[Flinders40]

I found out that my husband contacted my therapist via email to express his concern about me. As you can imagine I’m not thrilled that he did this. However, my question is - will she even respond to him? I have never given permission for them to talk.

[LonesomeTonight]

From what I understand it, he is allowed to contact her. But she can't give any information about you to him. So she could respond and say "Thank you for your email" but not much more than that. Could you reach out to your therapist about this?

[MissUdy]

I have wondered about this too. I don’t think they can even say you are a client because of confidentiality? Maybe they will just ignore the email? I hope they can’t talk about it with anyone.

[nottrustin]

She can receive information if he contacted her, but unless you have given her permission to talk to him she can not respond. If yoh put hom down as your emergency contact, she can't even confirm you are a client.

[Flinders40]

I have put him down as an emergency contact but have not specifically signed anything giving her permission to talk to him. Do you think she will acknowledge his email even with a generic response?

[nicoleflynn]

She is not allowed to give any information about you.

[Lonelyinmyheart]

Guidelines may vary but certainly where I'm from it would be very unethical for a T to give any information about a client, even to that client's close family. It would be a serious breach of confidentiality.

[nottrustin]

If you put him down as an emergency contact and what he emailed her sbout is an emergency that she is also concerned about then I believe she can respond. Orherwise she should not respond.

[Omers]

My H is an emergency contact and has attended a session with me. T might acknowledge he received the information but I doubt he would even do that. T certainly would not reply with anything about me.

[Flinders40]

She responded only to thank him for his email and then she texted me.

To provide a bit more context about the situation — I got pissed off at her during our session two weeks ago (it was on a Wednesday). We had an appointment for the following Monday and that day she asked me to switch my appointment from 5:30 to 6:30. Because I was already in a bad mood I snapped and said, “forget it can we just do our normal time on Wednesday?” She said she didn’t have that available that week. I guess deep down I was mad because I thought she was giving away my appointments to another client.

This behavior (jealously?) is SO not me. I’ve been seeing her for two years and never really cared or felt anything towards her. But that seems to have changed and I have no idea why.

On Tuesday night my husband had to take me to the emergency room (eating disorder related). That’s when he emailed her. I have no idea how he got her email - it’s very unlike him to get involved in my business. He never even asks about therapy. However, he asked me yesterday if I had told my therapist about the ER trip and I told him that I had quit therapy.

My relationship with her seems to have shifted. It’s like I actually care. I haven’t cared about a therapist since my former T (who I absolutely adored) died five years ago.

[ArtleyWilkins]

Sounds like this was an emergency situation that your husband felt your therapist needed to know about (and it sounds like he was correct about that). It IS his business if he is concerned about your safety. Sounds like he is really worried about you. It is a desperate, helpless feeling to have a spouse in an emergency situation who seems to be cutting off the professional supports that could make a difference between safety and danger. Try to understand your husband's anxiety about this situation. Time to communicate with him and with your therapist in a way that will provide some reassurance that you are safe, or at least that you have a plan to remain safe.