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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
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Posted by All Done on January 25, 2004, at 11:27:54
Has anyone wondered if your therapist has ever googled *you*?
I understand the therapeutic relationship is set up in a way that can leave the client curious as to the outside life of the therapist, but I wonder if they ever get curious as well.
I try to tell my therapist, Beefcake, as I affectionately refer to him, everything about myself, but not only is that difficult to do in one hour each week, but sometimes I wonder if there are things I classify as unimportant that perhaps he wouldn't. Does he ever wonder if there are things I'm not telling him? Did he wonder what my story was before I had enough time to tell it? (*If* I've even told it all, yet.) Beefcake has asked me some very pointed questions about my life, but not necessarily a ton of them. Do your therapists ask many specific, "non-feeling" related questions?
Just thinking out loud.
Posted by fallsfall on January 25, 2004, at 11:55:45
In reply to Just a thought, posted by All Done on January 25, 2004, at 11:27:54
My therapist has made it clear that he only wants to find out things about me when I am sitting in his office. He doesn't want to read journalling or Babble or anything else - because he wants to experience my emotions in conjunction with the information. So I seriously doubt if he would Google me.
In the beginning we did "history" for a couple of sessions (maybe even 5 or 6 all together). I would tell him about people, or events or whatever. He asked some questions, but not too many. Periodically we come to something that I haven't given him background on and he may ask a question or two. I think that he believes that what I choose to tell him about is as important as the content of what I tell him. So he doesn't want to ask questions and get me talking about stuff that isn't important to ME. When he does ask questions they are similar to "Tell me about your mother" - not very specific.
So are they interested in knowing more?
My old therapist came to watch me skate in an ice show. She had been a student in my adult skating class before we started therapy and I had been not skating for a year or more, and was just coming back to skating. She only stayed for my number (which was right at the beginning), not for the rest of the show. I loved that she came. But it probably was not wise of her to have done so - don't you love those boundaries...
Posted by Karen_kay on January 25, 2004, at 12:43:14
In reply to Re: Just a thought » All Done, posted by fallsfall on January 25, 2004, at 11:55:45
Uhhh YEAH!!!! That's why after my last session I hopped online and checked EVERY SINGLE listing with my name to be certain there was nothing there that I didn't want him to know. Actually, I'm almost certain he would do it after I told him I googled him. Bubba's a very bad liar (showing that at the last session) and I plan to see if he did google me next week. I've even worked out the scenario in my head. What can I say, I'm a planner.. :)
Then again, I wonder, he doesn't really have enough invested in this "relationship" (and the quotation marks represent cynicism) to try to find anything out about me. Except the intent to get even. But, that could just be projection on my part, because I tend to do and say things with the intent to get even. Hmmmmmm...Maybe something good did come out of this whole blasted mess. Highly doubtful though.
Posted by pegasus on January 25, 2004, at 23:20:17
In reply to Just a thought, posted by All Done on January 25, 2004, at 11:27:54
I bet he never did. I'd love it, though. There's this picture of me on the internet that's related to an old job, and I think makes me seem very adventurous. It's an impression of me that I don't think he would otherwise have.
I told him that I googled him, and asked him if that was bad. He said, no, of course not. He acted as if he assumed all his clients googled him (hear that, Bubba?). He did want to know what I'd learned (a couple of religious affiliations, a couple of professional affiliations, and his results in a 10k 5 years earlier). He said he was really proud of that race. The whole thing lead to a nice conversation about public and private information, and how/why I wanted to know things about people. I gave him permission to google me, but he never mentioned it.
-p
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