Notetaking or not?

I've only had one session so far and my T took notes. I don't know if that was because she was getting background information or if she always takes notes. Guess I'll find out later if she is a every session note taker or not.

My T does not take notes either and I definately prefer it this way. When someone is taking notes it can make you wonder what you said to make them write something down and can be distracting ( my personal experience).

Therapists don't need to remember every word that a client says and with training and experience they learn to remember the important points and if they have missed something it is likely the client will bring it up again themselves anyway.

My T doesn't take notes. She rights down stuff at the end of the day.

Heh...come to think of it, I take more notes on my therapy than T does. Most of my journal entries tend to revolve around it...

nope and im glad

Of the 2 T's I've seen the longest, one recorded and the current one takes notes. I don't notice either one after I talk for a while, doesn't matter to me. I have never even noticed exactly when my T writes something down, I'm just in the zone...

reading through all of that makes me wonder if my T takes time to write things down after I leave ...

my therapists always takes notes during session but, they are so few and minimal...

however, when I come back the next time, my therapist has like all these profound/insightful things to say about my progress.. and its strange

cus some of the things she says, in my opinion, she couldn't have just come up with out of thin air, or right after I walk in, a lot of the things she says at the next session, seems as if they would need forethought...or needed to be meditated on a bit.

but, idk... maybe she barely writes a thing when i leave...

i just wonder?

For the most part, that's how my t does it. After he says good-bye, he goes back into his office and closes the door and does his session notes. At the beginning of the next session, he generally reads back through the notes over the last session (which are only maybe 8-10 lines long) and off we go. He uses the notes go back and track my mood changes and to see connections in retrospect. He also needs them to refer to when speaking to insurance. They aren't detailed. They're more quick overviews of how I was doing generally, what was discussed generally, etc. He shares them with me pretty frequently.

my has taken notes nearly the whole session once. but usually takes notes sometimes and other times not at all. lately not alot.

I do not like that. I have a string of events that affect one to another over the course of years. I feel like they will miss the connecting concerns/behaviors/thoughts over multiple sessions if they do not write it down. Also, I ramble and barely give them a word edge wise because I worry I will not be able to get it all out before they cut me off and start trying to tell me what to do w/o knowing the real issues. I must ask about this and will do so this week!

Thanks everyone!

I feel better but I still need to ask so I will and will report back the answer later this week.

Forgot to ask about this! I was so bewildered at the session today. It seemed so far in left field. I am starting to think my idea of what would really be helpful to me just cannot be found/achieved. I would still like to know about this notetaking thing, though. I will go back one more time just to quit and tell them why and maybe I will think to ask before I leave.

I've had T's that took notes and my current T does not. I really prefer a T to not take notes during the session. My current T took notes in the first session, but hasn't done so since. I find it very distracting when the T is taking notes, and it feels like there's a barrier between me and T when they are writing notes. My current T has a great memory, but she told me that she also does notes after a session if she needs to. I've never had to repeat any part of my story to my current T.

Isn't it great that we find the therapists that suit our own needs? I love that my T takes notes. It makes me feel like someone is really listening and that I have something worthwhile to say about my own issues. She is very attentive to me and it makes me feel so good when she's writing stuff down. It doesn't distract me and I take no note of when she's writing. And she only takes notes occasionally.

My T takes notes during session, they are brief and dont distract me. I have never asked him what he is writing. Now it has got me wondering how detailed the notes he writes are.