Quote:
Originally Posted by stopdog
i dont use facebook and don't really understand what is appealing about it the times I have seen it. But therapists are no different from anyone else and the idea that they across the board would not look clients up is, to me, just a completely silly idea. But I don't see it as having anything to do with ethics in any realm.
The idea that therapists are busier, more ethical or more anything than any other working person is, to me, simply ridiculous.
I have never looked up a student or a client, but it is not for any manufactured "I am so very noble" reason - it is simply because I am not all that interested in them outside of my job. I have no reason to care what they posted or was on the internet about them.
|
Not sure, but I guess when Ts claim it is better not to look at client info anywhere else but what the client shares themselves is less about ethics strictly, more the idea to give the client the freedom to choose what they want to share? The Ts may also just don't want to complicate it for themselves. I heard this once from a therapist who has been in private practice for >20 years. I can easily imagine many people are just not that interested in their clients to spend extra time researching them.
For me, when I do the web searches on people, most of the time it's just my own curiosity, which I do not inhibit when I see no reason to do so. Less often it is because I think the info I could find would be important for my decisions, although that also applies for job candidates in particular and sometimes also my (non-therapy) clients. I don't necessarily want to work for/with someone whose choices/strategies/values very radically differ from mine or there are clear indications they would use (misuse) our cooperation in ways I don't want to deal with. Based on responses on these kinds of threads, I guess my attitude around these things are less common then. But I do research for living as well, so it's pretty much my natural and habitual way of being.