My T is a PhD. In the first few sessions, I talked about my marriage counselor (also a PhD), but referred to him by his first name. T knows him, and at first, he was calling him by his first name, but then switched to "Dr. [last name]." I asked him about that (and some other stuff) in an e-mail. Instead of really answering that question, he said how he asks clients to call him "Dr. [last name]," because when they call him by his first name, they tend to be more concerned about how he's doing personally. When therapy isn't about him. And how the person clients pay to see is "Dr. [last name]." So he wants clients to use "Dr. [last name]." I will say when I first got that e-mail, it struck me as rather pretentious. But, I call him (like if I'm e-mailing him) by "Dr. [last name]." And I think in some ways, it's been easier for me to separate him as a T from him as a person. So maybe there is something to that?

Ex-T was an LCSW, and I called her by her first name--both to her face/via e-mail or text and to others. (She was fine with it.) My (former) marriage counselor is a PhD, and to his face/via e-mail, I generally referred to him as "Dr. [last name]." But when I talked about him to other people, with H, it was just [lastname] (no "doctor"). And when talking about him to ex-T, once I'd started talking about the transference, or, in the beginning, current T, he was just [first name]. And that's how I thought of him in my head, too. But, again, to him, I generally still referred to him as "Dr. [last name]."