To share or not to share: The question is as old as the discipline itself.
As a psychoanalyst and psychotherapist, I have noticed that some of my patients show no curiosity about me whatsoever. They don’t look me up online, ask personal questions, or seem to know or (or even want to know) about my life. I could be free to disclose to them any details about my lived experiences that I think could be valuable during our sessions, but my policy is not to tell them about my own experiences. Here’s why.
A majority of my patients have at least Googled me and found my website, or seen my Psychology Today listing. Their information-seeking is purely professional, and they find content about me that I want them to see: my philosophy of therapy, my publications, and presentations, and, of course, the posts I have written for various outlets.