I had a similar first reaction, especially as regards to marriage and stuff, or at least paying for it. I dunno if marriage records are public info; I think divorce records are.

On the other hand if I really wanted to make sure a potential T didn't have a criminal background, however slight or had violated some ethical standards but was still able to practice, yeah.... That information might be worth paying for. But I probably wouldn't do it unless something made me suspect something like that.

I think therapists have to know, or be taught, how curious their clients are about them, especially if Ts aren't so up on Internet skills. By the way if you search the forums here for "googled" you'll find a three year old thread about this same subject as this thread.

But if a T had a policy of routinely and summarily dropping clients who googled them, I think that's unprofessional on their part... If they have public info out there, they need to deal with it much better than that.