</font><blockquote><div id="quote"><font class="small">Quote:</font>
mikkyhill said:
I don't know why Ts don't let you see inside your folder.

</div></font></blockquote><font class="post">

Well.. again "playing the role of a T" I can think of a few reasons why they might like to keep patients out of their medical records.

1. A lot of the information is highly technical and because it relates to a pathology, its likely negatively biased. Like I mentioned earlier normal findings are often left out of these notes. When I stay negatively biased I mean, when reading it about ourselves WE as patients would likely judge it as them saying we are "bad" or "abnormal". When talking about mental or personality issues this would be very hard for anyone to read and not get upset in some way. For example how many of us would like to hear that we are even considered to be of "Average intelligence" let alone be classified as "Below Average Intelligence" Whether it is true or not it is a difficult pill to swallow, no matter how nicely or technically it is written. "Chaotic13 appears to have significant deficits in comprehension and retention of content presented orally." "Comprehension of oral communication requires a slower speech rate with simplified vocabulary." "Frequent recall prompts are necessary for retention of key points."

2. Simply letting the patient read the information would likely result in the patient having a lot of questions. Providing a detailed explanation of the technical jargon, why a particular entry was considered necessary, why one approach was chosen verse another, convincing the patient that entries are not good or bad they are just factual information that can help guide the treatment approach.... bah,,,bah... bah... Reading just one page could derail the focus of therapy for many sessions. Instead therapy becomes about teaching psychology and not about helping the patient manage his/her symptoms.

3. Maybe I am being paranoid here but some of what therapist do is manipulation. They read our mental state, predisposing attitudes, thought patterns and perspectives and then they use this information to elicit certain changes or conditions. For example my T must have detected very early on in my therapy that I had at least some sensitivity to physical proximity. Since she sees a zillion patients a day, she probably made a note of this in my chart some where. I've become aware over time that she uses this to her advantage when trying to get my attention or to drive home certain key points. Now that I've become aware of this, it is less effective. If I would have read about her technique in my chart, it would have lost its effectiveness earlier. T's are not the only ones who capitalize on things like this. In education we use techniques like Brain-based learning where the teacher use emotional reactions and responses to facilitate learning, sharpen attention, or improve motivation. These techniques work best when the learner is unaware of what is going on.

I guess the important thing is to determine... Do you trust that your T has your best interest at the forefront of what they are doing? If you do trust that you T is trying to meet your needs the best way they know how, then let them determine the best course of treatment. As tempting as it can be want to peek, keep your nose out of your chart. The info in there is not written for you, it written for them. If you don't trust your T, then don't engage in therapy.

In MountainDew's case I think she did the right thing. She was not comfortable with her old T, didn't really trust that she was being honest with her, so she switched T's. Personally, if I didn't trust my T then I would not have bothered getting my records transfered. Her opinion would not matter that much to me.