Yeah, I've had a look at my file notes too. I needed to request to see them in writing and it took a while for them to photocopy them all. I wasn't seeing a clinician at the time so I was allowed to go in and pick them up and take them away.

Apparantly they asked previous clinicians whether that was okay before they photocopied the notes, however.

I'm fairly sure that you do have the right to view your file. That can only be denied if your clinician believes that viewing information in your file could result in harm to you or if your clinician believes that viewing information in your file discloses confidential information about another (such as the identity of a person who phoned crisis assessment because they were concerned about you) or something like that.

I have read that viewing your file notes in the presence of your clinician is optimal because your clinician is there to make sure you are okay with what you have read.

That being said I was grateful to get to take them away and be able to digest little bits at a time (I have many files)...

It was hard for me to process some of the stuff that I read, however.

I think there might well be privacy laws on how your file is supposed to be stored. I'm fairly sure that your therapist can't take them home unless there is a specific reason and they are kept in a locked cabinet or something like that.

I think there is a time after which notes are supposed to be destroyed too... There might be a minimal time that they are required to be kept for... And there might be a maximal time... But I'm not sure on this...