Seeing your therapist's house

Is anybody unexpectedly (or expectedly) weirded out about seeing the inside of their therapist's home via video chat? It is bringing up complicated feelings for me. One therapist holds sessions in her daughter's bedroom, and the other holds sessions in her own bedroom. They both have blank walls behind them and are clearly sitting at desks, but I still don't like it. I'm not sure why, though. Too personal? Too disorienting to not be in their familiar offices? I am curious about whether or not this is uncomfortable for other people...

I am also super weirded out by this. My T is holding sessions in his home office which is a lot of dark wood and bookshelves. That doesn't bother me, exactly, but the thought of like overhearing his wife talking or his kids barging in really weirds me out. (I envision something like this, except less funny.)

The kid thing is weird for me too. On the one hand, I know my therapists will do whatever they need to do to keep their kids out of the room during our sessions. But I feel weirdly ambivalent about them all being in the same building. Do I take a perverse pleasure in monopolizing her? Do I feel bad that they are restricted from her during my session time? And why does it feel so different compared to normal when she is at work with her phone off and they are at school?

L is staying at her partner's house. She does sessions in the guest bedroom. All I see is a blank wall in the background. I'm glad I don't see more than that. I also don't like that she can see my house. I do sessions in bed and she can see my headboard and pillow. I don't like that she even sees that.

Yes! That is part of it too. I don't know that I wanted either therapist to see my house. It feels odd to have been forced into it by necessity. Although I do like showing off my cute pets....

My t has been going to his office to have telesessions through the internet. His laptop is supposed to be fixed this week and he can have sessions from home. I'm actually fine with it. I kind of know almost exactly where he lives anyway, because he's told me. I could find it based on clues and I know the street. At times, he and I both wish we'd met outside of the office because we'd be friends. We help each other with things, like encouragement and advice already. I got him into the gym before this mess we're all in and have told him how to fix certain things and he tells me how to fix me. I know that he's currently taking care of a close relative and parts of his history. In very grateful for the relationship we've built.

Funny, I just ended a (half) session with my T at his home office for the first time. I was pretty nervous about it for reasons described here, including if I heard his wife or son in the background (or they barged in). But all I could see in the background was a blank yellow wall and some blinds with light coming in. I wonder if it's normally that simple in there or if he removed stuff from the walls? It felt OK, though in the back of my mind, I had that he said it's hard for him to focus at home. I ended up mentioning that, and said, "So are you sort of sitting there thinking, 'OK, focus, focus...' to yourself?" Dr. T (smiling): "Basically." At the end, I asked if he'd be doing sessions from his home office from then on. He said it's his intention to keep going to his regular office. I said it actually felt OK, that I was afraid I'd hear a family member, or a pet would run past the screen. Dr. T: "A zebra walking by in the background?" Me: "That would have been really cool." He was still dressed professionally, no bathrobe or sweatshirt. Still drinking his coffee from a travel cup.


I'd definitely feel awkward if he said he was having sessions from his bedroom (or his son's), even though that's where I sit for mine, though at a tiny desk up there--first time I was sitting in my bed and felt weird about it. I felt odd about his being able to see my house at first (he's seen parts of two rooms so far), but I think there are also some benefits to his seeing where I live. When we met with D's T over Zoom yesterday, H and I were in different rooms, and you could see the staircase from one, so I think she got a better understanding of our house layout.

You can set a virtual background in Zoom to hide what's behind you. It's quite good.

Both of my therapists use the teletherapy feature in their practice management software. I don't think it even has the option to turn off my video, much less add a fancy background. (Although I would absolutely choose something ridiculous if I had that option. Maybe the bridge from Star Trek: The Next Generation?)

My therapist drives in to her empty office twice a week to do her sessions. She alternates days with her partner. I was trying to place where she was in the office based on the wall art behind her. But I was kind of put off by being in my space. Not by her being in my space, but me being in my space to do therapy. It was an interesting reflection, I guess, that one of the things that is meaningful to me is that her office feels like a neutral space for me to slough off what I am dealing with and leave it there.

I have been in her house and she has been to my house several times so it is not an issue.

For now T is driving to his office for sessions and intentionally shows me the office so I know everything is the same. T has shown me pictures of the inside of his house before in session so that too away some of the weirdness of seeing inside his house. I know they have plenty of room and only two people so finding someplace private wouldn’t be an issue. But... if he stops going into the office and starts doing it from home I may request where he does it from... I am not sure if he would humor me or not...
on the flip side in my house the only quiet space is my room and it does freak me out to have T in my room. I lock the cats out of my room so they won’t distract me but then H let’s them outside. They then hop up on my window yowling to get in... poor T thinks I’m batty!

I have always seen T at her house anyway so no difference for me. I saw a former T at her house as well. Both are/were in private practice.

I ordinarily see my therapist in her home which she shares with her partner (and two cats). We have carried out therapy in two different rooms and I walk through the house to get to the current therapy room. In doing so, I am exposed to a fair chunk of her home life and I have met her partner numerous times as she was leaving/arriving home as I was arriving/leaving for my session. I hated these interactions and spoke to my therapist about it several times, but it didn't make any difference. Anyway, my point is that I am enjoying not being in her space. I feel much more relaxed and less vigilant. We are having sessions over Skype but with voice only so I can't see her (my choice) and I think this has fostered my sense of relaxation. Whether I will still feel like this in a few months time, who knows, but for now I prefer it.

Not my therapist's home, she has a home office and the background is a blank wall. We do phone now anyway. My psychiatrist's home is different. He has a You-tube channel where he explores different mental health concepts and puts them to music. He writes new lyrics for 60s and 70s songs that help illustrate the point he's trying to make. He's done this for years. He calls it his creative outlet. He's started video recording from his home since the quarantine. I was watching one of his new videos and saw a painting in his Livingroom I really like. I'm not sure if I should tell him that though. I'll have to think about that.

Update: EMDR/DBT T panned across the rest of her daughter's room (it apparently doubles as a guest room, so she gets booted when they have guests), and my own toddler crash landed into my bedroom as we were wrapping up.

She said she thought it was weird to have clients in her house at first but now she is used to it. I'm not all transference-y about her, though, so it didn't bother me as much.

Therapy during a pandemic is absurd. I did like showing her my cute baby, though.

I actually just had a Zoom session with Info. I had a Zoom background up, and she was very interested. I gave her basic directions and she was going to check it out so clients couldn't see her house.

But I did learn all the jungle/leopardskin decor of her old office is now in her home office.

I'm more weirded out that my Ts can see inside my house, hear my kids, etc. T1 looks like he's doing it from his unfinished basement...all I could see is part of the ceiling and a window in his. He was still dressed how he shows up at sessions which is casual..jeans and a tee. T2 looks like he has an office at home, so it hasn't bothered me. My kids have walked in during calls with both of them. T2 even commented on where I was at in last week's session and this week because he could tell that the rooms were different. It's incredibly distracting for me to be at home because there's no privacy at all with being alone and having 4 kids.

I don't do video chats with my T, but I know that if I could see any part of his home, it'd be very uncomfortable for me. I'd also not like him to see my place.

My T took some of the things from her office home to her "home office". She pointed out the things that were from my sessions. A few are in view of the camera, some are not.

I've used it as a way to show her my house some. We've done video visits before and I've seen her at different locations. I do like it better when she is in her office. Sigh.