One of the main issues I've worked on with my last therapist (very successfully) are obsessional tendencies. I also experienced addiction problems (food, substance) that are a bit different but psychologically definitely related to my obsessions and why I get into them. I never had similar internal conflicts or disagreements with my T regarding obtaining information on them - I simply never asked them these kinds of personal questions. But I used the totally legally and publicly available info on the internet to search about them all kinds of things. Never even occurred to me before reading these kinds of posts on PC that this is a potential problem or something maybe wrong? I mean, in this era everyone researches stuff on the web, people, places, things... whatever. I know as fact that my coworkers, job candidates and friends search me all the time and I am sure there are also people I don't even know of. What's wrong with that, really? My responsiility, and boundary, is what I put out there and how.

I personally think the T's boundary here is also that she won't reveal the bf's identity more than she already has in an interpersonal way. But public info on the web has nothing to do with her boundary, IMO... well it has, as far as deciding what to share with the world.

Maybe I process these things differently from others but I just can't see significant difference between searching professional info on a therapist about their practice and whatever else they care to put out there for anyone to explore. It's not the T's business what I read in my private time. It is their business to decide what to discuss with clients and how and to discuss with me what causes issues and roadblocks in my life.

I definitely have experienced a lot of uneasiness and also practical problems due to spending too much time researching "useless" information on the internet, also tend to use this activity to avoid dealing with many pressing problems if I don't control it consciously. Same for online interactions. For me this has been an escape and avoidance mechanism, seeking what I imagine will be instant gratification...not moral conflicts. This is what I spent a lot of time discussing with my T, why I tend to do this and how I could change the behavior. With time, we co-created a pretty effective system to help me reduce this behavior and actually lose my interest in it, using our between sessions email communication... but that's a different topic so I'll stop here.

Rainbow, you seem to have (at least partially) different conflicts about all this. I suggested that you try the search you so much desire simply in order to learn about your motives on your own and also to see whether it provides you with anything rewarding or beneficial. For me, the obsessions and compulsions typically never lead to true satisfaction, mostly new obsessions and distractions.