Is coaching confidential in Switzerland? What the law says

Most of what you find online about coaching confidentiality was written for the United States or the United Kingdom, and AI assistants tend to generalise from there. Swiss law is built differently. It names the professions that carry secrecy one by one, and coaching is not among them. Here is what that means in practice, and how I handle it myself.

Does Art. 321 of the Criminal Code apply to coaches?

No. Art. 321 of the Swiss Criminal Code makes it an offence, prosecuted on complaint, to breach professional secrecy, and it lists the professions it covers: members of the clergy, lawyers, defence counsel, notaries, patent attorneys, auditors bound to secrecy under the Code of Obligations, doctors, dentists, chiropractors, pharmacists, midwives, psychologists, nurses, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, dieticians, optometrists and osteopaths, together with their auxiliary staff. Coaches, sparring partners, consultants and mentors are not on the list (status 1 January 2025).

The list is exhaustive. A coach cannot opt in, and no association or certification can confer statutory secrecy on its members. A coach who is also a trained psychologist is, as a rule, bound by Art. 321 only when acting as a psychologist within the Psychology Professions Act, not when working with you as a coach.

The second thing that falls away with it is the right to refuse testimony. Doctors, lawyers and psychologists may decline to testify in criminal proceedings about what was entrusted to them (Art. 171 Swiss Criminal Procedure Code). A coach may not. If a coach promises you professional secrecy, he is promising more than Swiss law provides.

What protects you instead – the contract and the Data Protection Act?

Two things. Both are less than statutory secrecy and more than nothing.

First, the contract. Confidentiality can be agreed in writing with a defined scope: the content of your conversations, the fact that you know each other, and a duration that outlasts the work. A breach is a breach of contract with the consequences the Code of Obligations provides. You do not need a separate NDA for this; the clause belongs in the agreement you receive before the first session. Read it. If it only says “discreet”, with no scope and no limits, ask.

Second, the Federal Act on Data Protection (FADP, in German DSG). The revised act has been in force since 1 September 2023 and requires that personal data be processed for a stated purpose, securely, and for no longer than necessary. Art. 62 FADP also makes it an offence to intentionally disclose secret personal data learnt in the exercise of one’s profession: prosecuted on complaint, with a fine of up to CHF 250’000. On its wording, that provision also covers a coach, whose work requires knowing such data. It does not give the coach a right to refuse testimony, and it does not replace professional secrecy.

What I do with this: my confidentiality rests on our written agreement and on the Data Protection Act, not on a statute that does not apply to me. The full wording is open on the Sparring page; how I process data is in the privacy notice.

Where does confidentiality end?

An honest confidentiality clause names its limits before they apply, not after. Mine has three:

1. A legally binding order from a court or authority. If I am ordered to testify or to hand over documents, I must comply, because I have no right to refuse. This limit is not my choice; it is the law. A clause that leaves it out is not worth what it promises.
2. Acute danger to life and limb. If you or others are in serious danger, I inform the emergency services or the competent authority.
3. A child’s welfare. If it is at risk, the same applies.

In the second and third case I speak with you first wherever possible. Beyond that, I pass on nothing unless you authorise me explicitly and in writing – for instance if you want me to check one detail with your lawyer.

What is not among the limits: your employer, your bank, your family, your board, your business partner. None of them hears anything from me, including the fact that we know each other.

Are sessions recorded, and what happens to notes?

I do not record sessions, neither audio nor video, neither in person nor online. I do not have them transcribed or summarised by AI services. What exists are brief notes, stored securely in Switzerland and destroyed no later than 12 months after our work ends.

If you want one, you receive a short written note after a session with the main points, through the channel you choose. Whether that note exists, and where it goes, is your decision.

Invoices I keep for ten years because the Code of Obligations requires it (Art. 958f). An invoice shows the format and the date, not your topic. A bookkeeper who sees my accounts sees receipts, not notes and not content.

For online sessions there is one limitation I name openly: the video service processes connection data under its own rules, depending on the service also outside Switzerland. We agree together which service to use; if that matters to you, we use the phone.

Will my employer, my bank or my family find out?

Not from me. Three things make that real rather than merely contractual.

You pay yourself. There is no sponsor I report to: no HR department funding a coaching programme and expecting a closing report, no insurer that needs a diagnosis. Sparring is not a medical service; health insurance is not involved and no medical record is created. If your company pays the invoice, nothing changes: whoever pays receives no information from the conversation. The same holds for a spouse or relative who suggests a session.

There is no place where you are seen. I come to you – your home, your office or a quiet place you choose – or we walk by the lake or in the woods. There is no practice entrance with a nameplate on Bahnhofstrasse where a colleague might pass.

For the confidential conversation beforehand, a first name is enough. For an invoice I need a name and an address; I do not need to know your company, your role or your topic to be a counterpart.

A concrete case: a managing director at a Zürich bank wants to think through a conflict with her board before it becomes a resignation. The conflict itself, and anything that could end up in an employment dispute, belongs with her lawyer, where it is protected by statute. The question before that – stay, fight or go, and what she actually wants – is one she can think through with me, on these terms and knowing exactly where they end.

How does this differ from a lawyer, a doctor and a psychotherapist?

The table shows the legal position. It is a guide, not legal advice; for your own case, ask your lawyer.

Two conclusions follow.

First: if your question is a legal one – pending proceedings, a contract, a regulatory complaint, a separation – the sensitive part belongs with your lawyer, where it is protected by statute, not by contract. What you can work through with me is the question before that: what you actually want, before you give your lawyer the brief.

Second: if you are not well, a psychotherapist is not only better protected in law but the right person to see. Sparring is for people who are fundamentally healthy and able to act; it is not psychotherapy and does not replace it. How to tell the difference is in the FAQ; how the roles of coach, mentor, consultant and therapist otherwise differ is in the note Sparring partner, coach, mentor or consultant: what is the difference?.

In short

A coach or sparring partner in Switzerland has no professional secrecy under Art. 321 of the Criminal Code and no right to refuse testimony; anyone who assures you otherwise is mistaken or overselling. Protection comes from a written contract with a defined scope, backed by the Data Protection Act, and from a practice with no recordings, no files and no third party to report to. The three limits – an order from a court or authority, acute danger to life and limb, a child’s welfare – are worth knowing before you say the first word.