Is your T on social media?

My T and ex T has Facebook, LinkedIn and instagram. Current T has Twitter too.

Their stuff is all private, except instagram, so I look at instagram

Yes, I've had a conversation with her before and she said "no one can see her FB save has it at to private". But....profile pics are public and the comments written under them
I've seen some and it's hard to reconcile T with her 'private' side.
She appears just like a regular person lol

My T is a psychotherapy forum manager on a local health forums website. That's how I found her.

I haven't looked for her on social media so I don't know if she uses it.

Mine isnt on Facebook. I haven't looked up other types of social media.

No! I thought part of the therapeutic alliance was not having the therapist's personal life leak into the process. Am I wrong?

Yes, LinkedIn sends me invites from people all the time who have not invited me. I've verified with them.

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My T lives in the dinosaur era and I love him for that! He doesn't even own a mobile phone..

Good to know why I'm receiving all these LinkedIn invites!

I don't think its a good idea to be "friends" with an ex therapist or psychiatrist who has a private (vs practice) social media page. Well, unless you're past the 2 year mark.

I don't understand why so many view these people as friends. Well, maybe if your idea of friendship is someone who knows your deepest darkest secrets and you only know surface fluff stuff like if they're married and have kids. (Talk about an extremely UNbalanced relationship. I don't understand why more people don't see this?)

I became friends (in real life - not facebook) with the first therapist I ever saw - right after stopping therapy. It was not a big deal, I was not confused nor did I try to use her as a therapist after we became friends and shared a hobby. We saw each other a couple of times a month. It really does not have to be all that complicated or unbalanced. We were not confused about the change and nothing horrible happened. It continued for several years (about 10 I think) until she moved across the country. We still write from time to time. I don't understand why more people don't accept that there are all sorts of ways to be and what might not work with some can work just fine with others.

This is an extremely wise sentiment, and something I am learning with maturity and experience. Your Oscar Wilde quote also delivers this message very succinctly, SD.

Hi everyone, thanks for responding to this topic. Sorry for my late response, I've unexpectedly been kept busy in the last few days.

LinkedIn CAN send invites to all your contacts, but only after you give the order to do so. It's a way of quickly inviting everyone you know, instead of sending solo invites.

I'm not friends with ex T on social media (or real life for that matter), I only follow his professional page on Facebook. He has a personal profile too, but it's set to private and doesn't even have a profile picture. I wouldn't want to be (online) friends with him, I see him as my T and nothing else.

Interesting. This topic just came up with T, regarding becoming friends with a former therapist, and she said, "It never works!" So, here's proof that it can! :-) Also, apparently for social workers, the ethical (not legal) rule is that they should never befriend a former client, while it is 2 years for psychologists, as someone else mentioned.

May I ask how you transition from therapist and patient to friends?
Like, were there any akward moments when you were confused as to how you had to address her? Whose idea was it at first to become friends?
Sorry if I'm a bit curious but it's a fascinating situation.

I have a similar experience to SD's. My first therapist and I have remained friendsnow fow 35 years. No awkwardness. No issues. After I graduated from college, we were in touch frequently because of more profession-related networking ( he also ran the career center at the university). We just kind of kept in touch. It wasn't any big decision. It just naturally evolved that way. I used to see him on occasion, but it has been years. Now we just email or talk by phone. Not at all therapy related. We talk family, work stuff, travels, health, whatever. It worked because I never expected us to be buddy buddy, I had no transference issues for him, I never expected him to ever serve as my therapist again. You have to be able to do that I think pretty easily and naturally.

No, there were no awkward moments or confusion- I did not address her any differently. I don't use any title for any therapist. It was her idea - we shared a hobby together. She was my mother's age and straight -so it was not like we were going to be constantly hanging out together or that I thought she would become my BFF. We would get together for dinner or a movie or to engage in hobby.

Mine claims not to be.