Can you promise not to tell?
Practice LibraryCoaching Scenario

Can you promise not to tell?

~12 minutes
Client Services
4 decisions
Intermediate
Abuse Prevention & Response

What a Coaching Scenario is

Not quiz style. This is judgement practice — you're put inside a real situation from human-services work and asked what you would actually do. It draws on the knowledge you use on the job, not the kind you can look up.

Every choice changes what happens next, and every choice gets a coaching beat straight after it: what drew you toward that option, and how it played out. What's held back is the verdict on your path, so you stay with what you'd genuinely do rather than working out what you're supposed to say.

4 decisions
Each one shaped by the one before it. No two paths through are the same.
Coaching as you go
A beat after every decision, naming the pull behind your choice and where it led.
A full debrief
Your whole path replayed at the end, with the reasoning behind each decision you made.
Evidence you can keep
A completed scenario is recorded in your PracticeLab and appears in your downloadable ProofKit.

Scenarios are made to be talked about. Most people finish one still turning it over, which makes them a ready-made prompt for supervision, a team meeting or a conversation with a colleague — everyone walks the same situation, and comparing where you each landed is often where the real learning happens.

This one ends with

Next time someone asks you to keep something secret, notice the pull to say yes before you've had a chance to think about what you can and can't actually promise.

The situation

You work as a client services worker at a women's refuge. You've been supporting Mia for just over three months — she came to the refuge with her two children after a significant incident involving her partner, Dion. In that time she's engaged consistently, completed safety planning sessions, and started talking about longer-term housing options. The relationship has been one of the stronger ones on your caseload.

Today's appointment has gone like most others — practical updates, a check-in on the kids, some conversation about next steps. But near the end, Mia goes quiet. She looks down at her hands, then says, almost in passing, that she's been to see Dion a few times. "I just needed somewhere to go. I know what everyone will say." She asks you directly not to tell anyone else at the refuge. She doesn't want staff making a big deal out of it.

You know the risk assessment file. There are active safety concerns recorded — a history of physical violence and coercive control, and a protection order that was issued at intake. Mia's children are still listed on a safety plan. This is not a low-risk situation, and Mia knows you well enough to read your face.

She's watching you now, waiting to see how you respond.

What you're practising

Client autonomyConfidentiality limitsDuty of careSafety planningInformation sharingNon-judgmental practiceChild safety obligations

Before you start, notice

Real-world decisions in scenarios like this are shaped as much by feeling as by reasoning. People often notice one of these pulls — naming what you feel before you decide is half the skill.

  • Fear that being honest will damage the relationship you've spent months building
  • The urge to just say yes to protect the moment — even when you know you can't promise that
  • Anxiety about the children that makes you want to move fast and take control
  • The impulse to understand 'why' before you've made Mia feel safe enough to tell you

Policies this draws on

  • Your organisation's confidentiality and information-sharing policy
  • Your organisation's safety planning framework
  • Relevant child protection legislation (jurisdiction-specific)
  • Privacy Act principles (jurisdiction-specific)
  • Your own organisation's policies take precedence — check them where they apply.

Heads up — coaching scenarios work differently. You'll make a sequence of decisions as the situation unfolds, and after each one you'll get a coaching beat: what drew you toward that choice, and how it played out. The one thing held back is the verdict on the path you took — that lands in the debrief at the end, with your whole walk replayed alongside it.

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