[Dreamy01]

Bit of a strange question really but here goes. I have a blog that I'm quite proud of as I do a lot of self exploration and process thoughts and feelings about therapy and other aspects of my life including spiritual faith. Part of me would like to give T the address so that she can read it. I've given her a print out of a couple of posts so far but I like the idea of her being able to look more thoroughly in her own time.

Flip side is my concern that if she read my blog it would take the work outside of the therapy room. She is a boundaried T so perhaps she wouldn't agree anyhow. It might seem too personal to her and she might be reluctant to read my stuff without my permission. If I'm honest with myself it might feel too personal if she did.

Has anyone else let their T read their blog? Did it cause any boundary issues for the relationship? Any regrets etc?

[precious things]

If she has firm boundaries already my hunch is she would not offer you much feedback or even check the blog with the frequency you might hope for. It seems like you could be setting yourself up for disappointment with this- do you think you would agonize or censor your posts in a way that left you needing her to respond or comment on them? This is just me,but I think I would want to keep the therapy in the confines of the hour/session and something like a blog or facebook (or posts here) completely separate. It would drastically change how free I was to write if I thought my T might be reading.

[likelife]

I agree with precious things. It'd find it hard not to censor myself if I knew T might read it. I don't imagine my T would agree to that kind of arrangement, but she seems mostly okay with reading individual posts I bring in. For myself, I could see giving T the address as a way to try to feel special, to increase the odds that T would be thinking about me between sessions. But that's just me.

[Syra]

Originally Posted by Dreamy01

Bit of a strange question really but here goes. I have a blog that I'm quite proud of as I do a lot of self exploration and process thoughts and feelings about therapy and other aspects of my life including spiritual faith. Part of me would like to give T the address so that she can read it. I've given her a print out of a couple of posts so far but I like the idea of her being able to look more thoroughly in her own time.

Flip side is my concern that if she read my blog it would take the work outside of the therapy room. She is a boundaried T so perhaps she wouldn't agree anyhow. It might seem too personal to her and she might be reluctant to read my stuff without my permission. If I'm honest with myself it might feel too personal if she did.

Has anyone else let their T read their blog? Did it cause any boundary issues for the relationship? Any regrets etc?

For me, I think it might be uncomfortable. If she had it to read it regularly it would be a commitment of personal time for profssional work and would feel to me like a personal interest, rather than professional interest in me, and then I'd get confused.

If she didn't read it regularly, but only on occasion when you told her about something, that I think would seem okay to me. Maybe.

But I think I like to know if she read it at other times so I know what she knows. It's not so much that I care what she learns, but rather than then it starts feeling like a friend, or mentor, or something that fuzzies the boundaries - or else it feels like she is treating me with information I don't know she has and I don't like that either.

I think my first reaction woudl be to love the attention to read my blog. And then I would get confused.

[refika]

I gave my T a lot of private stuff I wrote while journaling. T asked for it for educational purposes, and I agreed to give it to T. Along the way, I was hoping (and expecting) that T would read it to gain insight into my thoughts, issues, etc.

A few sessions ago, I asked T if they read my stuff, and they said no, and they have no plans to. T just filed the stuff in a draw and forgot about it. T said that if they read my thoughts, issues, journals, etc, it would affect our sessions too much and keep me from opening up/talking about my issues in sessions.

T is okay if I want to print something out and specifically ask them to read it. I think with regard to your blog, ask T if she would be interested in reading it and see what she says. Be prepared that she may not want to read it for a variety of reasons, however.

[stopdog]

If it is a public blog, then I don't quite get how the therapist reading it would be problem. She may or may not be think it is useful to your therapy.

My t hasread my blog. And read stuff at my forum. And i wrote stuff on her forum. She has read all sorts of my stuff. It doesnt bother me. She isnt going to judge me, and i am open with her. To me, there isnt anything to worry about.

[Hope-Full]

I actually have shared my blog with my T. I brought in a post I specifically wanted T to read. From there, I had hoped that T might go and read the blog out of session, but after discussing it with T, in an effort to keep the boundaries for both of us, the agreement we came to is that if I want T to read a specific blog post, I will bring it in and share it with T in session, and we can talk about it then.

It works well for me, even though at first I was a little hurt cause I wanted T to read it out of session and possible provide feedback. However, I'm glad we discussed it, and have actually brought in a few different posts for T to read in session, that lead to great conversation.

[Sunne]

I have a tumblr blog that my T looks at frequently. It's mostly quotes, photos, and songs about how I feel. I process therapy like this a lot. I'm quite an abstract thinker and use the blog to express things I have a hard time saying.

He likes to look at it and listens to the songs even. I think it has given him a deeper understanding of me. I have made it private a few times when dealing with transference stuff but it's usually open to him and is public.

He also has a link to my online poerty page and dream journal.

I don't think it's blurred boundaries. I mean, they are loose as it is.. So, nothing that makes me feel weird or awkward. He is a different duck, that one.

[Dreamy01]

Thanks for the replies.

I'm leaning towards not sharing the address with her but just bringing in specific posts as I've done already. I think it would open up an uncontrollable can of worms if I gave her the address. There's a very strong chance she wouldn't look at it anyway and then I might feel rejected. If she did agree to look I might always be wondering if she had and what she'd read etc. And yes, I guess I might feel forced to censor myself if I knew T might read it.

So I guess it's a nice thought in theory but when it comes down to reality some things are probably best left in the therapy room.

I'm glad it works well for some people though.