Is it OK to stalk your therapist?
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Is it OK to stalk your therapist?
Awareness. Stalking has three elements – pattern, threat, and fear. But, if you are not aware that you are being stalked, then there is no crime. The fact that therapists empathize and trust their clients makes them not expect a client’s stalking behavior.
Do people Google their therapist?
Sometimes, of course, people Google their therapists if something feels off—to see if their credentials check out, or if other patients have posted similar concerns.
Does your therapist Google you?
For starters, it does happen from time to time ― but only when absolutely necessary. Most therapists agree that Googling a patient before an appointment is discouraged and could constitute an ethical violation, but safety concerns can lead some to take pre-emptive measures.
Is it weird to Google your therapist?
There are a number of reasons why you may Google a therapist – it may be as part of a screening process as you are selecting a therapist, it may be out of curiosity about your counsellor, or it might be part of a desire for connection between sessions, especially where attachment is a consideration.
Does my therapist look me up on social media?
A 2016 study, for example, found that most patients do indeed look up their therapists online. As a result, the majority of therapists have taken steps to limit the information that is available about them online. And about a third of therapists even choose not to post any information online at all.
Is it OK to search a client’s personal websites during therapy?
In most cases, search only if you have the client’s consent, says Jeffrey E. Barnett, PsyD, past chair of APA’s Ethics Committee. It’s OK to pull up a client’s personal website or Facebook page during a therapy session to see pictures of his or her children or to better understand a personal crisis he’s coping with, says Barnett.
Instead, use the request as an opportunity to discuss how being “friends” on a public platform could complicate or even harm your therapeutic relationship by, for example, sparking jealousy if a newly widowed woman sees her therapist walking on the beach with her husband in Fiji, he says.
Should psychologists search for clients on the Internet?
Until the field issues more formal guidance on Internet searching, psychologists should constantly monitor their motivations when determining whether it’s necessary to gather client information online, says Behnke. “Personal curiosity is not a clinically appropriate reason to do a search,” says Behnke. “Ask yourself, ‘Why am I doing this?
Is it OK to look at your client’s personal websites?
It’s OK to pull up a client’s personal website or Facebook page during a therapy session to see pictures of his or her children or to better understand a personal crisis he’s coping with, says Barnett. But spying just because you can is inappropriate, he says.