Have you ever googled your therapist?

1- Did you find much?
Mostly just professional web pages (his website, his entries in various therapy directories) and his Linked In profile. I saw another T in the summer while mine was away, googled her and found her Facebook page, which gave me a link to my T's Facebook page. Everything was on lockdown apart from one thing: a group for a hobby he does. So I inadvertently found out something he does in his spare time.

2- Did you tell your therapist that you googled him/her?
I did, yes. One day, we were talking about how old he was, he asked me to guess and I said I couldn't because I knew his rough age, having seen his LinkedIn profile and the years he was at school.

3- Did you tell them what you came up with and how?
See above. The one thing I haven't told him is that I can see the group for this hobby. I feel like it's a part of his life that shouldn't belong to me and I don't want to invade.

4- How did they react?
He didn't seem bothered.

5- Do you have any regrets?
None whatsoever.

I don't think my T has a creepers list. He's just interested in people.

Statements like this made me think he might judge me - I saw some blog that said Ts drop clients for googling them. I was so stressed and worried about it. My T seemed utterly nonplussed.

Has anyone ever paid for info like the sites that come up offering info from public records like addresses, marriage info etc?

No but I did find out from a public website the city where my last Therapist grew up (which was confirmed on her Facebook page).

1- Did you find much? Only that she has written a book

2- Did you tell your therapist that you googled him/her? No

3- Did you tell them what you came up with and how? No

4- How did they react? N/A

5- Do you have any regrets? No

Yes, I'm curious about him. He has a professional website with his bio, approach to therapy, publications, etc. Outside of that there is basically nothing because he doesn't "do" social media. Even so, googling turned up his name in the county housing records so I found out where he lived, the value of his home, how much he paid for it, etc. It's all there. I'm sure he hates it but there's nothing he can do about it - it's public info. So I would never tell him I searched his name online. No good could come of it.

I haven't, but I've remember a person on another thread say that they have.

That is definitely stalking IMO

Yeah I have.

1- Did you find much?
Just he's linkedin account and his license.

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

No I haven't. I'm probably not going to. I don't think he would react badly. I just don't see the need to tell him.

5- Do you have any regrets?

No I don't have any regrets. It helped me start to trust him a little.

Well, not my therapist, but i did my pdoc.

1- Did you find much?
meh, i found out that she was being paid by three pharmaceutical companies that were all makers of my meds that she refused to take me off of, or change other than to add more of them on. (over a year ago).(i forget the exact term of it, but they dont call it paying to prescribe the meds anymore, but it was something like a yearly tax that the companies pay the doctors-found out on the fda site, because they were sharing all of that information for free access at that time, due to some sort of legal action being taken over pharmaceutical companies withholding information, or something like that- can't remember exactly really lol i just remember what i found out, and where i found it out at).

2- Did you tell your pdoc that you googled him/her?
Nope, i dont really talk to her much, only when i have to. (changed it to pdoc in the question lol)
and "nope" for the last questions too.

It is pretty creeptastic. A line I would personally never cross.

If so,

1- Did you find much?
Yes. First, she mentioned she'd written a book, so I looked it up and read it. Later, I found pictures of her and family, found her address, found former employers, LinkedIn page, etc.

2- Did you tell your therapist that you googled him/her?
Yes, I did tell her everything about it.

3- Did you tell them what you came up with and how?
Yes I did.

4- How did they react?
She was momentarily dismayed that I'd found her address. She was very comfortable after I explained my reasoning, that knowing a lot about her helped me with trust and I had been with her several months, demonstrating clear boundary awareness. She said it just took a moment to come to terms with, because she was new to working online and having info public. I told her I was afraid she'd think I was a stalker. She laughed, actually, and said she knew I was way too busy for that, and that if what I saw reassured me about her, she was glad. She asked me what I thought of her Facebook page, but I was too embarrassed to say. Later, she told me about a blog she wrote, so I could read it for comfort. I totally LOVE my therapist!

5- Do you have any regrets?
NO!

I had a similar first reaction, especially as regards to marriage and stuff, or at least paying for it. I dunno if marriage records are public info; I think divorce records are.

On the other hand if I really wanted to make sure a potential T didn't have a criminal background, however slight or had violated some ethical standards but was still able to practice, yeah.... That information might be worth paying for. But I probably wouldn't do it unless something made me suspect something like that.

I think therapists have to know, or be taught, how curious their clients are about them, especially if Ts aren't so up on Internet skills. By the way if you search the forums here for "googled" you'll find a three year old thread about this same subject as this thread.

But if a T had a policy of routinely and summarily dropping clients who googled them, I think that's unprofessional on their part... If they have public info out there, they need to deal with it much better than that.

I can never remember my therapist's last name.

I agree. It's one thing to look for info about your therapist, but another thing to look for family and info beyond just the therapist.

In our State the Board of Healing Arts has a web site where all of the disciplinary actions for the last 20 years are listed. I have checked that site for my T, for the T that my H and T see for marriage counseling, and for the Ts that my D has seen. I think that is just sensible.

Well, Google had just become widely known as I was finishing therapy, so no, I didn't search out info while in therapy. Of course, there were more old-fashioned ways of checking, but I didn't do those either. I just didn't feel any need. He answered any question I had, and I just didn't care beyond that.

But I did Google him a couple of years ago before I got back in touch with him. It had been about a decade, and he is elderly. I felt I had to search for a death record because I didn't want to call and upset anyone if he had passed. Trust me, it's not a Google search you ever want to do. But in the course of that search I came upon a record about his mortgage which listed the value of his house, etc. It wasn't until I'd looked more carefully that I realized what it was. I guess it was there because it's a public record. I would have preferred not to see it, though it's not a big deal. But I won't tell him because I have no desire to remind him of his mortality.

I fell that same way about my current Disability Lawyer since she is fairly old now as well (in her 60s).

Well after I found my T online I googled her. I had to know who I was dealing with and what her specialties were. I was looking for something specific.

A few months back after I hadn't seen T in awhile I googled her again and found her facebook page,I did snoop a bit,she does have some things open,but they are in fact open. Didn't add any of her friends,like or post on anything. I don't see the need to tell her,it was there,anyone could have viewed it. Why bother?

Oh geez--60's is the new 40's (the closer I get, the more I have to believe this.) Gimme a break!

Maybe, well I guess my bigger concern is that she will retire soon and leave me without a Disability Lawyer.

Yes. I found her while researching t's on psychologytoday.com, but never googled her until after I started seeing her.

1- Did you find much? Nope. Nothing but her psychologytoday.com profile.

2- Did you tell your therapist that you googled him/her? Yep, sure did, and she said that because of her profession she was very very careful to NOT have things show up about her online.

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

4- How did they react? She was cool and glad that I was brave enough to tell her I'd done it.

5- Do you have any regrets? None.

I was just googling my T today. Have been seeing her for 4 years and always wondering if she was married (doesn't wear a ring but that's not the best indication), and if she had kids.

But perhaps google, FB and Linkedin showed me more than I needed to know, and now I sort of regret it. Have been reading others replies and decided NOT to reveal my knowledge of her family at future sessions. It brought relief in a way, when others said that her info was public, but in a certain way now, I'm sort of sorry I know. I'm wondering if it could change our course of therapy.

I never wanted to ask her as once I had a T, asked her if she was married and she said "what does this have to do with therapy", so have kept my mouth shut ever since.

I fessed up last week. I'm glad I did, and my T says its out there and public and and not pissed...

We discussed trust again because apparently everything comes down to trust with me :P. And we discussed boundaries, and I promised to stop the google stalking. booooo.

I wouldn't care so much except T made a joke about there being a lot more, and now I wish I hadn't promised. 0_o. So mean!

Today I searched until I found his home address and drive by his house (which is about 30 miles from my house). There is no way I will tell him!