Is it unethical for a T to google you?

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Originally Posted by Mountaindewed I moved last year so obviosuly my old address is on zillow and redfin and I'd love it if my transference T (and plenty of other people) had googled my old address to see what my house looked like. Yeah I know thats a bit creepy. She'd be suprised to see some things in the pictures I've never told her about. I don't know if this is just wishful thinking or not. It could be or maybe she legit did it. I kinda wouldn't put it past her if I'm being honest. My pdoc would never do it though. I do know she blocked me on Facebook so she has looked me up before. I've mentioned that to my other therapists and they said it was wrong of her to be looking me up in the first place even if it was to block me.

I think it's mean that she blocked you. How invalidating, shaming, even.

I also don't think it was creepy for you to wish your T would see your house. I think that's a desire for a normal human connection. In many ways the therapist-client relationship goes against perfectly natural needs for relationship.

I don't think many therapists have time or interest to google their clients in their free time. But if they for some reason do, I don't see a problem. Google is open to everyone, not depending on the profession. A lot of clients google their therapists too.

Yeah, I googled my t's name and the town where we live, and her address popped right up. She's been sick, on leave, for months. Zero communication. Because I care very much about her, wanted to cheer her up (she's been extremely ill), and because I was trying to keep a connection between us I sent her some small gifts. Well, I sure heard from her then - about how I was crossing boundaries, da, da, da. Never mind that she frequently crosses boundaries and certainly, her sudden months-long absence with no communication to her clients, no plan for seeing another therapist in her absence, just dropping clients through the slats...I agree with stopdog. Too many therapists are quick to yell and scream when their clients "break ethics" - but the t's excuse themselves all the time for not upholding ethics. It's screwed up.

I would say it is

Doesn't necessarily mean she looked you up. I have had many people show up as friends suggestions who I have never considered looking for. On occasion, it is a student or former student, or some odd acquaintance or distant relation that I have no interest in interacting with. No idea why some of them showed up - it's that weird six degrees of separation thing I'm guessing. I've been known to proactively block those names so it stays a non-issue.

Seems entirely ethical to block clients if it is the therapist's policy not to interact on social media with clients.

I have noticed in the past with at least one other person, that if you have someones phone number in your contacts they might show up as a suggested friend request on Facebook. So maybe thats how she saw my account since she had my cell number and was calling me regularly at the time. Its creepy though technogoly these days.

This is just complete unrelated tin foil hat ****, but the other day I thought of someone and I turned on Facebook and his mom came up as a suggested friend. My mom is friends with her. She was the only name too that came up and I had just been thinking of her son minutes before going on Facebook.

I still have random kids from high school blocked despite the fact I changed my name and everything else.

Yes, I've had random people show up on mine, like my then-current gynecologist--no, I don't want to friend her, thanks! Or other T's at ex-T's/ex-MC's practice. It made me wonder if Facebook paid attention to locations (I have location services on when using it) and suggested people from the location where I'd been. This was maybe 5 years ago, and it hasn't really happened since.

It's also possible that there could be friends in common, though I often get suggestions where no common friends are listed. The algorithms are pretty random, it seems.

I can understand a T blocking a client, though I'd also feel bothered by it. I felt sort of weird when Dr. T's wife posted in a group I was in (I was in it before I started seeing him, had no idea she was in it till she posted), and I let him know. She then left that group and apparently deleted many of her posts first. I felt strange about that (particularly that she felt she had to leave a group because of me), but it would have been posts about their son, so I completely understand why she did.

I don't know that she blocked me--to do so, Dr. T would have had to disclose my identity, and I don't think he can ethically do that. I mean, I guess if she let him into the account, he could do that, but I assume someplace you can see names of people you have blocked, and she might be like, "Hm, why is this LT person blocked? Oh, maybe she's the client!"

Oh...this could explain what happened that I just posted about. At ex-T/ex-MC's practice, the office had one main phone number, and they each had extensions from it. So of course I had that number in my phone. And I had my Gyn's number in there, too.

Yeah I think I remember seeing one or 2 of my doctors as suggested friends as well. Kinda takes you off guard. My real estate agent popped up a few times too

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Originally Posted by ArtleyWilkins Doesn't necessarily mean she looked you up. I have had many people show up as friends suggestions who I have never considered looking for. On occasion, it is a student or former student, or some odd acquaintance or distant relation that I have no interest in interacting with. No idea why some of them showed up - it's that weird six degrees of separation thing I'm guessing. I've been known to proactively block those names so it stays a non-issue. Seems entirely ethical to block clients if it is the therapist's policy not to interact on social media with clients.

But instead of blocking, which is so abrupt, why not send a message...something about "I don't friend clients because I want to protect the privacy of both of us"?

I'm curious. Why don't you want to friend a former student?

But if it is one of those weird Facebook things and wasn’t a request, there is no need to let the other person know you’re blocking them.

I have a few former students I Facebook with, but generally I don’t have a personal relationship with them so I honestly don’t feel a need to correspond with them. I keep my Facebook friend list pretty limited to people I really do interact with. The few that I do were usually students I taught more than once over the years so they are a bit different. Additionally, several have become teachers themselves and the relationship is completely different now. Then there is this whole group of former students who have ended up close friends in college with my son, and I have gotten to know them in a different capacity.

--NASW Code of Ethics: Ethical Standards, 1.07(q)

Social Workers' Ethical Responsibilities to Clients

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Originally Posted by Bill3 --NASW Code of Ethics: Ethical Standards, 1.07(q) Social Workers' Ethical Responsibilities to Clients

Thanks for posting that, it's extremely interesting.

"Social workers should obtain client consent before conducting an electronic search on the client. Exceptions may arise when the search is for purposes of protecting the client or others from serious, foreseeable, and imminent harm, or for other compelling professional reasons."

For a therapist who is a very stick to the rules person I can understand how this one would prevent them from looking up a client. But there's no definition of a "compelling professional reason." And who would know if a therapist googles clients, anyway? I mean...one of the reasons the internet exists is to find out information about people.

I made the mistake of being the patient of a terrible psychiatrist - who actually turned out to be a D.O. - and didn't check her online reviews. Big mistake. Any doctor or other professional I see I will do an online search on. I think it's foolish not to do so. It seems to me that the reverse would be true, I dunno.


"Social workers should be aware that posting personal information on professional Web sites or other media might cause boundary confusion, inappropriate dual relationships, or harm to clients."

Whether or not it is ethical, in my mind it is imprudent, too risky for a T to google a client without informed consent. Once a T learns something about a client online, the T must forever distinguish in their memory what they learned in session from what they learned online, or risk a potentially angry, hurt, violated, devastating response from a client who accidentally learns ("I never told you that") that they have been googled by their T.

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Originally Posted by Bill3 Whether or not it is ethical, in my mind it is imprudent, too risky for a T to google a client without informed consent. Once a T learns something about a client online, the T must forever distinguish in their memory what they learned in session from what they learned online, or risk a potentially angry, hurt, violated, devastating response from a client who accidentally learns ("I never told you that") that they have been googled by their T.

That's an excellent point - especially if the therapist actually remembers client information