How exactly are people supposed to "be honest" with their therapist, when they type their notes into a computer system?
Especially considering the fact that your country's politics could change in the future.
Going on an honest rant against the regime seems very dangerous.
My wife is a therapist and they have a large number of trans and gender nonconforming clients. Earlier this year they had a series of meetings to work through how to change the diagnostics and hide any notions of gender dysphoria of their clients to not tell insurance about it at all. Most therapist offices are doing the same thing.
Just to note if you therapist is a social worker their code of ethics specifically say that they put their clients needs over everything. That includes what the board of social work says or any other legal entity. So protection of privacy and helping you go over almost everything.
Earlier this year they had a series of meetings to work through how to change the diagnostics and hide any notions of gender dysphoria of their clients to not tell insurance about it at all.
Good for them. But this is at best a breach of contract but could easily be a criminal offense. Insurance takes being defraud quite seriously
Just to note if you therapist is a social worker their code of ethics specifically say that they put their clients needs over everything.
Thats not how the federal and stage laws operates.
Seems like you might want to have an open discussion with your therapist about how and why their note taking process works.
First of all, I understand this concern and empathise. I am a very private person and also have a high level of distrust for centralised systems and beaurocracy.
It depends on how much you trust your therapist. You could ask them not to transcribe the portion of your session where you talk about politics. Also, it's possible that the notes your therapist makes will not contain specific details of what you talk about, and instead be observations about what concerns you, and why you feel concerned.
At the very least, I would suggest asking your therapist the same question you've asked here: how can you be open and honest when you have these concerns? Your therapist may be able to address these concerns to your satisfaction. And if you don't feel comfortable or safe asking your therapist this, then this might be a sign that your therapist hasn't earned your trust (yet).
What most therapists write down is either stuff for them to refer back to, or super clinical stuff they need to put in for the insurance "continuity of care" song and dance.
You can totally ask in your first session if they'd be okay not taking digital notes, and only documenting what's absolutely necessary for diagnosis. That's usually all that gets communicated anyway, unless your therapist ends up having to go to bat for you with an insurer over the phone or something. Trust me, they'd probably be relieved to hear you're fine with them skipping all that.
That said, I don't want to downplay the concern. Clinical info does get shared, and it is stored on some server somewhere.
Some healthcare company out there knows my mental health diagnosis. But it doesn't have to go deeper than that.
Yup. Most therapists keep progress notes as plain as possible
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Therapists are used to strange demands from clients, if you said you were uncomfortable with electronic notes, any decent one would be holding a notebook and pen before you finished that sentence.
Which makes me think you haven't mentioned any concerns to your therapist, or you need to find a new one
Lol... Read the contract ;)