In my first session with my new psychiatrist he asked me what I did for a living. When I told him I ran an online business, to my surprise, he rolled his chair over to his desk and asked “what’s the address?” In the middle of our session he jumped online to check out my online business! This took me off guard, and for a moment, I felt uncomfortable. Even though it was only an e-commerce website for my business, nothing unusual – but I guess for me, the online world and the real world are quite different things. It is rare for these two worlds to meet.

I did not have this blog at that time. And I stopped seeing the shrink after three sessions because my financial situation simply could not support it. No doubt my failure to make another appointment due to finances was interpreted as resistance on my part; to prevent the shrink delving any deeper into my psyche. Resistance is a normal part of therapy with a psychiatrist, and although I was no different in that respect, I literally did not have any money to continue. Financially speaking, I couldn’t afford to. Mental health wise, I couldn’t afford not to… but at $150 a pop every fortnight, it was beyond my reach.

For therapy with a psychiatrist to be genuinely effective, there ought not be any secrets, any holding back. And that means, he or she ought not to be shielded from knowing about your blog. Although on the one hand you might want to blog honestly about your experience of seeing a psychiatrist without the psychiatrist’s prying eyes…. but on the other hand… part of the process of therapy with a psychiatrist is that you are open with him or her about the therapy itself, in addition to whatever personal issues you are dealing with.

If you want an effective, honest and productive relationship with your therapist, I would not suggest writing a secret blog about your experience of receiving therapy, as it can only create a situation where you are being selective about what you talk about on your blog, and what you talk about with your therapist. Unless of course you are prepared to talk as honestly and openly with your therapist as you do on your blog, in which case if they did read your blog, there wouldn’t be anything you wouldn’t want them to read.

It is important to be aware that writing a secret blog about your therapy might be an unconscious strategy of resistance on your part. It is normal for someone receiving therapy to resist and block the path to vulnerability and transparency that the journey of therapy involves. Writing or creating a secret blog about your therapy, and your therapist, is a way of maintaining a space the therapist can not access and therefore enable you to retain some power in a situation in which you may perceive your power being threatened as the layers that surround you are stripped bare by the therapeutic process. In other words, it’s a way of trying to keep your clothes on when it’s time to get naked. This is not a healthy strategy if you are serious about getting the most out of your therapy.

If you are an avid blogger, writer or documenter, you may be bridled with an overwhelming need to write about your experience with therapy. If this is the case, it would be wise to reflect on the purpose of publicly writing about this on your blog. If you frame it as a means to sort through the issues you encounter in therapy, in manner where this reflection is complimentary to your therapy, this might be a better strategy. Writing, be it in a journal or a blog, is one of the best ways to process our thoughts and gain insight. Use it well, but use it wisely.