t taking notes during session

No notes after the first session when he took down my address and wrote down which medication I was on and things like that. When I leave he immediately moves over to his computer and I assume he makes notes then. I don't think I could (as in "would be able to") ask.

I think all T's write notes after we leave sessions

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Since you just started up with this T it sounds like she should be taking notes until she really gets to know you better. I think its good T take some notes but not a lot while you're in session. That would be distracting to me too. Maybe she will let up on the notes after she gets a better handle on you. If not, I might suggest telling her all the note taking is distracting. I did ask my T once or twice NOT to write something down that was very personal. I don't know if he did or not.

I have asked my T on several occasions to see my file but he went ballistic. Don't know why except that he must have written down something really, really, bad about me that he doesn't want me to see. He was so bent out of shape over it that I let up on asking him for now but I still want to see my file. I'm afraid that what he's written is so bad he must feel that I'll leave T if I see my file. I can't imagine what could be so damaging since I'm not a criminal or anything like that.

Thanks for your post Doogie. I hope more people comment about this.

Take your own notes. There is nothing preventing a client from writing stuff down too.

My therapist always had a pen and paper ready when we did family therapy, but rarely wrote more than a word or two. In my individual therapy she held pen and paper for the first few sessions then they disappeared. She video tapes all of her couples therapy (she mainly sees couples), and reviews each tape from beginning to end just in case she missed any nuances. She will also, request to tape if its a big family. Early on, I had her video tape one of my sessions, but it was hard to look at, I was preverbal in it.

Since June I have audio taped all my sessions.

I did read some of my notes once, and they were boring as heck. She only put the bare minimum of what the licensing board will accept. My hundreds of emails are not a part of my records.

A T's emotional reaction to a client is very important. If T finds a client boring, perhaps others do as well. So to me this would not be an occasion for "calling out", it would rather be an opportunity to talk about what might be boring and whether and how one might become more interesting to other people.

My T usually write a few things during our sessions but not much. If I have had a med change or have expressed some SI or SUI thoughts recently he will go through questions about sleep, appetite, and all the rest and made notes about my responses. Otherwise he seems to just jot down one or two things in the average session. At times I will freeze when I see him writing because I can't for the life of me figure out what I said that was noteworthy. lol
Although I would love to ask to see my notes I am sure he would be annoyed and I probably am better off not knowing what he writes.

My T does not take notes, except when I share a dream.
She knows me well and sometimes remembers things I don't remember .

But when she was involved in a class this past year, I was her volunteer client and she took notes for about 6 -8 weeks during my twice-weekly sessions. At first it was odd, then it was interesting because I felt like what I was saying was SOOO important, that she had to record it When she stopped (happily, because she doesn't like taking notes), it was another adjustment. For one, I had to get used to more eye contact than we had been having, and I didn't have that bit of time to think/relax as she was writing. It's now back to 'normal' and it was an interesting to experience.

My progress notes don't interest me, so I never asked to read them. I don't know if my doctor would let me if I did ask.

After my assessment, my doctor gave me a copy of the summary to review and note any errors and/or inconsistencies. She corrected the few details I pointed out and then gave me a signed copy. I was impressed.

That is a very healthy attitude towards negatively-tinged feedback and I agree with you. Whether I could actually put it into practice repeatedly, I'm not so sure.

However, I also think that Lola's point (and it's not that she needs me to speak for her, she can definitely tell me to f off if necessary) is more that she would feel free to tell her T that it bugged her that she was bored. And this is also a very healthy attitude towards T; it is good to be open with T about how what T does and says affects us.

Thanks Anne.... really I think if my T found me boring, he wouldn't have told me about the note thing anyway, as he never takes notes with me. As far as "calling him out" , I reserve the right to do this whenever I want...it's my therapy and I don't pay him to doodle, I pay him to listen. I would also suspect that he should say, " I find the conversations we have boring..." Open honest communication.

Certainly you would have the right to call T out...but my suggestion is that there might be more productivity in discussing and trying to learn from the meaning of T's actions and feelings.

Calling him out, is how we start that conversation ..... in my neck of the woods LOL

^^ ^^

Sorry for going off topic but what does this mean?

I've been seeing my new T for about six weeks...the first session she took lots of notes...doing family tree and history sort of thing... then we were talking about a specific issue and she didn't take notes... but then last week I talked about family relationships from past and she grabbed my folder and started writing... I think she writes down specifics to remember...thats all I think about the note taking... i try not to let it distract me.

weird.. except for the part about being the "volunteer client," i could have written this word for word! my therapist is the same way: takes notes on dreams only, and about a year ago took notes for class that she was taking. and like you, it also took me some time to get used to eye-contact again afterward

Sorry! The upward facing arrows ^^ mean that I am referring to the post just above--and giving it a .