Should I (25F) tell my therapist I Googled her?
Sorry for format, on mobile. Kind of disorganized thoughts ahead. Basically, guilt about invading her privacy is eating me alive. And I feel like a creepy, weird, desperate stalker. To summarize, I do not have a healthy mother and never have. I have endured years and years of physical, verbal, and mental abuse from my mother that continues to this day. Due to these circumstances, I have always longed for a nurturing, kind, understanding mother/mother figure.
I started therapy for the first time when I became pregnant last year, and ended up really clicking with my therapist and we have great, helpful sessions. I do not know much about her, of course (she is very ethical which is great) but I share everything with her and I admire her so much, I have told her she’s everything I want in a mother, so…I Googled her out of curiosity and found her on Facebook where she has pretty old pictures that are public, but nothing else. These pictures are from when she was my age/a few years older than I am now, I’ve looked at all of these pictures so many times, and I just wonder if she was like me at the time? If she knows how I feel? If she struggled like I do and was still able to become a successful, accomplished woman? (Also, do these feelings even make sense?)
Ever since I discovered her facebook and other random pieces of her internet presence (Pinterest, publications, boring things), I feel so guilty. She has set this boundary with me and I violated it. I am just so desperate for a mom/positive role model that I had to look at her profile. I don’t know how else to really explain it. I feel really bad, though, and I am worried she is going to be creeped out by me or something along those lines and drop me as a patient. I am worried that, if I tell her about this, she will think I am obsessed with her and stalking her. But I respect her and her profession so much that I feel I should tell her.
I don’t know. What would you do? How would you approach it? Am I normal?
Posted Nov 2, 2023, 1:26 AM UTC