Posted by Voce on January 26, 2006, at 21:52:02
As some of you may remember, I signed a release form to get my old therapy records from treatment with T1. My second T, who is no longer treating me, helped me with this process. I signed the release form and asked the records be released to her so that there wouldn't be (so I thought) any problems. Well, it has been 3 weeks since I've signed this, and I hadn't heard anything from her so I shot her an e-mail and asked if she had heard anything. She replied and said that yes, she had received the records, but then had realized that since she is no longer working with that agency, that it is not within her rights to release them to me. So she sent them back. She asked that I call her to discuss the matter further.
I called her later on and she told me that most likely, the copies that she had sent back were probably still in my file and that I could go get them myself if I wanted to. She then told me that she had seen my ex male T, (apparently he is going to be adjunct faculty for the university she is now at) and she had mentioned to him that I had been trying to get ahold of my records. Now I understand that I am no longer her patient and that she is not bound by confidentiality. But I still wish she had not told him that because he expressed "concern" over my wanting them. He doesn't feel it will be healthy for me to have them and didn't think it was a good idea. And now of course, T2, who originally agreed to help me get my file, is back pedaling and made me kind of promise that I would come talk to her about it before I made any attempt to get them on my own.
I am so fed up and angry and I am going to try and put my thoughts in some logical order.
1. Is this professional snobbery on his part? Does he think I am not capible of taking his clinical notes in stride?
2. I have already talked to T2 about why I want these records. I will admit that I would like to have them as the last sort of tangible link to T1, but it's more than that. If I ever go into treatment again, it would be invaluable to have these because they are going to tell my treatment provider a lot more than just a treatment summary.
3. WHY THE HELL DOES HE CARE IF I HAVE THESE? NOTHING COULD BE WORSE THAN WHEN HE TERMINATED ME. I've already been through that hell!!! I grieved for him MONTHS, people. And he left me all ALONE to do it myself. He refused to communicate with me. He replies to my (bi-monthly) e-mails with only a few words. AND NOW HE FREAKING CARES THAT I WANT MY RECORDS???
Okay. I'm angry. I'll admit that.
Is it transference? Is this reasonable?
Should I just go get my records without talking to T2? She may try to talk me out of it.
T1 probably thinks I'm some kind of psycho obsessed woman to want these records.
poster:Voce
thread:603237
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20060121/msgs/603237.html