A new therapist told me she requires that I give her consent to talk to my psychiatrist in order to treat me. Not because I have something especially wrong with me or have demonstrated any kind of instability. My meds are under control for years and I'm voluntarily seeking therapy for childhood issues. And we just met. She knows nothing about me or my reliability.

This strikes me as paternalistic and intrusive and implies from the get go that I can't be trusted to know myself or be truthful and forthcoming in therapy. Honestly, it strikes me as kind of controlling. She is asking me for a great deal of trust, since I would be allowing her to communicate with my psychiatrist at her discretion, while at the same time she's telling me I can't be trusted to communicate with her. This seriously rubs me the wrong way.

She claimed that this was simply the proper standard of care, and patients felt empowered by being compelled to sign off on this and have various caretakers communicate. She said that any therapist I went to would demand the same thing.

In this situation I would feel "managed" and inappropriately out of control of my care.

Is it true what she says, that anyone who's anyone is handling things like this? Is this a new trend? Has it been codified somewhere? I have been to other therapists and this has never been true. I'm not going back to her because she's kind of a weirdo in other respects. But I'm curious about potential other new therapists and their potential positions on this. What are your experiences?