching focuses on present-day growth, leadership, decisions, and forward action. It is not psychotherapy, mental health treatment, or medical care.

If something surfaces during coaching that is better addressed by a therapist, psychiatrist, or other licensed clinician, I will say so. I can still support you as a coach within our boundaries, however I cannot provide medical care or advice.

If you are currently working with a therapist or other clinician, coaching can complement that work. Where appropriate and with your consent, I’m willing to coordinate with them.

When our engagement ends

When we conclude our work together, my confidentiality obligation does not. Everything we discussed remains private under the same terms.

I retain session notes, transcripts, and AI-generated recaps for the periods described in our Privacy Policy. Themes, pre-session briefs, and rolling client context are deleted when the engagement ends. You may request deletion of any or all of your records at any time, subject to legal retention obligations explained in the Privacy Policy.

You’re welcome to return to coaching with me later. Nothing about ending our current engagement closes that door.

If something feels off

Confidentiality is built into how I practice, but you should never feel that you can’t ask about it. If you have questions during our engagement, raise them. If you ever feel something has been handled in a way that doesn’t match this notice, tell me directly and we’ll address it.

You can also raise concerns about coaching ethics with the International Coach Federation, which sets the standards I’m certified under. I’d prefer you talk to me first, but the option is yours.

Acknowledgment

By engaging in coaching with me, you acknowledge that you’ve read and understood this Confidentiality Notice and how it applies to our work together. You also confirm your AI posture choice (Standard or Minimal) at intake, and understand you can change it at any time.

If you have questions or want to modify any aspect of how confidentiality is handled in your specific engagement (for example, on a sponsored engagement), we will address those before we begin.

Janika Smit, ICF PCC
Founder, Quantum Growth
Janikamsmit@gmail.com