Client gems

[paramour]

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She never used the word "administered", she said she "observed". If I'm remembering the original post correctly, the dialogue was clear that the test administrator was not herself. I would think that with shadowing opportunities, field, placements, undergrad internships, etc etc, there would be plenty of opportunities for an undergrad to see some testing done depending on the work environment.

Thanks, pingouin! That makes sense. I went back to review the original post to see if she was administering or what was going on, as I honestly could not remember, but unfortunately it was no longer there.

 

[Cosmo75]

My reaction to the OP wasn't one of confidentiality issues per say, but more of "eww." It just seems to be in poor taste to post stories on an open message board. Sure, we can remove identifying information. But imagine being a psychotherapy client and stumbling upon this board, to see clinicians posting stories about sessions. It makes us seem obtuse, crass and anything but empathetic, in my opinion.

It's not so much the discussion of "gems" but the medium being used being inappropriate.

*rides off into the sunset on my high horse* 😀

 

[Markro311]

Yeah, I agree that it seems much different when clinicians talk about de-identified patients in person with one another than on an online message board. These comments can be seen by anyone (if they do a search on something related to psychology for Google, for example) 24/7. Talking about it in person (as long as you're away from others), it's just between you two and just for that moment in time. Even if you say both situations are unethical, one is obviously much worse than the other.

 

[PinkSoil]

I remember when I took the Legal and Ethical Issues class, my professor told us that client information (identifying information, of course) should still only be disclosed for educational purposes.

So how do you define that? We can argue what an educational purpose is. There is school, supervision, professional reasons, etc. For those of you that claim that you adhere so stricly to these boundaries, does that mean you have never come home and said to a family member, "Hey-- guess what happened at work today?" (Without giving any identifying information about the client).

I do agree that a message board is probably NOT the best place to post about clients. That being said, I do find it upsetting that such a negative view is immediately imposed on the suggestion of discussing "client gems." While I don't think it really should be done on this board, and perhaps "client gems" might imply a sarcastic undertone, I do believe that the type of things we are referring to are the most endearing, genuine parts of our clients' personalities.

People are so stuffy in saying, "Oh we should rise above finding the humor... this is in bad taste... it gives people a poor view of therapist..." Just be human. Stop being so negative. We are allowed to find our clients funny, we are allowed to laugh with them. We automatically assume to laugh is to make fun-- it's okay to appreciate the funny things that happen in therapy.