The more I think about it the less I feel bad for ever Googling my T. It helped me to trust. Sure it was obsessive and a way to disassociate at times, but maybe I just needed to disassociate at that moment? I also needed to know what kind of person I was working with, and since T's are so slow to share personal info I took care of due diligence on my own.

Whether we like it or not the internet is not going anywhere and the reality is this information is out there in the public domain. I am a professional, and as such I maintain a professional "image." And by maintaining an image I mean that I don't post party pictures to Facebook, I don't leave my social profiles public for all to see, I don't write nasty things in emails or online under my name, I don't get in political debates online under my name, I don't have a criminal record, and I expect that having one would destroy my career. Anyways, professionals are held to standards for a reason. Doctors, shrinks, therapists, are bound to the same professional standards as everyone else. I expect my clients, my employer, acquaintances and even friends will and do Google me.

When I Googled my T the first time I was able to see fairly quickly that he was a "good" professional. There is almost nothing online about him, because he takes time to maintain his professional image. This made me happy. His Facebook is set to private, he does not friend clients, there are no bad photos to unearth, no offensive blog posts... To be a therapist and leave your Facebook public would be negligent in a severe way. I would question the ethics of those therapists who do this, since I'm sure they are 100% aware clients will find and be compelled to then "stalk" their profile.

The way I view it therapists are selling trust. Without trust there is no therapeutic relationship, and IMO with this being the case therapists are responsible for making sure what can be found on Google they wouldn't mind being found. If my therapist couldn't do this then I wouldn't be able to do therapy with him, that simple.