Something I never thought about

This is weird! I just posted a link to an article I read about searching online for information about therapists; then I found another article which spoke about the reverse; when therapists search for information on their clients. With all the times I've seen people mentioning searching for therapist information somehow I never thought (not discounting this just not actively thinking of it) that it could go the other way. What do you think? How do you feel about if your therapist googled you or read your blog or facebook without you knowing it was happening? I suppose the closest to this line of thinking is where people ask how others would feel if their therapists read their posts on PC; but I hadn't considered outside of here.

I'm certain my T would never do that.

If you've got/use FB, you'd better not care who sees whatever you put up there. If you care, I'd seriously advise taking it down. Taking your entire FB presence offline, in face.

It's too easy to ruin something/one you care about with a thoughtless posting. Just don't do it.

I can't imagine T doing this. If she were to, though, I'd be OK with her finding my social networking sites. I'm always thinking of future employers and such when I post, so nothing's bad. I wouldn't like it if she found this account, but it wouldn't be the end of the world.
I'm curious about this article. Could you share the link?

I can't imagine why the therapist would want to, but it would not bother me. If it is available out there, then have at it. I know clients and students do it, so what is one more if the therapist decided to do so? I seriously doubt if the one I see would do it because I cannot imagine she finds me that interesting. I doubt she remembers my name after I leave.

My T would definitely not do this. And in any case I would not post anything personal that could be traced back to my real name. Facebook is for posting inanities and professional news, and when I kept a blog it was mostly for book reviews and crazy cat lady type writing.

I would have no problem with my T looking at my fb page.. I have former students, coworkers, and youth group kids on there so I would never put anything on their that I ashamed of. I do find it less harder to believe for my T to google me.. or come looking for me on some kind of message boards.

the article on the reverse way around was this: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...902942_pf.html

I personally wouldn't care if my t googled me or saw my facebook....I never post anything on there that would be considered too personal....Also if they googled me they wouldn't find anything interesting on me anyway.....

Why would a T want to google their client? I know for a fact my T wouldn't. But I don't get why one would.

I can't imagine my T taking the time to do such a thing. I think she would believe it's crossing boundaries. But I would be thrilled if I knew she took extra time to learn more about me.

I thank you for posting the link to that article http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...902942_pf.html

I must admit that I had never even thought about a Therapist doing this. After reading the article, I can certainly understand why they would do so. I can also understand why there is all the debate surrounding this topic.

Still, for the most part, I would think that this isn't a common occurrence, for several reasons. It would be way too time consuming, and face it time = money. In fact, I highly doubt if a T gives a second thought to a client outside of their allotted time spent together. Except, that is, for reviewing the case for an upcoming appointment, and making notes afterwards.

My T would never bother. He knows way more about me than anything that is out there on the internet could tell him anyway. My FB is very basic; nothing at all exciting, not to mention as locked down as FB can be. I don't get people who post details and possible harmful info about themselves on FB. Stupid. Stupid. Other than that, there's not much interesting about me out there, although I did find a website that posts everyone's salaries in our school (it might be the whole district; I didn't really investigate it that closely). Some strange private website. Not thrilled, but not particularly secret information either when you are a public employee. Nah, T really isn't that curious although I really wouldn't care anyway.

I doubt my t would take the time to search for me. However, we do have a mutual FB friend and I am aware of how I post there and how to use the security settings to control who can see each post. Not just because of t, but because I also have work contacts and church people as friends. I never post anything that controversial or horrible anyway.

I would be thrilled if t read my blogs (they are public, can be found with search engines), but I don't have my name or photo on them so even if she did read them she might never know it is me.

I am not worried about FB...I keep it really clean, I have young kids that read it (I did that account to keep in touch with my nieces and nephews).

I do wonder if T reads this sometimes. He often mentions stuff I post on here "out of the blue". Kind of scares me. I looked him up once on a professional web site to see what his ratings were before I met him, but I haven't looked up anything since then.

I can't imagine my therapist Googling me or looking at my Facebook page, but it wouldn't bother me if she did, I would probably find it a bit flattering that she thought I was interesting enough to spend the time to research me. She wouldn't find much though I only have a Facebook page to shut my family up about it, and I have never even made a post on it. And there isn't any real information about me that she doesn't already know (address ect) out there.

Itsa no matter.....
I have googled myself in past, and am happy to say that I am completely unknown.

I've googled myself in the past too, and have been amused to see some of my doppelgangers (in name, at least). I've got some cool alternate lives out there.

I've never worried about my T reading my facebook. It's locked except for my friends but even so I'm rarely posting on there and am conscious of what I post because I have kids and neices and nephews as friends. Also though I doubt that my t spends any time other than what is paid thinking about me.

I did worry about here on PC. He sent me a link to an article on this site so I know he's aware of it... and he is also aware that I post on a "forum" ... I also have told him I only go on the psych forum because I found the survivors of abuse one too triggering... so I wondered but because of my doubt above... I came to the conclusion that it wouldn't happen

i think t has strict boundaries for himself. i don't even see him thinking about clients if he is not in his office.
he told me once he just "turns it all off"

made me feel sad, but i knew then to never ask if he thinks about me when i am not there. maybe that is why he said it???

Shoot my t knows way more about me than I'd ever put on Facebook!! Besides I think she has better things to do with her time away from the office than google moi.....

[quote=artemis-within;2332225]Shoot my t knows way more about me than I'd ever put on Facebook!! quote]

ooh, good point.

With all the patients/clients Ts have, I can't really imagine them searching info on all of them (would take a lot of time!) or some of them (why single some out?). Also, they already get a lot of info on us in session already. This is different the other way around, where most clients will be curious to find out additional info on their therapist that they might not be comfortable asking. If a T wants to know something about us, they most likely won't be shy to ask.

I have a forum for people with dissociative disorders, and my T has read there (she's told me-- I don't really care) and I also have a well known blog that she has read. For me, it doesn't bother me that she has read my stuff-- but if there is something I REALLY want to keep private, I post it in a password protected forum of my website.
Oh and my T has looked at my pictures on facebook-that sort of surprised me when she told me that! She was like, "oh i've seen this picture before--its on your facebook!" But it didn't b other me, just cuz I trust her I guess. I tell her everything under the sun anyway.