What ethical considerations come into play when a client admits to researching their therapist online, and how should therapists respond?

There are no ethical considerations at play in this scenario. Clients have every right, as does anyone inclined, to research a clinician online. This is not to be confused with physically stalking them.

It’s the therapists responsibility to respond to them with curiosity about their interest in researching them, just as they would with anything else they’ve brought into session.

This admittedly, gets complicated in current times, because it’s increasingly challenging to curate what appears online. For example, I’ve been confronted regarding what posts I’ve liked. It had not occurred to me that this is something others would monitor, as I had not considered it part of the content post online.

I’ve become more thoughtful about what I click things up on, now that I’m aware of this possibility, although I still allow myself to express myself as much as possible.

Ideally, a clinical should maintain their curiosity without becoming defensive, but therapists are human, and can be caught off guard, especially when it comes to clients who are particularly good online research.

In short, when it comes to ethics and boundaries, these are issues that are the therapists responsibility to maintain in the context of sessions, not the clients. As long as clients pay the fee, do not threaten the clinician physically or otherwise, or damage their property, they have no ethical responsibility to uphold within the therapeutic context.

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