Is my therapist being unethical?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So it's been at least 4 years since she last saw you as a patient. I imagine there's some sort of time limit.

Is there? I thought the confidentiality never expired. Can she go tell all my secrets at a cocktail party just because ten years have passed? I didn’t think so

She can never tell your secrets. But I imagine there are time limits as to who she can take on as a patient.
You also have no proof she's telling any secrets.

I'm not the one to try your drama and manipulation with

Looks like OP's therapist has entered the chat! This is weirdly defensive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The therapist should have refused to take on the DH as a client. Very inappropriate.

This.

Any therapist that is worth what they charge would decline to take a family member of a current or former client on as a client.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The therapist should have refused to take on the DH as a client. Very inappropriate.

This.

Any therapist that is worth what they charge would decline to take a family member of a current or former client on as a client.

100%. Any good therapist that is in-demand would never risk this just to take on a family member. You refer them to someone else. I would run from this person and would not trust anything they do or say.

- from a therapist

[Anonymous]

Yes, it's unethical. I work with therapists for marketing and they also won't work with couples when they've seen just one of the partners.

[Anonymous]

You should report this therapist to your state licensing board. It's very unethical.

- another therapist

[Anonymous]

I second OP’s concern. A few years ago I took my middle school aged kids to see a talk therapist to manage stress in school, peer relationships etc. The therapist would spend the last ten minutes debriefing with me about the kids, how things were going at home etc. Then it progressed to me asking if I should schedule my own sessions with the therapist to discuss home dynamics with more detail. That led to me going into a lot of personal details specifically about my relationship with my spouse. After a few months of individual sessions the therapist suggested scheduling a session with spouse and me to discuss the kids. It felt uncomfortable and I declined. On the one hand it had been my idea to schedule separate sessions with the therapist, which I shouldn’t have done because that takes away focus from the kids. But I also think the therapist likely should have thrown down a flag to say we are here to focus on the kids. I’d be uncomfortable if the therapist saw DH with me, then had a separate session with DH to “discuss the children” after all the personal discussions I had with the therapist about DH.

My takeaway is that one therapist per person, or one therapist per couple (but not individually), is the way to go.

[Anonymous]

A lot of people with mental health issues tend to gravitate towards therapy as a career. All the therapists I know personally are not people I would ever ask for life advice!