Do therapists look up their clients?

I’m just wondering if they ever look up their home addresses on Zillow or do other stuff like that just out of curiosity. Or if they don’t even care. I just mentioned in email to my therapist that I had over 16 thousand posts on a “forum” and I’m wondering if she’d ever decided to find me. I’ve said stuff about a lot of people but I’ve said a lot of things about her. Not sure they could get me into trouble but maybe.

some do. I see that as a power thing. I don't.

I'm sure many of them google their clients or check out FB accounts or whatever. Probably not a real deep dive, though, at least not usually.

Do you want your T to find things you wrote here?

I know my therapist would not. I don't think he really cares plus he's really big on ethics.

I don't see it as an ethical issue one way or the other. I doubt most of those people care enough about most clients to bother.

No Pdoc's and T's don't find clients online and see what they are saying ,, they all are likely dealing with a huge patient load.. They arent going to waste time seeing what everyone says online.

I highly doubt my T would, she isn't a huge fan of social media and has no accounts herself.

What about that would bother you?

Not sure why they’d bother. I don’t think they are particularly curious about our houses or much about us beyond what we bring into our sessions.

Probably just like the rest of us: If for some reason they happen to be extra curious over someone, they might look them up if that is what they normally do. Some are more into being online in general and some less.

I have never asked either of my therapists but have had discussion with my coworkers who are therapists and pdocs in relation to our clients. They admit on occasion they so get curious but have never looked up a client. It is ok their opinion unethical.

I absolutely do no want her to see the things I wrote on here. I’ve written stuff I’ve never told her. I also have my online side that I don’t show in real life. Basically because I suck at verbal communication. So I can only say one or sentences at a time and most of the time I just answer questions with “I guess.” or “kinda.” Or “yeah.” But online I’m someone completely different and I think if she saw the things I am able to say that I can’t say in real life she’d either be really happy that I have another outlet besides verbal communication or just kinda annoyed that I sometimes talk crap about her and other stuff.

I've asked my T if he looks up clients, and he said he never would, unless, say, they told him they wanted him to see their blog or something. I even mentioned this site and used "LT" referring to something another poster said to me on here, then I said, "Oh great, I nearly gave you my username." He said I could go ahead and tell him, he wouldn't look me up, so I did. (He also said he imagined he could figure out who I was anyway, and I said good point! That was back when I was writing up every session.) He's generally glad that I'm on the forum, as it gives me another source of support--he even compared it to a support group once (when I said I'd never done one of those). Though there have been times in the past where I've felt sort of attacked on here, and he felt bad about those and a bit concerned. He hasn't cared about what posters have said about him (no matter how negative), just if it was about me and hurt me.


I doubt your T would look you up on here or figured out who you are (I'm just assuming your actual name isn't "Mountain Dewed"!). But one thought is, would you consider showing her part of your online side? I mean, not linking her to the forum, but maybe showing her something you'd posted here or elsewhere (with your name blacked out)? Or not even to show something you posted elsewhere, but to type something up and send it to her to read before or during session? I do that sometimes because I'm better at expressing myself in writing.

I think some do, yes, for certain clients but, no, not as a general practice. I can’t imagine they’d want to arrive home from a long day of work and start looking up their clients to see what they are saying online.

I had one psychiatrist that would only look people up if he thought they were lying to him. He would use their SSN and other types of identifying info that we provide for our treatment to search through websites. But, these were not social media websites.

I guess it depends on their client load and how much are they curious. Perhaps if you're just an ordinary depressed / anxious client they won't do it. But if they think there's something unusual /special about you, they might do a quick check.
I'm a private tutor and I usually do a very quick fb search for my students or their parents. Nothing deep, just a one minute check of their public info. The reason is to get a general picture of the student's family environment and interests. I wouldn't try to look up their /their parent's forum posts or anything like that.
I guess it's similar for therapists.

My ex t told me if a client comes up on fb as someone she may know she has a look at their page and photos etc

I discussions with coworkers, one of the reasons it is frowned upon is because therapists are supposed to accept the information clients give them and work with it. By looking on social media they may find information that could contradict what the client tells them.

This could effect the treatment provided plus we all know that what some people put on social media is embellishing or not truthful. This could lead to a therapist to wonder how truthful the client is being.

My T would not go looking for me... however, he is good friends with the family across the street from me. Even looking at my address on the paperwork he didn’t put it together. So he knows exactly where I live and has driven by my house.
Other stuff? Eh, he has a very full life outside of work and a ton of other things to do than spend more time on me than what I already ask for (he gives very generously to me out of his personal time to reply to emails and return emergency calls).

Psychiatrists do look up on a specific website clients whi get controlled substances. They can find out when and where the prescriptions were filled and the prescribing physician. Sadly they often find patients are receiving the same medication from various providers at the time. They can also find of the client has a history of filling these medications early.