I Don't know what to call this

Hey everyone Mountaindew24 here again

Friday I called My T asked her If we could talk. She said ok I told here about my Dream I was having So I got to go see her Tomorrow , she was asking me these crazy ? and stuff. I was like why r u asking these ? for. Then she said I just got some papers from your old T a few days ago. it was from the month April and May. I asked her if she could make me copy and she said I don't think U want 2 c what she wrote, she said she not going to give them 2 me. So how can I get these papers from My T. she told me it best 4 U not know what she wrote...

Hey mountaindew24,

Legally, I don't believe that your T can actually prevent you from seeing what is written about you. However, you may need to talk to your previous T. Why do you want to see the papers? I don't think I'd want to see what my Ts have said about me over the years, because they have to be very clinical and whatnot, so the way they interact with me could be drastically different from what they write about me (which is generally quite objective).

I think you should trust your new T that you would not want to see the papers and not ask to see them right now. Let your relationship develop. Later, you can change your mind and ask again, if it is still important to you.

Do you know why your old T sent your new T the papers? Did you authorize that? I personally would not want a new T to see an old T's notes. I would want to start fresh with the new T, and not bias him/her in any direction, which it sounds like is happening with the new T--you said she started asking you crazy questions. In some situations, perhaps T's sharing notes could be beneficial (continuity of care). Maybe you can ask your T to try not to be biased about you based on what the former T wrote, but to wait to get to know you and form her own opinions.

Psychotherapy notes are the only notes that a patient does not have a right to see - for their own protection. Therapist's may write down something that could be harmful or taken harmfully to the client.

If a client is showing signs of something the therapist may make a note of something - i.e. patient talking about father, wondering if there may be any s*xual abuse. That's something just for THEIR record, but may cause you harm to see.

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mountaindew24 said:
Hey everyone Mountaindew24 here again

Friday I called My T asked her If we could talk. She said ok I told here about my Dream I was having So I got to go see her Tomorrow , she was asking me these crazy ? and stuff. I was like why r u asking these ? for. Then she said I just got some papers from your old T a few days ago. it was from the month April and May. I asked her if she could make me copy and she said I don't think U want 2 c what she wrote, she said she not going to give them 2 me. So how can I get these papers from My T. she told me it best 4 U not know what she wrote...

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I think if your T refuses to tell you what is in them, she needs to explain how she thinks it is harmful for you to know. I wouldn't trust any T who could not justify their decision regarding non-disclosure of my own file to me.
Psychotherapy and personal notes are specially protected by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) and by state law. These are separate from the medical record. Everything else, including diagnosis, summary, functional status reports, test results, etc. See this link for privacy protection laws: Jaffee-Redmond.Org

Everything other than psychotherapy and personal notes, your therapist and any other healthcare practitioner--have a legal obligation to disclose to you when you request it.

My personal thoughts on this matter are that if your T is a good T, and you like your T--then she might be trying to protect you from your previous T's notes because they are offensive in some way. Please discuss this with your T. Ask her to explain specifics of why she doesn't want to disclose, and what exactly it is that she doesn't want to disclose--if they are psychotherapy notes or your actual file. Big difference legally. You should be aware that they are only copies--- your last T who sent your current T the notes/file on you will still have the originals, and if you really want the file, you could do a run-around and request them legally from your previous T.

Beware--- bad T's write bad notes and keep bad files---- as in, not always accurate, not always factual, and sometimes, outright lies and damnations.