[mylifeart]

so I have been thinking and wondering..
my new therapist has been asking questions only my therapist would have been able to provide info for her to as these questions. an its making me wonder if she has talked to my last therapist...
I sit there like a no u just didn't ask me that.. I know you are talking to my old therapist I am not dumb...

I am not a dumb person, and I observe a lot of things.. and I am not down with this if its happening...
do therapists do this? or has anyone ever herd of it.

[wotchermuggle]

Originally Posted by mylifeart

so I have been thinking and wondering..
my new therapist has been asking questions only my therapist would have been able to provide info for her to as these questions. an its making me wonder if she has talked to my last therapist...
I sit there like a no u just didn't ask me that.. I know you are talking to my old therapist I am not dumb...

I am not a dumb person, and I observe a lot of things.. and I am not down with this if its happening...
do therapists do this? or has anyone ever herd of it.

They shouldn't have/be talking unless you've signed a consent for them to do so. This is a major breach of confidentiality if they are. I'd ask your therapist about it.

Did you change from one therapist to another in the same centre? Did one therapist pass his notes to the next therapist? There should be consent for all of this either way...

[content30]

Does she have your file from your old therapist? Did you sign a release form for her to get info from your old therapist? If you signed a release or got a copy of your old file for her, then she'd know these things. However, a therapist cannot talk to another therapist or anyone else about you without you releasing the info in some way.

Were the questions really very specific questions? My T is very intuitive. She did not know my former therapists nor did she ever talk to them. However, she asked very good questions. She picked up on a lot of things just by other things I said or talked about.

In most countries (I don't know where you live) what is said in therapy is confidential. Your former therapist does not have any right telling your new therapist anything unless you have said that it's ok for them to talk about you. A T could lose their licence if they do that.

Of course some therapists might think that they have the right to go over their client's head if they think it's in the client's best interest, but I would think that's pretty unusual.

On the other hand, many therapists are pretty shrewd at picking up clues from things we don't say. My T has asked me some truly staggeringly insightful questions about things I have no clue how he could have known or guessed (things I've never told anybody anything about.)

There is no way you can know unless you ask your therapist what's going on.

[LadyShadow]

This would deeply trouble me too if this happened. I think it is a total breach of confidentiality. Are they in the same center?

Would it be possible to talk to the old therapist and find out if they said something? They are really not supposed to do that without your consent. But if you did sign a release and your old T could have written down notes that new T looked at.

And you're right you're not stupid. of course you would pick up on things only your old therapist would know. But I just read what some others wrote and they could be right too. The new T could just be very intuitive and you opened up about the same things you did with your old T.

I would try to get to the bottom of this before therapy continues because it will just bother you and fester in your mind and your sessions will become counterproductive.

If you give consent then I am sure it's the only way it's allowed, My last T asked if it was ok if she spoke with my new T and I said it was ok, My new T received a letter from her too in which she read out to me in one of my sessions.

[Perna]

I don't know how your T would know who your last therapist was (or care)? Can you give an example of a question only your last T would know? Often we think we have secrets but they're "secrets" like other people have and based on how we respond to our therapist they can get a generally good idea from others they have treated with similar problems what ours might be and it would be natural (and right!) for them to ask questions to confirm what they suspect.

[stopdog]

Did you sign a release for them to talk to each other?

[Anne2.0]

IMO and with the experience of someone who makes a living interviewing people, it takes a lot less information to ask questions that are relevant than to say almost anything else. Someone who knows next to nothing about you, if that person is skilled, can hone in on the right set of questions in a very brief time. Add intuition and experience as a therapist, and it probably happens even faster.

It's possible that what you "know" about these therapists talking to each other is illusory. Your skeptic may be working overtime, perhaps this is pinging on past issues where two people (say parents?) told each other things that you thought you'd shared in confidence, but they spoke in ways that seemed to reveal that they'd broken your trust.

If I were in your shoes, I would first figure out how realistic it is that they have spoken to each other. Other people have asked questions here that would help illuminate that. Regardless of the realistic options, I would also just ask my T--"I feel like you are asking these questions because you've learned things about me from my former T." That might open up an interesting dialogue. But it seems to me that this might really be about trusting your T, and maybe there are other reasons why you don't, or maybe this is the only thing you can put your finger on that makes sense to you about why you don't trust h er.

[mylifeart]

questions about my past that I never revealed such as these type of questions..
did you see another therapist bi-weekly? yes I did and it was the last therapist, and I did not even tell the therapist this. because I don't want her to know I am catching onto It yet I want it to get deeper so I can catch her if she is .
OR this "why do you always where pink" I wore it once to see her.
OR asking me about my fav singer with no knowledge of who she is cuz I never told her, or my favirote book by glen beck that I let my last therapist borrow... does not make sense to me when I never told her these things about myself nly my therapist new these things about me... and it seems to me that she knows an awful lot about the situation with my last therapist too.. questions about my children, ones that she just should have no knowledge of without talking to the last therapist... you don't just bring up a subject that is irrelevant to the convo...

and NO I gave NO CONSENT and this has happened before.. the last therapist shared info with other members and I did not consent to it.

[Anne2.0]

Originally Posted by mylifeart

I don't want her to know I am catching onto It yet I want it to get deeper so I can catch her if she is .

Did you directly tell your current T the name of your past T? How would they have talked to each other otherwise?

What you're suggesting would require 2 T's to both violate law and ethics, and, really, I can't see them wasting their time on your favorite colors, books, and singers.

I think it's common, in my experience, for T's to ask about these things. And if you're a mother, it would be a common line of questioning, if there are any issues with your children, or what your children are like.

Rather than trying to "catch" your current T, why don't you just play it straight and ask?

[Miswimmy1]

Usually they want a follow up on your records and such, but in order for them to talk about you or your treatment, you have to sign a release/consent form

[mylifeart]

they wont tell me if they were... I just want to know do therapist do this without patient consent, has anyone herd of it..

whats this world coming too today... ,,, its like no one follows guidelines and ethics anymore.

[mylifeart]

no I mean she already knew my fav. singer without my telling her..
she knew I read glen becks common sense without my telling her...

I never told her these things she just knew.
and these things are not just things, I have a lot of insight according to these people... and when I seen my last t I over exaggerated the color pink way too much, not this year I switched to mint

[stopdog]

I am not sure that therapists would, even if they were talking to each other, discuss a client's favorite singer or book. I know that is not the sort of info the therapist I see keeps track of, and I am not certain I would see why any of them, even if they remembered, would think that was the sort of stuff to discuss about a client.

[Miswimmy1]

I doubt they would take the time to talk about those things unless it was an important part in your therapy... I think maybe u are over analyzing the situation. Possibly she just has a very good memory and u don't remember telling her your favs?

[content30]

Originally Posted by stopdog

I am not sure that therapists would, even if they were talking to each other, discuss a client's favorite singer or book. I know that is not the sort of info the therapist I see keeps track of, and I am not certain I would see why any of them, even if they remembered, would think that was the sort of stuff to discuss about a client.

I agree. There is no way that two Ts would risk their licenses over chatting about a client's favorite color, singer, and a novel she read...no way. Perhaps you mentioned GB or a quote from his book.

My T has guessed, correctly and incorrectly, about various aspects of my tastes and life.

[unaluna]

I think the bigger problem would be your reading Glen Beck. I'm sorry I just had to say that. So - Rhianna?? You got us curious now!

[mylifeart]

I never told any of this to that therapist...
so idk, y would they do a lot of things to risk there liscence its like "always good enough for them to risk there job, never good enough for them to lose it"

besides that if I ask my therapist I she was talking to her, do you think she would tell me yeah... all she has to say is no and its the end of that conversation how else woul I beable to prove that,,, exactly something stupid over colors and singers, but its more deep than just colors and singers... how I implemented things into my life with these things.. color might be color to you,, how I expressed pink was over dramatic.. . these things r probally very important for a therapist to know how I as a patient dress in social situations as inappropriate.

[mylifeart]

and yeah I let that therapist borrow and read my glen beck book common sense and we discussed this book together. there we a lot of things that we did not agree and we did... the main thing is I dropped out of highschool when I was 15.. .so for me to understand half of the stuff written in the book is kind of impressive.. .she thought anyways...

ya'll have a nice day....

[murray]

I am just wondering if these T's are in the same practice. Perhaps if you were in a phase when you were over dramatic with the color pink, your new T might have seen you in the waiting room during that time and noticed this. She could also have noted that you were reading a Glen Beck book (definitely something my T would make not of). Perhaps the two T's even discussed the book when your T was discussing it with you. They may be friendly and might have had a tiny discussion about how a client was into Glen Beck, not you specifically or anything else about you, just that the topic was in the air. Who knows? So many possibilities for ways these things could have been picked up. Perhaps they are in supervision together and you were discussed at some point, without disclosing your identity, but it might have been obvious to new T when she started seeing you that the client discussed in supervision is you and so she may know more about you through that circumstance.

[unaluna]

Well then since you say you are seeing people at the same agency, I would assume they are passing your file along. You may have signed a waiver at the beginning that anybody there could discuss your file who was involved in your treatment. I saw two people at the same agency, although one was a therapist and one was a psychiatrist, and I almost started with another therapist, and it never even occurred to me that they would start separate files for me. In fact I was often kept waiting cuz they couldn't find my file, cuz the other person had it - I sometimes had my appointments with both on the same day. Come to think of it, that has happened other places too. You try to be efficient and book all your appointments in one trip, then they keep you waiting forever cuz they think they messed up. If they would just ask you, you could tell them, but nooooo...

There are some exceptions on confidentiality for "continuation of care" as well.

[mylifeart]

not at the same agency,, but the agencies are right across the street.
I asked the last therapist with n our convo on FB please to stay out of my treatment and not be a part of it anymore... I still think she talks to therapist I see, or they contact her. cuz its just weird if you were sitting in my chair you would see what I was talking about. . your not, so I cant explain it so you get it.

[CantExplain]

Mr T might talk to Madame T if I asked him to, but it would be more constructive for he and I to go through her written referal.

Hmmm...

Maybe I'm ready for that now.