Ever wonder what T's write about us?

Well, i was going through my GM's HUGE box of papers, which had all of my documents in it since I was about 3yrs old... I came acrossed a bunch of interesting papers... It was when I was with my favorite counselour... and most of the stuff she wrote about is stuff that I remember (unlike the earlier written stuff), and then the people after her (when I was a teen) had no clue what they were writting on me.. lol.. but I wanted to share this stuff with someone.. and you guys/girls are the only ones I could think of to share it with ^_^ ... I'll bold the stuff that made me laugh...(do remember this was about 10 to 11 years ago, so I dont really do any of this stuff anymore)... reading that I gleefully laugh after tossing toys to the wall sorta ... made me feel... like I was some... evil crazy kid.. but... *Shrugs* lol

Age 10

"Emergency 45 minute individual play therapy session as requested by Grandmother and first play therapy session with this therapist. Client seemed excited/anxious about going to the play room. She chose the room with the least amount of toys in it and chose to play with the doll house and dolls most of the session. She would place each doll in a bed, a man doll would come in and in a gruff voice make them get out of bed, each doll would then be forcefully thrown against the wall. client would laugh gleefully while she did this. Client would gather them up and repeat the sequence. The theme of her play seemed to be about not feeling safe and anger. No limits were set.
Client was active and verbal (usually giggling) during the whole session. She made eye contact a lot and would giggle after a couple of seconds. She also giggled after making farting noises with her mouth and arm. She left the play room willingly."

"45 minute individual play therapy session. Client seemed redy to goto the play room. She chose the same room as last time and again chose to play with the doll house and dolls most of the session. Her play followed much of the same routine as last time but she added animals. "-

eh... sorry... gotta go T_T will add more if anyone is interested.

Lexi - I'm impressed you could share that 'cause I can't imagine how I'd feel if I read what my T wrote about me. I admit I had to laugh about the farting noise comment. Its funny that the therapiest thought that was important enough to record!

Wondering what our Ts write about us reminds me of a time when I was seeing my pdoc in NY. He would constantly bullsh** and talk about stuff that was completely off topic. So in the middle of the session, he randomly asked me what I thought about the possible war in Iraq. I said, "At this moment, I really don't care very much." And then he starts scribbling notes. So all I could think was that he was writing something like: patient has no regard for human life. lolol.

I'm sure that when my T writes about me, it is very similar to how I write about him-- Extremely attached to client. Wish I could see her everyday. Extreme fear that she will terminate. Would love to spend more time with her, but afraid to ask. Must seek supervision. HAHAHAHAH, what is wrong with me tonight?!?!?

Nooooooooooo!

I once asked for a copy of my records. I thought my husband and I were splitting and wanted to see if there was anything in there he could use against me (custody issues).

I only read one page, that was it and I shredded them. So, no. I don't wonder or want to know what he writes about me.

Yea, well there's 2 sets of notes: the clinical ones and the personal ones. The personal ones are the T's.... they cannot be used in court or anything like that. No one can ever have the personal notes turned over. I am much more interested in what the personal notes say, of course. I got a hold of my clinical notes from when I was in the hospital when I was 18-- pretty boring stuff.... major depression, 'chronic' character d/o, cognitive functioning extremely high, SI, blah blah blah, all stuff I already knew... I want the good stuff!!!

I wondered if he had personal notes...I still don't want to know though. I'm sure it would hurt me somehow...maybe I'd find out he really has major negative countertransference with me.

You know, wish I'd go away...

I don't think my T has any notes. Clinical or personal. Could that be possible? I never see him taking any notes. And he doesn't do insurance. (He will give a copy of a bill with a diagnosis code to the client if the client wants to try to seek reimbursement on her own, but he does not deal directly with insurance himself.) I don't seek insurance reimbursement for his services, so would there be any reason for him to have notes? Sometimes I have wanted to tell him to put something in his notes for legal reasons. But I thought it might be presumptuous of me to assume he even had notes and to be able to make that sort of suggestion. Notes!

I guess I get a pretty good idea of what my T thinks of me from our conversations and interactions in session. He tries to be fairly transparent.

My previous counselor did take notes during our sessions. I think a lot of it was to help her remember.

My T has never taken one note during session-- and he doesn't do insurance either... yet somehow he has a big file on me, lol. I know this because I have to sign for each session... and the signature paper is attached to the file. The only time I saw him refer to his notes was 2 weeks ago when I gave him 'homework' to remind me of exactly what we were talking about at the end of the previous session. He looked into the notes and told me-- I was teasing him about that. I'm sure he writes them after I leave; all Ts do.

Notes are necessary... especially for malpractice... although your T doesn't go through health insurance, he definitely has liability insurance for himself... he would definitely need to keep notes on clients should anything ever happen... I'm sure they also need to write down some detail and perphaps review them sometime before the session. I know that in general, my T is an extraordinary listener, and remembers things that I am pretty sure are not in his notes... I mean, he has brought up specifics of dreams that I have told him about, weeks after the conversation... stuff that I don't even remember! However, I still think he keeps notes to review progression/regression trends in our work together.

Sunrise, I'm sure they all keep personal notes in some fashion. I would hope so anyway. I know my T sees about 15 clients per day.

He writes in a folder at the end but I'm not sure what he's writing...darn I shouldn't have shredded the copies he gave me.

Oh well, it's probably for the better.

Now that I think about it, I remember there was a piece of paper I had typed some stuff on that I wanted to go over with my T, and I gave it to him to read, and he said this is great, can I keep it? And I said sure. So maybe he put that in my file. (I didn't know he had files.) I see him on his two computers all the time in his office so I think he does a lot of stuff electronically.

A few years ago I got the records from several T's. I found out the cute one was way off base in his thinking. Yes I have conflict with my dad but no he didn't sexually abuse me. Heck he wasn't around enough for that.

I have been thinking about getting my current T's records just to see what he says about me.

Jbug

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janniebug said:
I have been thinking about getting my current T's records just to see what he says about me.

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I would hesitate to do that with mine. I would feel almost like it was a breach of trust. I think if I really wanted to know what was in his notes (if they exist), I would just ask him, and he would tell me if he could. I think it would project distrust to him to not believe his spoken words but insist on seeing his written record. As far as I know, my T has no secrets from me.

I agree with Sunrise on this. The only reason I requested my records was because of my fears about what my husband might be able to use regarding custody if we left.

It was an over-reaction on my part. I called my T the next day and told him why I had done this. He was like 'oh okay'...it had nothing to do with him and everything to do with my own fears.

T and I discussed it next session and I told him that it doesn't matter what is in my record or not. I don't need to know about it. Here is why I didn't read further and ended up shredding the rest...

"the patient presented as a somewhat overweight white female"...now I was overweight back then. It wasn't a lie but I was like 'how could he say that about me'....see we just don't need to know these things. So, I didn't go further.

Actually though, he said he doesn't write much in the record. He just checks off boxes of themes discussed. So, I'm not missing anything anyway...

One time though, I wrote him a six page letter and I wonder where that was filed...giggle. It's okay, it is his to have.

I guess I'm just curious to see what Steve really thinks of me. I keep getting reassured that he likes me just fine and that he's not sorry he took me on as a client but I want to know what is going on in his head because he doesn't take notes and does all his documentation at the end of the day. What if he got my issues mixed up with someone elses?

Jbug

Geesh thats alot of notes on one session. My counselor shows me my file and her notes anytime I want to see them. The file notes are so short because she has to use professional terms that cover lots of things in not as many words. Her notes during our sessions depend on what we are doing. If we are role playing or doing some other project she writes it up after I leave and then shows me during the next session. As a joke I started signing the bottom with "I have seen and my Counselor has explained them to me My impression of todays session is that --------------" Cause she said not all her clients ask to see their files and session notes and she sometimes wonders what her clients think about the sessions and how they felt they went and how she performed her job. So now she does this with all her clients by leaving the last 15 minutes of the session for reviewing the session from both client and therapist point of views. I love it. and so do some of her other clients that I have met in the waiting room.