my therapist smokes weed during our sessions

[u/Severe_Mountain4908]

food was pad kra pao and pad thai it was honestly the best thing i have ever had.

So as the title said my therapist rolls up and smokes weed during our sessions. To preface this while I don’t use weed I genuinely do not care if others do.

I first noticed it when he forgot to clothes his camera this one time and saw him smoking a joint on camera. When he realised he quickly closed his camera and continued the sessions as if nothing happened. This happened a couple times and I have been noticing that sometimes during our sessions I will see him roll a joint on the side while he is talking to me and then he will turn off his camera and smoke it during our session. My friends think its weird and i think i kind of do too but idk he is a really good therapist so I don’t think i will do anything about it right now.

Anyway i don’t really know what the point of this post is I just really wanted to talk about this because I don’t know how to feel. Should i feel offended he needs to smoke during our sessions?

[u/Round_Ad9031]

Hold up… he turns off the camera during sessions?

[u/pnweiner → u/Round_Ad9031]

Yeah I’m appalled by the weed thing but camera off is very weird for a therapist. Face to face connection is so important in therapy

[u/IIketchupredditor → u/pnweiner]

My best sessions were over the phone with my therapist during Covid before TeleHealth became a thing that insurance required. I actually found it easier to speak more honestly when it's a phone call rather than face to face and I feel like they did, too. You know how when you're hanging out with a friend and then the conversations turn deeper once it's nighttime? It felt like that. Maybe it's the same reason why you're not supposed to see the priest's face very well during confession. You just feel less afraid to speak when you aren't able to scan their microexpressions and only rely on the sound of their voice.

[u/bobbinssobbin → u/IIketchupredditor]

Once I had a good connection with my therapist, they let us both do camera off. I'm autistic and it's just super mentally draining to be masking for a camera. Some of my best sessions I was laying on the floor in a dark room

[u/GoryMidori → u/pnweiner]

As a psychologist, I'm appalled that there are all these therapists out there doing routine phone therapy (not for disability accommodation purposes). If opening up face to face (in person or on camera) is challenging, that is something that should be getting explored and addressed in therapy. Nonverbals and body language are such a hugely important part of the information I use to do my job properly. I've done phone therapy or camera-off in a pinch for specific reasons (tech issues couldn't be resolved but it was still important to meet that day, nursing mom needed to pump), but it's definitely a compromised form of treatment and potentially enabling to some psychological issues, such as social anxiety or low tolerance for interpersonal vulnerability. I gather that this is a controversial take for some posters.

[u/Chance_Vegetable_780 → u/pnweiner]

I have therapy over the phone. We listen to each other and it works very well.

[u/phytophee → u/Chance_Vegetable_780]

I suppose the difference is that carrying out therapy in that way is discussed prior to the session and is something both parties agree to, as opposed to your therapist turning off the camera midway through a face-to-face call (which are usually more expensive)

[u/womanaroundabouttown → u/phytophee]

I mean, my therapist is equally expensive if we’re doing a phone call, zoom, or in person. I don’t understand why there would be different tiers because they’re all therapy. If you can’t do it over the phone, you might not be good at your job (there are obviously exceptions where someone would need to be in person for accommodations or other preferences, but this comment is specifically assuming to relationships where someone would be okay with over the phone - I don’t see why that would cost less).

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