Recording session with T

Have you ever recorded your sessions? Did you tell your T?

I want to record mine but I don't want to tell her I am doing it because it would be awkward but I don't want to disrespect her. Thoughts?

look up your laws first.... where I live, it's not illegal (although maybe a bit unethical?) to record as long as one person involved in the conversation (you) knows it's being recorded. For example, a T's colleague or something can't set something up in T's room to record a session...because no one in the room knows it's being recorded.

I've always recorded mine. It's my time, paid for...so I record.

I do online therapy so most of my sessions are recorded and I've found those records invaluable. In my state, two-party consent is required to record a conversation, meaning I'd be breaking the law to record her without permission. Whether your state has a two-party consent law or not, it's important that you have an open, trusting relationship with your therapist, and that requires that you have her trust too. I hope you'll discuss it with her and that it's a positive conversation.

IF you have an Android phone, they have a voice record. Every time you go into the office(mine has a couch), place the phone by you or on your lap with it recording before you go in. And just turn the screen off, they will not know.

I have recorded them.

In retrospect, I wish I had because she says different things a lot and it's crazy-making.

I wish I had, some of the really good ones, it would be nice to have to refer to later down the road. I always took notes during, and wrote after-session thoughts too, but I know there are things I missed that I wish I had now.

I didn't know the android phone has a voice recording app. Thank you. I was trying to find a recorder app.

I feel bad not telling her but I don't want it to be awkward.

Honestly I don't see why the law would intervene in this context.
Unless the OP is planning to put the whole thing on youtube, nothing is stopping them from recording their sessions.
Sure, ethically it's better to ask permission.
I wanted to record my sessions and planned on asking my T and then chickened out but recorded two sessions anyway.
Then I felt guilty because I thought it wasn't fair to record without her knowing, not for legal reasons but because I didn't like doing things behind her back.
So I told her and she was surprised I was anxious. She was totally fine, said those were my sessions to do what I wanted with them.

Do check your laws--in the US, they vary state by state. Where I live, I think it's illegal unless both parties consent.

I have the S5, it is called Voice Recorder.

I've been recording my sessions since february (more than a year after I started seeing my T) and I would never tell him about it. I often forget what happens in session, sometimes it almost as if I'm not really there as I dissociate a lot. I also wanted to hear his voice.

I have the S5 as well. How much room do the recordings take on your phone? Do they stay within the app?

My t consented at first, but recently told me to stop. I didn't listen to her....

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That is my issue. I totally forget what my t says in sessions and what I say or how we both react to something. My memory is awful and I want to be able to listen to the comforting words she says When ever I want. Plus like you I want to be able to hear her voice.

Why did she tell you to stop?

Lol bc I told her I had posted a session on PC and she kind of flipped out about it

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I recorded most all my sessions with my therapist, and she had no problems with it. She just told me to protect my privacy so that it doesn't get in the wrong hands, especially since I had a teen that sometimes used my ipad and phone.

For me there would be something messy about doing it surreptitiously. I had to be that way with my FO in order to be myself, and I was going to the therapist to help with stopping the duplicity in my life.

Good question. I think that is 100% voice, so less than a video recording. Tape yourself for an hour, and see. I also have a 64gb memory card in my phone, so you might wanna add some storage.

I have an s5 and use skyro app and have them save directly to my Dropbox.

I have two years worth of voice-recorded sessions in a hidden folder on my computer. I have not told my therapist and see no reason to ever do so? It's legal in my state, it doesn't influence the way I interact with her and it hasn't affected her performance whatsoever.

I don't know how she would feel about me doing it without her knowledge.. not that I particularly care, either. It would be hilariously hypocritical of her to tell me I could not record our appointments, given that she has at least 192 days worth of notes with things I've said on them.

Out of curiosity, if state law does not allow taped conversations without informed consent would that law still apply to psychotherapy conversations taped illicitly by a client. Short of terminating, what recourse would a therapist have given confidentiality laws?

It absolutely applies, and the therapist could sue. Confidentiality agreements or policies do not shield clients from consequences for illegal actions.

So the therapist definitely has real-world recourse just like any other individual would - we can't commit crimes against them with impunity simply because of the therapeutic relationship.

But what's more important to me is the idea of trust. If we go to therapy and act covertly, deceptively, we're damaging the necessary foundation of trust and not giving ourselves a full opportunity to benefit from the process. Just because we feel scared doesn't entitle us to violate laws or ethical principles. Sure, we *can* do it, but I don't think fear is any justification for dishonesty and moreso, I think it's a sign that the process is hindered.

That's not to say the therapy will be a complete failure, it clearly will vary, but if we're taping our therapist without their knowledge... we're not really giving ourselves or them the opportunity to build a good working partnership, because that underlying deception and weakness on our part is always there, underneath.

A word of warning about recordings. I had a T who with my permission recorded sessions as she was severely dyslexic. When a legal issue arose between my x and me, his attorney requested the tapes. The laws in my state make a distinction between a therapist's notes and recordings of both sides of the conversation. He would have gotten the tapes with the expressed purpose of playing them in court, if she hadn't erased then. She said she reused tapes after she made her notes.