Posted by Tamar on January 2, 2007, at 5:44:06
In reply to transference? i think so...., posted by youngaddict on December 30, 2006, at 23:12:38
Hi there! You are definitely not alone, as you can see! I'm also going through a bit of dad/mom transference with my therapist at the moment...
I wanted to give another perspective on the Googling: As far as I can tell, lots of people Google lots of other people: friends, partners, colleagues... just to see what's 'out there' about significant people in their lives. Anything on the internet is in the public domain and isn't remotely private. So although therapists might find it a little disconcerting to learn they've been Googled by their clients, they really ought to understand that it's commonplace, it's not just about the therapist-client relationship, and it's not in any way an invasion of privacy. Anything that people want to keep private should not be on the internet.
Having said that, I think there are still some therapists who don't really understand that the internet is not a place for private material and who might worry that Googling is the first step to stalking. I happen to think that's not true; almost everyone Googles their therapist, whereas stalking a therapist is still pretty unusual. So one doesn't seem to lead to the other.
There are lots of ways to invade a therapist's privacy, but I really don't think that Googling is one of them. And I think it can be comforting when we're missing our therapists to Google them and read the stuff that's in the public domain about them.
But... on the other hand... you might find out things you didn't want to know! So it's worthwhile being careful with Google!
Cheers,
Tamar
poster:Tamar
thread:717720
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20061210/msgs/718449.html