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Therapist and boundaries.

BPsweety2
BPsweety2
My therapist canceled our last appointment and said he would call me on Monday to check in. No problem.

My therapist called me this morning and asked me how I was doing. Really odd for a Saturday.

I told him I was hanging in there and feeling o.k. He asked if I was at home and if I had any plans for the rest of the day. I told him I was home and planned on reading a book I just bought. He ended the call. No big deal, I got on with my plans.

An hour after the phone call the police show up at my door and I am forced to go to the hospital. I answered all of their questions and asked one of my own.

"Why was I brought in today?"

My therapist looked at my Facebook and saw my status "Checkmate" and decided I was suicidal and needed to be put on a hold.

"Checkmate" is a chess move and if he had looked at what I had posted earlier he would have seen "Touchdown", "Connect Four", "Home Run", "King Me" and a bunch of other winning terms from games and sports.

Anyway I think he went over the line so I got the paperwork I signed when I started with the mental health group I am with intending to find the name of the person I make the complaint to.And I start reading it, well it says on the fourth page of the ten page document (which I did not read until today) that if my therapist suspects I may be a danger to myself or others and deny it, he can seek information from any known source such as groups, journals on file,electronic communications with the mental health group and social media.

The lesson today is read what you are signing before you sign it.
tommymott
tommymott
That's a lot of power for a therapist. Beyond that I've always been careful what I write online but then I have no pdoc or therapist and I'm heavily invested in my own mental health. Hope you're able to relax in hospital!
BPsweety2
BPsweety2
They sent me home from the hospital, they could tell I was safe.
deleted_user
deleted_user
Sound pretty odd.
Eulenspiegel
Eulenspiegel
Well, if he was within his rights, because you agreed to it, there's probably not much recourse that you can take, when it comes to him looking at your Facebook.

I have mixed feelings about it.

I don't fault him for taking steps if he believed you were suicidal.

But I don't think the steps he took were appropriate.

I don't like what he did and I don't like that he was kind of 'sneaky' about it.
If he's going to resort to snooping into your Facebook page and judge your state of mind by looking at your status, he should call you up and tell you what he thought and why.

Trust in a therapist is essential.

I think he fucked up.

You may not be able to complain about him reading your Facebook page, but you can sure as Hell complain about what he did with the information and how he went about it.

His behavior does not seem ethical to me.
Community LeaderSunCloudJD
SunCloudJD
I think he went too far as well but it sounds like he has the law on his side

i think he should have come right out and asked if you were suicidal and told you he looked at your FB page

I think there's a breech in trust when you aren't honest with a patient..

I'm sure his heart was in the right place but I think he crossed a boundary as well
If there's a history of suicide attempts I can understand why he'd be worried for your safety but I think he should have been more forthright with you
KatLin
KatLin
I hope you blocked him from your Facebook page. My therapist and email and txt I think 3 times in 2 yrs. we have talked on the phone but never Facebook

I think since he didn't man up and ask you about your Facebook status that it was a huge breach of trust. Trust is suposto go both ways. They can't expect us to tell them what's inside if its not safe. . .....If that had been me I definitely would be calling and asking for a new therapist. Takes me months normally to get comfortable with a new tdoc that would destroy it. I hope you at the very least have a nice long talk with him and set the rules
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