Have You Ever Asked To Review Your Records?

[lostforgottensoul]

I give his opinion power

Thats a good thing. I also trust my therapist fully to guide me and i trust his opinion over anyone's including mine as mine sometimes has distortion in it.

 

[Suzetig]

He may be right in thinking about waiting til you're through this period. What's your thought process in wanting to press on just now at such a challenging time of year for you?

 

[FauxLiz]

@Suzetig my thought process in wanting to press on is based on the fact that in my opinion I can't remember the last time I was this stable personally, I haven't cut in 10 months, several of my physical illnesses are currently under control for the first time in decades which means I have gone from experiencing daily chronic pain at a level of 7-8 to controlled without narcotics to a 2-3 for the first time in over 20 years. From a depression standpoint I am amazed at the difference the new medication I am on has made in the past several months as it is not actually a "new" medicine but one that has been available and in use for over a century. Lastly, I want to press forward now because while I am hoping I have 20 months at least without having to relocate, the board of directors that I work directly for has been extremely volatile for the past 10 months and while I have made peace that they refuse to be civil with each other and routinely act like they are children, I serve at their pleasure and having endured their wrath this year already (one member filed a criminal complaint against me which was eventually determined to be unfounded and they were censured by the rest of the board) I have no qualms about the lack of stability I have in my employment and having had awful therapists in the past that I never trusted like I do my current T I don't want to waste time if I don't have to.

 

[Suzetig]

I can understand that, I wonder though if giving yourself a little space to consolidate and test out your stability might be an idea, get through some of the trauma anniversary, focus on relationship building/strenthening ready to push on after the holidays? You're only looking at a couple of months delay but it might be the difference between you managing or not.

If you start digging now and you do destabilise you may struggle to know if it's because of anniversary stuff or needing to pace the work. I know when you feel better you may be tempted to run but you're loading the deck against you starting deep work at a time that you're traditionally unstable.

 

[FauxLiz]

@Suzetig you are right I should slow down right now. The desire to work on this is pushing me to possibly take that chance on destabilization and not know whether it was the trauma anniversary or the the work we would be doing. So it looks like a couple of months of working on the basics, figuring out how to manage dealing with my family of origin for four days over Christmas and putting the pieces in place to move forward after the first of the year.

 

[ShodokanJenn]

My T has let me see records when I've asked. We look at them together, and he explains the things I have questions about. He doesn't write the VAST majority of what I actually say. Most of what he writes is psychobabble to appease my insurance company. Sometimes, if we get to a breaking point before my session is done, he dictates the note (he has talk to text) with me there.

I'd echo what others have said - feel free to ask to see, but do so in the presence of your T. And try not to build up expectations of revealing answers to your questions... likely, it will be just diagnostic stuff.

 

[Suzetig]

That sounds like a plan, I know for me time spending on my relationship with my T has always proved worth it in the long run because she's in a place now where she knows how to hold me steady, when to push and when to slow down a bit but he early days of therapy would drive me nuts because I felt I wasn't doing "proper" work. The skills you learn re your family of origin are the same skills that will keep you steady when you touch harder stuff. Sometimes the long way round is the quickest shortcut. Good luck.

 

[BuckarooBanzai]

I used to ask to see my records just to 'take my therapist's temperature'.

Therapists who responded with "you can see them whenever you want" I deemed safe, and I never formally requested them; therapists who denied me my records, claimed to have lost them, or only provided drastically censored extracts got dropped like a hot potato.

 

[BlueOrange]

I used to be really concerned about my therapist's notes. I've never seen them. Over time, I've come to believe that there are things that I'm not ready to handle; which he has seen years ahead of my ability to cope with it.

As I become more confident in my ability to cope with the content of his notes, I become more confident that I'm not missing out on anything that I really need to know.

 

[PTSDsirv]

@Suzetig it is not that I think he will say I haven't progressed, I am just not sure...

I think that there are actually 2 sets of "notes". One is the medical file comments which goes to insurance. It is very brief and limited to the minimum needed to get treatment approved. A diagnosis may be listed and over time very non-specific statements about ongoing patient status. Every therapist has this for every patient. It is very limited and general due to both state laws and professional ethics.The other notes a therapist may keep are patient notes with a bit more specific information that might note an issue a patient mentioned or treatment goal but nothing more...no actual therapy conversations. These are specific to the therapist, clinic, state or professional guidelines etc.

 

[katz]

My T has a policy that permits patients to to request to view their health records for free once each c...

I also went back and got copies of all my records. I keep them in a 3 ring binder. I rarely look at them but I know that if I need to. I can. Some times I need to be assured that it all happened. I also got to read some other people who saw it way back then. Very reassuring to someone like me who still has her doubts (once in a while)