social media and T.

so I have an Instagram page thats viewable to everyone. I work in mental health, so I just post generalised quotes and pictures and stuff. I am not identifiable, I never posted a picture of myself, or give any details that could identify me.

it was a few months after I started this page, one day I had a following, and to my surprise it was my T. I didn't block her, as she wouldn't have known that it was me who was running this page, maybe its not that surprising anyways we both work in the same field, and we are in the same area. the world is small.

anyway recently I wanted to be more transparent on this public page, I feel like I can connect to my followers more if I am a real person. I have been wanting to review more details about myself but I also hesitated because I know my T will realise that it's me once I do that. I don't know, I don't particularly mind that she follows me, there's not a lot of my personal life there anyways more of my work life probably.

I'm at a loss of what I should do.

Just block the therapist

If it were me, I'd speak to my T about it in my session and explain it was my page and that I'd chosen to be open with my followers about who I was. Then I'd leave the entire ball in her court. I know my T would be delighted to find out if I was doing anything like that on social media but we would discuss together if I wanted her to follow me or if she felt it would be more ethical if she removed herself from the page. Either way, I'd have an open discussion with her about the whole situation.

I would be honest and transparent and tell T.

I agree that telling your T first is the best move.


It's not the same thing, but I told my T when his wife made a post in a Facebook group I was in (I didn't know she was in the group), and he really appreciated it. She left the group almost immediately.

If your T follows the ‘rules’ for therapists, she will have to unfollow you when she sees it’s your page. They can’t follow clients on social media publicly. So it should sort itself out.

Like everyone said, it’s just better to tell your T.

Oor if it feels better to do, just block her. She doesn’t know it’s you, so you can move towards being transparent on your page, but without her seeing anything.

I have a similar experience to this in case you are curious about how the first option could potentially play out.

I have a professional Instagram art account that has a bit of a following, T followed me one day. He also has a professional art account.

We talked about it in depth, decided together that we can follow each other’s work since there are no personal information or pictures apart from first names on either account. We don’t send each other messages there, and all public comments are about the art. He doesn’t ask me about what a painting I created and posted means (no matter how depressing) unless I bring it up myself. So far we’ve been able to keep the therapy in the room and the art outside.

Although now we’ve been moving towards collaborating on art projects together in person, outside of sessions. We’ve been having lengthy discussions about the boundaries around that, so I’ll see what happens I guess.

I would talk to my T about it. I can see something similar happening with a new Instagram I started. He and I would work out something that felt comfortable for both of us. If it is a public/professional page that anyonecan see I really don’t see an ethical issue with it.