In many of my posts I put down therapy because I found an incompetent therapist who after five consultations did nothing for me but send the police to my door.

Now the right therapist can analyze why you are alienating people and find the root cause to promote a treatment

It's a double edged sword

the Right therapist ... you may be a better person and live a happier life

the Wrong therapist ... you may commit suicide or be locked up in jail

if it's the wrong one ... run for the door

I agree. Good for you!

[Skeezyks]

I've seen a few therapists for brief periods over the years. They ranged from mediocre to dreadful! I don't see one anymore. I've read posts, here on PC, written by members who said their therapists saved their lives. So I presume there are great therapists out there. I just never happened to find one. But, then too, I'm probably far from the best therapy client. So I guess there's blame to go around.

Originally Posted by Skeezyks

I've seen a few therapists for brief periods over the years. They ranged from mediocre to dreadful! I don't see one anymore. I've read posts, here on PC, written by members who said their therapists saved their lives. So I presume there are great therapists out there. I just never happened to find one. But, then too, I'm probably far from the best therapy client. So I guess there's blame to go around.

I'm not the best client either ... most Drs, psychiatrists, psychologists and therapists hate me.

I'm going to buy a T-shirt that says HIT ME on the front and EVERYONE ELSE DOES on the back

Originally Posted by Skeezyks

I've seen a few therapists for brief periods over the years. They ranged from mediocre to dreadful! I don't see one anymore. I've read posts, here on PC, written by members who said their therapists saved their lives. So I presume there are great therapists out there. I just never happened to find one. But, then too, I'm probably far from the best therapy client. So I guess there's blame to go around.

I've stopped seeing therapists too ... after the VP of Mental Health ... my therapist ... her supervisor ... and staff ... read all my personal and confidential emails ... which is a violation of the FL State Statues since I did not sign a written release of that information being released to the whole world

there is NO doctor / patient confidentiality

[Elio]

I would agree. After 2+ yrs, I believe I have a great match with my T. She wouldn't work for everyone, no T does. She works very well for me. I would say that I'm an interesting client in the sense that many Ts feel like I am an easy client. Emotionally, I am a very easy read and pretty compliant about therapy. I don't want to waste time and money. However, I will ghost on a T at the first chance I can if I have not made a connection to them and feel "unsafe", which is most the time. So on one hand, they might think they've got their hooks in me, when in reality they don't. My current T, most days she'd be hard to leave and I proclaim I'll never leave her. Then other days/moments, yep I could leave her and not look back, not shed a tear.

I know, if anyone is going to be able to help me, it's this T.

Originally Posted by Moderation

In many of my posts I put down therapy because I found an incompetent therapist who after five consultations did nothing for me but send the police to my door.

Now the right therapist can analyze why you are alienating people and find the root cause to promote a treatment

It's a double edged sword

the Right therapist ... you may be a better person and live a happier life

the Wrong therapist ... you may commit suicide or be locked up in jail

if it's the wrong one ... run for the door

Yes, The 'Are trying to drown me or save me?' dilemma....

That moment in time when you are not quite sure...

[Sarmas]

There’s can be such inconsistency to therapy as well. I don’t think they understand how dangerous they can make it for clients. Does it take a client to commit suicide for them to pay attention of take them seriously. I know my T said that she had clients do so but she doesn’t see it as her fault or her doing. If i were a T I would be bothered and I would try to change things and see where I went wrong or what could have i done differently.

[Elio]

Originally Posted by Sarmas

There’s can be such inconsistency to therapy as well. I don’t think they understand how dangerous they can make it for clients. Does it take a client to commit suicide for them to pay attention of take them seriously. I know my T said that she had clients do so but she doesn’t see it as her fault or her doing. If i were a T I would be bothered and I would try to change things and see where I went wrong or what could have i done differently.

My T has indicted on several occasions that she understands how dangerous this type of therapy can be. She does not believe in ending therapy without some kind of wrap up and has explained this from the point of view of my health (the client's health) and not from the point of view of money. She refers to what we do as neurosurgery without anesthesia, as she shares the belief that psychotherapy when done right, does change our brain's neural pathways.

Additionally, she has said that she would be bothered by an attempt or success. I do not believe she'd take it as her fault, I do think she'd feel bad that she missed the signs and didn't get the right level of support for the individual.

[here today]

Originally Posted by Elio

My T has indicted on several occasions that she understands how dangerous this type of therapy can be. . . She refers to what we do as neurosurgery without anesthesia. . .

I would agree with this description, based on my personal experience.

But mine went wrong. There were some things that helped but at the end, and at the core, "nobody cares about me" and I'm not going to let another uncaring "surgeon" in there.

[Sarmas]

Originally Posted by Elio

My T has indicted on several occasions that she understands how dangerous this type of therapy can be. She does not believe in ending therapy without some kind of wrap up and has explained this from the point of view of my health (the client's health) and not from the point of view of money. She refers to what we do as neurosurgery without anesthesia, as she shares the belief that psychotherapy when done right, does change our brain's neural pathways.

Additionally, she has said that she would be bothered by an attempt or success. I do not believe she'd take it as her fault, I do think she'd feel bad that she missed the signs and didn't get the right level of support for the individual.

That’s fantastic of her to say . It shows thst she is aware and she does care. Always good to hear positive feedback.

[Elio]

Originally Posted by here today

I would agree with this description, based on my personal experience.

But mine went wrong. There were some things that helped but at the end, and at the core, "nobody cares about me" and I'm not going to let another uncaring "surgeon" in there.

I am sorry to hear about yours going wrong. I have heard many stories here of things going wrong or somehow turning badly. I do have my own fears that despite her best efforts, something will happen in the universe and things will change. I believe that I am more than just a job for her; however, I recognize that in the scope of relationships, ours is not one that is meant to be in her inner circle (http://humanmagnetsyndrome.com/hmsbl...rcles-copy.jpg). Which does mean that when life happens, our relationship could/would/should go by the wayside. I just pray/hope that we will have been able to get through this procedure before things in her life happen.

[unaluna]

Originally Posted by Moderation

I've stopped seeing therapists too ... after the VP of Mental Health ... my therapist ... her supervisor ... and staff ... read all my personal and confidential emails ... which is a violation of the FL State Statues since I did not sign a written release of that information being released to the whole world

there is NO doctor / patient confidentiality

I wouldnt think this varies at the state level, but ts have told me there is no confidentiality in email, and they usually have it as a tagline in their return emails. Im sorry you werent informed of this.

[ruh roh]

But if it's a clinic setting, all emails are typically read and shared by anyone with access to the person's electronic record, which is pretty much anyone in the system. This includes staff at all levels. I would never recommend anyone send an email to a provider in a system like that unless it's just about scheduling. Even if it appears that only the provider is viewing and responding, it has already gone through others before it gets to them. I effing hate clinics and practices who use electronic records systems.

Originally Posted by Moderation

I've stopped seeing therapists too ... after the VP of Mental Health ... my therapist ... her supervisor ... and staff ... read all my personal and confidential emails ... which is a violation of the FL State Statues since I did not sign a written release of that information being released to the whole world

there is NO doctor / patient confidentiality

OP: Unless there is a need to know (which may be in the case of the supervisor or if someone is consulting for your T), it is a violation of your privacy if staff are reading your emails. Regardless of their access. They are not allowed to read things unless it's related to clinical care. I'm 99% certain of this. For example, if I use a health system where multiple providers have access to the e-record and ended a relationship 12 months ago with one of the doctors, he may still have access to my record, but he is not permitted to view the data. That I am sure of.

I'm not sure about emails, but for electronic records, they normally track who is looking at what and a client/patient can request who all has accessed their records.

Also, faxes and postal mail are not secure either, but although these communications are used daily in health care, it doesn't change privacy requirements. Even the e-records are not guaranteed either; many are in the cloud now/on servers and anything can be hacked. (I'm not an IT person so only have general knowledge.) Emails are no different. Faxes could be sent to the wrong person, mail can be sent to the wrong address or put in the wrong mailbox, etc. No different as far as guarantees are concerned.

(Sorry, don't mean to come across argumentive but think some of the replies will misinform anyone reading this.)

About finding good Ts-Ironically, it took me several years of therapy to be able to screen out potentially harmful therapists. It's not 100%, but I can now get a good sense of their sense of self issues in the first session (eg, their over accommodating behaviors show they need me too much). It also took being harmed by a T long ago to be able to protect myself. I read a lot of clinical material to protect myself. It's unfortunate anyone would have to do it.

Yes, a good T is a gem.

Originally Posted by Elio

My T has indicted on several occasions that she understands how dangerous this type of therapy can be. She does not believe in ending therapy without some kind of wrap up and has explained this from the point of view of my health (the client's health) and not from the point of view of money. She refers to what we do as neurosurgery without anesthesia, as she shares the belief that psychotherapy when done right, does change our brain's neural pathways.

Additionally, she has said that she would be bothered by an attempt or success. I do not believe she'd take it as her fault, I do think she'd feel bad that she missed the signs and didn't get the right level of support for the individual.

I love that your T recognizes how dangerous this type of therapy can be. I think more should be informed of that possibility.

My T (who I'm not seeing anymore) has said he takes no responsibility for what happens in terms of negative therapy outcome or harm as all it all comes from what the client brought to therapy.

[Elio]

Originally Posted by Rayne_

My T (who I'm not seeing anymore) has said he takes no responsibility for what happens in terms of negative therapy outcome or harm as all it all comes from what the client brought to therapy.

That is awful. Sure a client arrives with a suitcase full of issues, it is the T's job to know when to open the case and how to unpack it as to not cause harm (even close and lock the case for a bit if needed) - or as little harm as possible. Not to say it is pain free - harm and pain are not the same thing.

I mean, if we didn't have a suitcase full of issues (needs), we wouldn't be there in the first place.

[ruh roh]

Originally Posted by Rayne_

OP: Unless there is a need to know (which may be in the case of the supervisor or if someone is consulting for your T), it is a violation of your privacy if staff are reading your emails. Regardless of their access. They are not allowed to read things unless it's related to clinical care. I'm 99% certain of this. For example, if I use a health system where multiple providers have access to the e-record and ended a relationship 12 months ago with one of the doctors, he may still have access to my record, but he is not permitted to view the data. That I am sure of.

I'm not sure about emails, but for electronic records, they normally track who is looking at what and a client/patient can request who all has accessed their records.

Also, faxes and postal mail are not secure either, but although these communications are used daily in health care, it doesn't change privacy requirements. Even the e-records are not guaranteed either; many are in the cloud now/on servers and anything can be hacked. (I'm not an IT person so only have general knowledge.) Emails are no different. Faxes could be sent to the wrong person, mail can be sent to the wrong address or put in the wrong mailbox, etc. No different as far as guarantees are concerned.

(Sorry, don't mean to come across argumentive but think some of the replies will misinform anyone reading this.)

About finding good Ts-Ironically, it took me several years of therapy to be able to screen out potentially harmful therapists. It's not 100%, but I can now get a good sense of their sense of self issues in the first session (eg, their over accommodating behaviors show they need me too much). It also took being harmed by a T long ago to be able to protect myself. I read a lot of clinical material to protect myself. It's unfortunate anyone would have to do it.

Yes, a good T is a gem.

If any of this is related to my post, I would like to make it clear to you and others that I was informed by my providers that this is how it works--electronic communications are available to anyone in the system, and they can justify anything as being necessary--so speak for yourself on what is allowable and not. I imagine it is different with different systems. Everyone should be educated about what information is shared when receiving mental health or medical treatment from a clinic or practice with multiple providers.

[Elio]

Originally Posted by ruh roh

If any of this is related to my post, I would like to make it clear to you and others that I was informed by my providers that this is how it works--electronic communications are available to anyone in the system, and they can justify anything as being necessary--so speak for yourself on what is allowable and not. I imagine it is different with different systems. Everyone should be educated about what information is shared when receiving mental health or medical treatment from a clinic or practice with multiple providers.

BTW - this is why when my T was at the clinic, I requested that we communicate via email rather than the EMR. I worked for the same institution and I support the EMR, so I know how the EMR works and who has access to what and what was monitored at that institution. I work at another institution now and they monitor access much differently, much more closely.

[here today]

Originally Posted by Rayne_

. . .
About finding good Ts-Ironically, it took me several years of therapy to be able to screen out potentially harmful therapists. It's not 100%, but I can now get a good sense of their sense of self issues in the first session (eg, their over accommodating behaviors show they need me too much). It also took being harmed by a T long ago to be able to protect myself. I read a lot of clinical material to protect myself. It's unfortunate anyone would have to do it.

Yes, a good T is a gem.

It took me most of my adult life, and now I'm so hostile and distrusting I'm not going to try it again. I tried to research and teach myself, too, but without a sense of self myself going in to therapy, I lacked a prerequisite to be able to do that. The last T helped with some fragmentation/dissociation but not the creation/development of the sense of self. I can kind of tell it's trying to grow, but that's about it.

Originally Posted by Rayne_

I love that your T recognizes how dangerous this type of therapy can be. I think more should be informed of that possibility.

My T (who I'm not seeing anymore) has said he takes no responsibility for what happens in terms of negative therapy outcome or harm as all it all comes from what the client brought to therapy.

BOO!!!!! This is a very dangerous attitude. As I have argued by analogy elsewhere, it's like the doctors, before the germ theory of disease, doing autopsies and then going to examine women in the OB ward, both with their bare hands. Eventually, one of the doctors noticed that there was a big difference in the rate of fatalities among the women treated by the doctors compared with the women treated by midwives, who did not do autopsies. He required the doctors to wash their hands after doing autopsies and the fatality rate among the women they treated dropped.

Sense of self to me is like that. There can be some very "poisonous" or infectious attitudes that we pick up when we are in a child or childlike state that I suspect is needed in order for the sense of self to develop. Therapy can put us back in a state like that -- that may be where some of it effectiveness can come from -- but it can also "poison" or infect us again, with even new material, if the therapist has problems with their own narcissism/sense of self, etc. Expecting clients, who may lack a sense of self themselves to be able to recognize this is absurd!

Wake up therapists!!! Yes, it took a while for the germ theory of disease to catch on, and eventually microbes were discovered. But surely. . .there's enough suggestive evidence, even if anecdotal at this point, for anyone who's not enchained in tradition and ideas of the past, to take a look at this possibility?

Oh, no...ruh roh-no, wasn't speaking to you specifically; just in general.

My post was about HIPAA, so no, I'm not speaking for myself.

Providers have to have a reason to look at information in your records. As relevant to the OP, staff cannot look at your records out of curiosity, for example.

To clarify-

-If Dr. Transference starts working at Clinic ABC, who used to treat Oprah Winfrey, he is not allowed to just start reading her records for no reason even though he has access to them.

-If a patient calls to schedule a primary care appointment, the appointment schedulers who may have access to all of the patients' records, are not allowed to start reading the patient's psychotherapy notes for no good reason, even though they may have access.
-etc.

Mental health and substance abuse may have more stringent requirements. States may also have more stringent laws.

Of course I realize what is the law and what people actually do are two different things. Innappropriate use of health care information from employees who have access within a clinic or healthcare system is a common HIPAA violation.

[ruh roh]

Thanks. I was more pointing out that emailing a provider who works within a system is not likely to only be seen by that provider. At the place I'd gone, there were low level staff who sorted through the emails first. In addition to that, this is a sore topic for me because I'd gone to the same clinic for a foot issue and was asked if I was suicidal, and this took place in front of an intern who was observing. I was horrified, and I said that had nothing to do with the growth on my foot. The provider said that it had come up on his screen that I had been at risk a year earlier and he was required to ask. Just to be clear--these were two totally different providers. One was medical only, and he was being fed information on his screen without even being prompted. He then tried to play therapist. The whole time, I was just sick and humiliated. All I'd done was go in for a growth on my foot. Long story short, I followed up with him later because I was so upset, and that's when I learned how information was made accessible, even if not requested by the provider.

Great post, here today. I didn't know that about microbes, autopsies. How horrible. The medical system is still so paternalistic and misogynistic in so many ways. I understand a good deal of medical research was historically only done on white mean (cardiac, for example).

I have my own battles with being treated like I'm hysterical-which I do have traits of, but how I express myself to providers has nothing to do with what the issue actually is. You may notice from my signature I'm interested in advocacy...getting more involved in it.

ruh roh, that sounds horrible. I am sorry that happened to you. I'm familiar with the depression screenings and flags. I only go to private practice Ts and PDocs. Even doing that, it doesn't matter to some extent-they see I take antidepressant and ativan, so they flag me as a mental patient and don't take me seriously.

I have an experience with a psychiatric hospital in helping someone get treatment while she was psychotic--there were about 10 trainees in the room and they had cameras on her, well us, as I demanded to be there in the clinical room.

I can understand 1 intern in the room. But perhaps worse, how could she give consent to be filmed when she is psychotic? I've googled and seen patients horrible pictures with their full identity revealed and wonder if they actually gave permission for the pictures to be posted all over the internet.

Hugs to you.

[Anne2.0]

Originally Posted by here today

But mine went wrong. There were some things that helped but at the end, and at the core, "nobody cares about me" and I'm not going to let another uncaring "surgeon" in there.

I'm not disagreeing about your experience or discounting its impact, but I think I am at the opposite end of this. Caring, or lack thereof, just doesn't seem to be part of something I think about, especially in the context of professionals. It's more like a scaffolding in the sense that I have specific expectations for all my professional helpers, including doctors and alternative medical people, therapists, my lawyer, accountant, etc. I expect them to show up and do their job and when they screw up, fix it and/or acknowledge it. If they didn't routinely show up for appointments and otherwise do the work necessary to help me, maybe I would think they didn't care about their job but not necessarily about me as a person. But I don't see their failures or inability to admit their screw ups as a lack of caring about me. When my personal relationships have gone south, it also doesn't seem to me to be about caring, but more about the limitations of me or them or my time and interests or theirs.

I have professional relationships with clients and colleagues, and occasionally someone says that I don't care about them. Actually, my teenager accused me of not caring about a specific movie we went to a few weeks ago because I couldn't remember the names of some of the characters. He's like, you didn't even bother to pay attention to it. I was like, WTF, kid, we had a 2 hour conversation about the story afterwards and weeks later, I can't recall the name of that one girl and someone else? I said that wasn't about a lack of caring but a lack of memory for certain kinds of details (I can't remember names of songs either and when I was in law school, rarely remembered case names but was like "the case where the burglar sued the homeowner because he was injured by the defective porch" or whatever.

In my supervisory role, I am occasionally accused of not caring about those I supervise. They say it when I attempt to hold them accountable for their mistakes or are otherwise trying to weasel out of their responsibilities. One person once said that our free legal services organization existed to serve the employees. I'm like, no, we exist to serve the clients. Again with the accusations I don't care about employees. Other times, and this is mostly when I was a young adult (like 30 years ago) where people would use the "I care" to try to convince me that I should do something other than what I intended or wanted to do. For me, people assert caring or a lack thereof when they are trying to force you into some place you don't want to be, non literally speaking.

I could live the rest of my life without someone claiming they care about me or claiming I don't care about them. Mostly, it seems like the people in my life feel cared for by me and I feel cared for by them. But labeling something outside of that ooshy gooshy feeling as evidence of care or not, that's just not something I find useful to do.

[Elio]

Originally Posted by atisketatasket

Elio, do you mean there’s a difference between an actual email to mytherapist@clinic.org vs. messages sent through a patient portal or some such? The latter goes into the medical record while the former does not necessarily?

In the system I worked for, yes. there was a difference. The messages sent through a patient portal (depending on the clinic) would go to a triage pool to be read by front staff first, then nurse second, and finally forwarded to provider. MH being different, I believe they still went to front staff to address scheduling items first. I am not positive though. Emails would go direct to provider and she would have had to manually create something in the EMR system to get the email into the EMR. Most providers at that institution would not use email or respond to emails. My T was willing to do this because of my work within the EMR system and because the clinic took away individual voicemail boxes. I think had she still had the voicemail, she would have directed me there over email. The fact that everything sent through patient portal ends up in the EMR and a patient has little to no way of requesting it to be removed is my biggest complaint of the system. I like EMR's for many reasons, I also see many problems with them in terms of everything being retained within an EMR.