Are you a psychotherapist who uses Facebook and Twitter? Do you blog or engage in other forms of social media? If so, you need to consider the 
sticky situations that you may stumble into without any ill intent. Here is one article by Dana Scarton in the Washington Post that highlights examples of what I’m talking about.
I’ve begun to look for mental health attorneys to join us here on occasion at Private Practice from the Inside Out to help us tackle some of these choice points in private practice.
Let me know if you think this would be helpful to you and if you have a favorite mental health attorney to recommend.
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Hi Tamara,
Your URL link is not working. I’d love to read the article you mentioned… thanks! Julia
Julia and Meira, thanks so much for the heads up about the broken link! It’s fixed now. Hope you’ll take a read and let me know what you think.
can not read. it says invalid URL
Thought it was a great article, for me, I go for anonymity. I like keeping my professional life separate from my personal, I even have a hard line phone so I don’t have clients on my cell phone. It’s nice to have a personal life. Vicki
Hi, Victoria! It’s good to hear from you again!
I, too, value my privacy. I’ve debated off and on about putting up a Facebook page (solely for business purposes) but have heard so many horror stories about the unintended blurring of boundaries that I’m a bit hesitant to do so – at least for now.
Obviously, you are engaged with some social media . . . as evidenced by your comments on this blog. What are you doing to help clients find you? What’s working and what’s not?
Thanks for the link. I’m currently working with someone to develop a Facebook business presence for my parenting classes. I read the article and fowarded the link to her.
Hi, Stephanie! I’m glad I could help. Check back soon. I hope to post a mental health attorney’s response in the next few weeks. And, if you need any technical help with the Facebook presence, check out my tech guru, Beth Hayden. You’ll find a link to her on the left side of this blog – It says “Blogging with Beth.” She is brilliant and quick with responses!
Great post. I’ve been seeing a lot of these lately, perhaps inspired by the article in the Washington Post. I’m experimenting with a Facebook page to send people to my therapy practice website, and another one to direct people to PracticeSuccessTools.com . To be honest, I don’t anticipate too many people finding me on Facebook as a therapist, but I’m still learning about it.
I definitely agree with keeping the personal and business aspects separate. That’s the part that seems tricky with Facebook; they seem to like changing the rules from time to time. Since I really don’t use it personally, I don’t think it’s too much of a problem, but I definitely keep an eye on the Facebook settings.
Thanks for the information!
Deborah
Welcome back, Deborah! Thanks for adding to the conversation. I hope you’ll drop back in over the next few months and let us know how Facebook is working for you. Perhaps you’ll have some tips to share!
I am anonymous on twitter, I also like to keep my personal life private.
Sue, I think it’s important to know up front if your involvement with social media is for personal reasons or professional reasons. Obviously, you can’t use Twitter to promote your business if you are using it anonymously or with an alias. It’s a tough choice for lots of therapists – to make that decision.
Tamara, this is something that I struggle with. I am not new to blogging, but am new to blogging as a therapist. On my other blogs I can write what I like, and enjoy that freedom. As a therapist you always have to think about whether you are going to alienate your clients by expressing certain views, and so I feel I have to think very carefully before I post.
Welcome back, Sue! There’s actually even MORE to consider than just the marketing effectiveness, too! There’s the clinical end to consider – like how much is too much for a client to know about you, how to handle unexpected threats and emergencies (suicide, homicide, self-harm), how you are going to handle other disclosures that might warrant action on your part (as in confessional commenting), etc. We talk about this type of thing one week in BlogStart for Therapists. You might want to take a look to see if this is a class that you could benefit from. I start a new one in January.
Thanks Tamara, its the stalking on Facebook or Twitter that I would not welcome. Thanks for the info on the Blogstart for therapists, I will have a look.