Both my therapists dislike using email to discuss therapeutic matters because of security concerns. I can understand this because the same concerns affect my jobs, which is why both my employers have a (sometimes annoyingly) high standard of email security.

Yet clearly a good many therapists correspond with their clients by email and discuss therapeutic matters. I'm wondering, if you and your therapist do this, how do you deal with the security issue? Is it not a concern for you? Do you use a specific email provider that might have better security (e.g., Gmail to Gmail) or an alternate secure method (e.g., Skype IM is encrypted)? Or are emails less direct than you would actually be in session?

To answer my own questions, while I have emailed with both of them, one was for administrative stuff, nothing sensitive, and the other was a check-in email that was terse: (her) "I just wanted to see how you were after yesterday's session." (me) "Fine, thank you for asking, see you next week." So no therapeutic topics. I plan to keep it that way because I'm more comfortable that way, but wondered how others felt. (Feel free to tell me I'm paranoid!)



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