All those notes...

I have been curious to know how people's therapists take notes. My T does not take notes while in session, she sits and listens but she has no writing utensil or computer to take notes with. I imagine that she writes stuff down after the session, perhaps on her computer, but I have never seen her do this as I leave, obviously. I had seen two Ts (each for only one session) before her and when I got to her, during our first session, I said that she was different than the other ones and said "You don't take notes?" She explained that she doesn't usually unless she is particularly scattered that day and immediately followed that up with, "Would that bother you?" I told her no (because I really was just asking out of my own curiosity). I asked because I guess I notice weird things like that, but I think I scared her off from taking notes in my presence . Do you guys think that's weird, or is it a pretty normal thing for Ts not to take notes during a session?

What do all your Ts do in respect to note taking? Do you like it/hate it? I guess even though my T isn't actively taking notes before me, I can still tell that she is listening and I am being heard, so I guess it doesn't bother me so much.

My T doesn't quit writing..... I'm not sure what I think about this?? I'm more concerned with what she is writing than if she is taking notes at all!!!

My t does not take notes during a session. But I know she writes stuff after the session because she's referenced it for me once or twice. The only time she wrote during a session was my first appointment where she was doing assessment.

I like that she is not taking notes during session. I feel like she is focused on what I am saying and not dividing her focus between what I am saying now and what I said 30 seconds ago. Also I think I would start censoring my words if I noticed t writing after certain comments but not after others. I notice details like that and over think them.

My T only took notes at my first appointment. No notes taken after that. I know T has some sort of form notes that have to be filled out after each appointment for insurance purposes, but other than that? I don't know how T remembers everything!

I did ask about the note taking too, as I was curious why T took mounds of notes the first time, but none after that. I also questioned how well T would remember things without notes, and was a little bit worried that T wouldn't remember important stuff. T has yet to forget anything important, and has surprised me by bringing up something from months ago when it connects to what I'm talking about at the moment. However T does it, it works!

My T sometimes took notes, especially when she was younger, just starting out as a therapist. It's conversation, in the moment, and when you are "there" and trust the process it is not hard to remember stuff I don't think, anymore than it is for us with friends? I don't think the details particularly matter; I know after 6-7 years my T accidentally referred to my husband by a totally wrong name but those things are surface and not what therapy is about. You can't take notes for "connection"/relationships?

My T does not take notes during the session. He automatically goes to his desk at the end of our appointments and I assume he takes some quick notes on his computer afterwards, but I am not really sure how he does it. He obviously keeps something b/che remembers so much. I think I like the fact that he isn't taking notes in the middle of our conversations.. It makes me feel like he is paying closer attention to me.

My T takes some notes, but mostly at the beginning of a session when we discuss what our focus is going to be for the session. He has actually forgotten some things we have discussed. A few times, he has suddenly started taking a bunch of notes. Now that I am more comfortable with him, I just ask, hey what's up with the sudden flurry of note taking? WHAT are you writing? I didn't say anything that interesting. His response was that from a psychological standpoint, it WAS really interesting and he wanted to make sure he remembered to come back to it when I was ready. Both times, I was like, screw it, let's just do it. I'm ready.

My T only takes notes every so often... and I notice it and it makes me wonder what is so special or wrong with what I just said ...it does distract me when he starts to take notes in the middle of me talking.

I actually like the fact my T takes notes. Because I don't like being looked at the whole time. Note taking in my opinion takes her eye balls off of me and puts them some place else.

Never had a t take notes. This last one referred back to a file of me occasionally, but I have no idea when he writes notes...his clients have always been back to back. Maybe on his lunch break???

My T writes down about 3 words in a session. It always seems to be for what I think of inconsequential things - I have no idea what he's writing. I called him on it once, when I'd said something pretty trivial about my brother - why are you writing that down? He never really did answer.

As a psychology student I'm really fascinated when this happens. I'm always intrigued as to why she found x noteworthy but not y, especially when I think it's something trivial.

same as some of the others here, the only time my T took notes was for our intake session. I do think he probably takes notes after I leave though. I would HATE it if a T was taking notes during a session, I think I would change the way I talk and always be worried about whether T's paying more attention to writing than to listening. Interesting question, though.

My T generally jots down a few things at the start of each session pertaining to my mood or mention of med changes, etc. Then he sets my file aside for the rest of the session. Between sessions or at the end of the day, he writes a few more detailed notes about what was discussed or particular insights that were made. Probably 5 to 8 brief lines of notes per session. Sometimes he reads them to me the next session, particularly if I can't recall what the heck we talked about. Yeah, it's not usually him who has problems remembering; it's me. His notes are pretty general and completely not something I worry about. One of the reasons he keeps notes is that he does work with insurance and a few times a year has to justify to them the need for my continued therapy. Having the notes as reference is vital to him being able to do that.

Like many others, my T took a few notes in the first session and not since then. I prefer it this way. I want all of her attention on me and not to be distracted by wondering "What is she writing down and what isn't she? Why?" Also, some of our therapy is non-verbal and so looking into her eyes and at her expressions is important, with which her looking down at her notes would interfere.

She has mentioned a couple of times session notes on her computer. I was surprised when she said once that she wrote them the morning after our appt. Her memory is so incredible! She remembers better than me the details of what we talk about. During the day she usually is back-to-back appts with 15 minutes or no time between sessions and she tends to work until 6:30 or 7pm, so I can understand not wanting to stick around the office longer to write the day's notes.

My t gives me a copy of her notes after every session. They aren't really that interesting to me, I pretty much glance at them and throw them in a box. They are usually about a full page long, and she has lots of little squares, arrows and circles- I guess that's how her brain thinks. She also has an amazing memory and recently surprised me by mentioning some little comment I had made over a year ago.

I have no idea if my T makes notes after sessions or how extensive they are if she does, but she doesn't write notes during... though if I've emailed her during the week she'll sometimes have a printout of it in session to refer to, and there have been a couple times she's scribbled something down on the back...

My t takes notes during sessions, and so do I actually. I've never seen what she writes in hers, so I really don't know what they say, but I am curious! One of the things we do in sessions is dream work, I write down all of my dreams and bring typed copies with me when I go, one for her to reference and one that I read from and we both take notes. One of these days I may just ask to read what she is writing over there. Maybe!

The first one asked if I minded if she took notes at the beginning. She wrote stuff down but it did not help her memory at all from week to week. Once I told her to try taking accurate notes. Now she rarely writes and when she does I suspect she is either doodling out of boredom or making her grocery list.
The second does not take notes that I have seen but she must after I leave or her memory is a lot better.

Mine apologized at the first session, saying he had to record things on the computer. Didn't bother me at all. It did freak me out at the second appt when he just sat and stared at me the whole time. He doesn't take notes. He also told me he does not save my emails.

My T takes notes, but not steadily throughout the session. I guess it's just when something comes up that he wants to remember. He writes down stuff I say, and when I'm telling him a dream he's usually typing away on his computer. I don't mind because he doesn't lose his focus on me and keeps glancing up at me while he's typing. Otherwise I haven't a clue as to what he finds worth recording. But it enables him to remember A LOT about what we've discussed in session.

This is really interesting. There have been a few times when I've been talking and T grabbed a yellow legal pad and started, I don't know, it was like he was sketching something and I could tell he was drawing arrows. Weird. If anyone knows what these Ts are drawing, I'm really curious.

My therapist has never taken notes during a session. I assume he must write things down after I leave, but I've never seen where he keeps files and he doesn't have a computer in the office so who knows. He's generally really good at remembering things, so however he does it works fine.

My former T didn't take notes (ever) and TBH it made feel uncomfortable. I'm not saying it's wrong, it's just that I found it discouraging. I guess it somehow made me feel she didn't care or something like that. Later on she'd sometimes keep my homework in order to read it throughly and then gave it back to me but I already read it aloud in session so it didn't seem that useful to me. My current T does take notes on everything (I talk so fast or remain silent when I'm feeling anxious and fidgety- I wonder how he can keep up it with that). Sometimes I read my journal entries in therapy (which is not a requirement. It's something I do because I want to since I find it very helpful) and my T takes notes of that info as well.

My first therapist took copious notes. I hated it. Sometimes I had to wait for him to finish writing. I *really* came to hate it when I was trying to work thru a rupture over something that happened in a previous session. He was certain I had requested a particular thing from him, and I had no idea where he got his notion from! He then pulled out his big fat file on me, and went back to the page he wrote on that day. Stabbing it with his finger, he said "Here it is! this is what you said!" It wasn't a direct quote, it was interpretive: "Crescent asked if I would..." He wouldn't even consider the possibility that he may have inaccurately interpreted the meaning of what I said. In his mind, his interpretation of the meaning was fact. This just deepened the rupture, and even just the thought of seeing a therapist with pen in hand makes me want to throw up.

The therapist I fell into after that, doesn't take a single note. She is entirely focused on me during session. It wasn't until a couple of years into therapy that I finally found out that afterwards she writes a very brief note that is about 2 sentences long. She holds the history of my therapy in her heart.

My T does not take notes during session. I assume she does after session, but I don't know for sure. She always remembers things from session to session (I see her every 2 weeks), so either she is writing it down after session, or she has a really good memory.