Have you ever googled your therapist?

Thats really honest of her, but that feels like an unprofessional reaction. Shaming your patient? I don't like that. (I don't blame her for feeling that way either, as I said, I feel like a creepy stalker. I'm afraid if I take my T by surprise s/he may react badly to me as well)

I think it was that I figured out who her kids were. I think they have to expect that we will look them up. It took some real effort for me to find her kids! Because I feelings for her were very maternal I was jealous of her kids so....

I think there is a big difference between Googling your therapist and Googling your therapist's family! Unless the therapist is ancient and anti-internet age, they should be fine with Googling. So many practices rely on the internet to acquire patients in the first place!

That's completely normal and healthy to have those feelings... and if a T wants to hide his or her kids, they are going to have to have pretty much no Internet presence at all!

Yes and no. If a T is really good at hiding his or her internet presence, sometimes using a relative who is not as diligent about their privacy, can help to find more about your T.

SIGH. I am such a creep.

I was creepy. Sadly I was disappointed to see her kids were pretty successful. I was hoping they would be losers so I would seem like a better child.

Haha I have. I found her address online. My dad said it was creepy.

Her home address?

My T told me to google her to check her out and make sure she was safe. She is very well known so it was easy to find tons of stuff on her.

If googled my T about Week 3 when I wasn't sure if I was gonna stick with them. I wanted to find out who the heck it was that I'd be opening my soul to.

1- Did you find much?

Link to LinkedIn account, which I never checked.

FB account, which I did check out. Handful of photos, including some of kids. More or less cryptic comments by FB friends. Where T went to undergrad school. I imagine there was more there that wasn't public.

*Most interesting discovery was that we both were married on the same month and day! What's that, like a 1 in 133,000 chance?*

2- Did you tell your therapist that you googled him/her?

Not yet. Maybe I should. In fact I was going to tell them, mainly to give them a heads up that they had publicly accessible info on the net.

3- Did you tell them what you came up with and how?

Despite not telling them, I have made one or two (Freudian?) slips, such as asking about their kids in a way that suggested I knew they had kids when they had never told me so, that might have led them to believe that I had visited their FB. Or maybe they themself took precautions.

4- How did they react?

Well, their FB is no longer public. No trace. It doesn't even come up on searches anymore.

5- Do you have any regrets?

Yes and no. By finding out personal info that they hadn't disclosed to me, it has affected, probably negatively, if only slightly, our T-client alliance. On the other hand, since the FB info seemed to indicate that the T was not psychotic, I elected to retain their services when I wasn't sure...

It could just be that they changed the last name on their page (and thus no one who doesn't know what they did can find them) a friend of mine who is a teacher did that because he didn't want his students finding him on there.

I just did reading this thread. There's photos from her wedding, she looks cute and happy and her husband is a doll! I won't tell her because I only did it out of mere curiosity from this thread. I think my T is such a cute lady <3

This is really funny. I actually came here to start a thread like this until I saw this. It must be on all of our minds.

Yes, I did google my therapist.
1- Did you find much?
Every inch became a mile, so I found a lot more than I think T is aware is public. I found her facebook page, photos, her siblings' and her parents' facebook pages.... There is actually a LOT more I found out, but I don't feel comfortable disclosing that in a public post here since it's pretty revealing.

2- Did you tell your therapist that you googled him/her?
Never have, never will. Maybe when I'm out of treatment-- and even then, maybe 3 years after we end treatment?

3- Did you tell them what you came up with and how?
Nope

4- How did they react?
Nope

5- Do you have any regrets?
Nope. I believe firmly in that the therapist should aim to disclose when s/he feels a client needs it. At first, my therapist was very much a blank slate. I knew nothing about her. I stopped googling her after she started sharing parts of her that weren't so "out in the open."

I have a very complicated relationship with my therapist, which I can discuss in private but even giving minor details about "why" and "what" I found out reveal a lot more than I think is appropriate. I'm still trying to grapple with how what I found out will impact the course of my therapy.

Yes...quite a bit. I did find him online originally though.

I find googling my T makes my heart sick. It doesn't help me at.all.

1. Just a linkedin account.
2. No.
3. No.
4. n/a
5. I wish I weren't so nosy.

Every day I google both T's to see what pops up.

One T has a Facebook account. You can find family on there and see if there is any good info on their pages. The other T does not have an account but I found news articles on him and his family and have found their Facebook pages. I have learned a lot about him from these articles....things he would never reveals.

I do not regret it.
I would never tell them.
It really helps ease the curiosity if you have a T that does zero disclosure.

Because deep down, they want to test their T.
"How much can I push before it breaks?"

A therapist can put up with many many things. But having a client invade their privacy and tell them flat out? In 99% of cases, you go straight into their "creepers list".

i suspected this might be the case. Big gamble to take tho.

I disagree. Just because you feel strongly about it does not make a number like "99%" accurate. My therapist said that it was normal for clients to be curious. We discussed how the Internet is public and all information is fair game, so Ts should be thoughtful regarding things like Facebook and what they make available for the whole world to view.

I wasn't testing anyone. I was curious. This was the most important person in my life so I wanted to know her better.

How is googling one's T and accessing publicly available material invading a T's privacy?

I agree that it is all Public but it can have some negative affects on us, for instance when I first saw my last Therapist's Facebook Page I saw a picture of her on there with another guy and I got very jealous (before telling myself that she is only my Therapist and nothing more than that).

Change their last name to what? My T only has one last name. Are you taking about a fake last name or what? I'm confused.

Yup, saw a photo of my T's spouse and immediately pegged the spouse as a bad guy...

What they do is they use a fake last name for instance my friend uses Fugazi (which few if any people have that actual last name), the downside is that they have to find all of their actual friends themselves but it also means that no one can find them if they don't want them to.