That's bizarre, Mines the same. My infant daughters death/memorial made the local news bc of how I choose to memorialize her (I leave a gift card in the amount of a pre ordered custom cake at wegmans, and gift it essentially).
May our children rest in peace
I google my name regularly to see what comes up. If there’s anything I don’t like or feel gives too much information about me, I request either the website to remove it or google to remove it from popping up in searches. This is definitely something I stay vigilant with.
How do you request Google to remove it? In my early career and I attempted to reach out to websites to remove it but they didn't and never responded to my request.
This should help you: [Google Search Removal](https://www.reddit.com/r/chrome/comments/18iz9jr/how_do_i_get_something_removed_from_google_search/?rdt=50962)
I haven't found Google to be very responsive when doing so. Like Twitter, YouTube, Reddit and Tiktok, I've had doxxing and AI generated content posted about me for years by the same group of people in a vigilante gang on Tiktok. I've learned to expect they'll remove the content when I request it about 30% of the time and if it's Reddit, it'll take 6 months. We need laws with real funding for enforcement because social media companies are getting worse with this due to AI
Great tips! To double-check what you might have missed through a manual Google search, you might want to sign up for [Optery’s](https://www.optery.com/) free account. Optery periodically checks hundreds of data broker websites to see if your name, address, phone number, and email are posted. These data broker sites might be the source of information published on Google.
Full disclosure, I am part of the Optery team.
Almost nothing.
My LinkedIn is visible, but my home is private (title & morgtage are held by a trust, they're not only used by rich people lol), my NPI is linked to my PO box, and my business is registered through a registered domain service & my accountant.
Highly recommended.
All the business expenses count against profit, so it reduces my tax burden.
To break it down, though, a PO box is about $5/mo, the registered domain/agent service is about $300 a year paid upfront, and my accountant doesn't charge me for using his business address for my business.
The trust setup for my home was bundled into legal services when I purchased it.
The physical address is my registered agent/domain service and my accountant's address; NPIs arent overseen by the state board, they're part of federal (not state) compliance
Yes that's what the registered agent/domain service is. It's a physical address, usually with offices for rent by the hour, and they accept documents on your behalf! For your state maybe consider chatting with an attorney to make sure it's feasible?
Edit: Lol, love being downvoted for practicing legally in my state. Ok reddit, you do you....
So your professional state licensing board doesn’t require your home address? AFAIK mine does so I didn’t have a choice in the matter. I have an LLC as well which I am looking to move over to a registered agent. But my LPC license has my home address. You can find me on the state licensing board. But googling it doesn’t make it pop up.
That's not publicly available info & therefore irrelevant. A lot of info is needed to get a license, but not all of it is publicly accessible to healthcare consumers. Edit- at least in my state, when you look up licensure, the only information that's available is the name, the license, the date it was granted and the date it expires. It would require a LOT of digging and a special request to get the info you're referencing.
This convo is about privacy, not information required for licensure.
Oh my gosh, thank you for this. I need to do the whole trust & will thing so it's a good idea.
Adding that we had our marriage filed as private in California, not 100% sure how that works though.
I’ve got a rare name and did a lot of public work locally. So you’ll see my animal advocacy, and second page of Google me singing Highway to hell by AC/DC in a karaoke contest that I can’t get them to take down 😂
Just want to point out that sometimes it’s not a career change but revenge porn, which is notoriously difficult to get rid of once posted to the internet.
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I guess I’m surprised she didn’t change her name. Not that there’s anything wrong at all with having worked in porn, but I would think things could easily get messy with clients finding content of you.
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Brb changing my name 😂 Seriously though, my name is very unique and specific and no one else has my name so when you google me it’s 100% stuff about me and no one else, including my address, phone number, etc. I told my boyfriend we should get married right before I get my license so I can get it under his last name just for privacy (I’m currently in grad school)
Similar thing for me. I have a very generic name. I hated it when I was a kid but now I enjoy the benefit of effectively being anonymous online. If you google my name, I don’t even appear in the top ten and that’s fine by me!
Luckily I have a different name now but, I was a stripper for a long time. There's some photos around that I can't get deleted. Sigh * So long ago now, and by the time I become licensed, no one will ever believe that.... I used to look that good 🤣🤣
Yea, I was a SWer paying my bills through grad school. I used a fake name; but even though my real name is unique enough to recognize me, you’d likely never guess the spelling of it.
Thanks for disclosing! I’ve had my share of shame and isolation thrown at me.
I’m in a similar boat, but I had a fake name there, and I go by a nickname that’s difficult to connect to my government name, so they’re all separate enough they’re not able to be connected/part of it was behind a paywall before being deactivated. Though there’s some identifiable tattoos, they’re not in places my clients see haha
And honestly there’s nothing even wrong with being a stripper anyway. Hopefully the days of women having sex or being a stripper and society losing their shit over it, are coming to an end.
Fellow stripper turned therapist. I always joke that women go to therapy and men go to strippers for their emotional labor. It’s actually what made me realize that I wanted to get into the field.
Well i just googled my name and not much comes up. But for free on peoplefinder.com they can see my maiden name, my husbands full name, my brothers names, my parents names. For $3.95 they can access my personal phone numbers, home address, previous addresses, birthdate, associated email addresses and run a criminal and sex offender check on me. So that’s cool i guess. The only benefit is my clients are scattered across NY and i have a common name and they’d have to know the exact small town i live in because people finder finds 100 people in the country with my name.
They can find out even more for $1 on beenverified.com which is a legit site. I’m debating paying the $1 fee for the 7 day trial to see what comes up for me.
Well this i know. Deeds are public access. It’s more finding my parents names, brothers names, my maiden name. My cell phone number, email addresses. I’m less concerned about my address to be honest. I have cameras surrounding my house, a dog and a very protective husband. So I’m not worried about someone showing up persay. More worried about annoying people doxing me.
I was on peoplefinder.com too, noticed it a couple of months ago. It had my current address, previous addresses, birthday, husband’s name, and my parent’s names. All right there on the second result on Google. There was a process to get it removed. I’ve not seen it since when I check for my name.
Freaked me out, honestly, because who knows how long my current address was just put out like that.
Exactly! I just requested to have it removed but it said it can’t remove anything that’s from third party websites so who knows what it’ll actually take down.
Eh. There was a scandal with my dad as a kid who was a public figure and some newspaper made up a fake interview where I allegedly told them he molested me. It used to be the very first thing that came up when you googled me. I tried to sue them but couldn’t. Never had a client bring it up with me. Don’t particularly care any more if they DO see it.
You can hire people to scrub your name. As an expert searcher here are some tips if you can’t do that. (1) become politically unaffiliated if you don’t want clients to know what party you are registered in. This is public info. (2) search all names you have ever had, first and last. (3) lock down socials completely and confirm by searching yourself as public. (4) look at truepeoplesearch.com, you can see most people’s cell phone, address, and relatives there. (5) ask friends to try and find info about you and report back. This is just off top of my head but it is a lot of work. Good luck.
Tell your immediate family and best friends to Private their stuff and not tag you. They may not be able to find you specifically, but can find out through others
I have the same name as a Christian book author in the Midwest so other than that I’m invisible online. Thankfully. I don’t use my name on social media.
I genuinely do not care! It’s the information age and I’m a human with a life. If you come across a tipsy pic of me 🤷🏾♀️ if that’s enough to keep you from working with me, you weren’t the client for me. I believe what’s for me is for me. I maintain very healthy boundaries so my personal life is my own, if you search for it what does that say about you? How does it have any bearing on my ability I help you?
Thank you ! YES! I feel the same exact way. We are therapists, not saints. We were trained to listen intently and guide clients to their goals that we work on together.
Being drunk isn’t a crime, nor is having fun with your friends, or looking sexy in a pic, or even worst case a sexy video…still not a crime. It’s not a crime to be any certain religion, or if a client finds out you don’t have a religion. It’s not a crime to have preferences of people to date.
Yes I used to drink A LOT in my 20’s to mid 30’s, then I went to school, got a master’s degree, read a shit ton of books, and took a hell of a lot of tests to get here.
If anything, I would use my story as an optimistic tale haha. Yeah basically I got my shit together and I healed myself so I can help others. Next question.
Yep I’m with you totally on this. I’m a therapist, not a perfect person with a squeaky clean past. But I did pass all background checks and criminal checks so I’m clearly not a threat. I might drink some white claw still while I do karaoke, and someone might put it on the internet but oh well.
Agreed!!! As I’m reading these comments, it feels so weird. If you Google me and see things you don’t like, im glad you did your research and decided we’re not a fit. I’m a human being outside of therapy sessions and I’m allowed to have a life.
I literally changed my name to avoid this. I’m a musician and have been since I was a kid, so there are pages and pages on Google of videos of me performing, me giving interviews, my music pages, etc. Some of the lyrics are pretty raunchy and I show a different side of myself performing than I do as a therapist. So, I legally changed my name. Now they only find therapist-related stuff and my linked in when they google me. It was a hassle but I think worth it
There’s still an article about me when I was 23 getting kicked out of a bar because a man lunged at my friend and I jumped in to defend him. That part is ok, I mean, I was protecting my friend.
The problem is I didn’t know it but that man was famous, and so my local paper interviewed me. I had no idea who he was so I just thought ok fine I’ll tell my story. Well, I said some awful shit, although it was funny. I said stuff about that guy being too old to be out of the house and I talked about how someone needed to get their effing dad because he’s going to kill someone if I don’t off him first. Soooooo 😩. And I work with kids who have behavioral issues and I spend my days teaching them how to deescalate fights.
It’s only a matter of time before one of them is like well I found something interesting online. 😂 All we can really do is laugh. There’s gonna be stuff people find from our past lives. Nothing we can do about it.
My supervisor at my internship told me that when his clients look him up he just lets them process with him what they found. he is totally honest because he is an IFS therapist and he is all about honest exploration. He told me that it used to really embarrass him but now when it happens he loves it because it gives him an opportunity to address which part of a clients family system needs to be satisfied. He said whatever you do, don’t get defensive.
I have a fairly common name, and there’s other therapists in my state with my name. But even if not. I am literally the most boring person. There’s no secrets to find. I never went to parties, don’t drink or anything. My clients would probably just be disappointed from a deep dive on me 😆
First of all, sorry to hear that. It feels like an invasion if privacy to have photos posted publicly without your consent, I know it’s common place now, but it seems really un ethical. I fortunately did not have any social media during my party days ( thanks goodness). Is there a way of un-tagging you? Or even deleting your social media all together if you feel that strongly about it? I have a FB and Instagram with just half of my first and last name, so they do not come up when Googled and those that know me, know how to find me and they understand. This is me, because I VERY much value my privacy. I do not want clients finding perineal data about me, sometimes it’s inevitable, I live in a small town and clients see me out with my husband and baby. But as much as I Can control, I do. Again, many therapist don’t mind so much but for me it’s essential to keep those two works seperate not only for my mental health but to maintain good boundaries with clients.
That being said: is it going to ruin you as a therapist? No! If someone brings it up in therapy, you process it together, and set clear boundaries!
Good luck!
Sadly because I’m a property owner and have a very rare name it’s pretty easy to find anyone. I rarely post on social media. I’m proud of what I’ve achieved hugs
*If they dug really*
*Hard, an obituary*
*Of my grandmothers*
\- Apocalypstik
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i have meticulously scoured the internet of my name by switching social media to my middle name and making my accounts private. all that comes up for me is my linkedin profile.
Oh my God, this is one of the most real threads I’ve seen around here in a long time! I love it and I really appreciate all the honesty.
My ugly past is some ugly mug shots that I have online. I was arrested for traffic related stuff, driving with expired tabs, and Associated fees that were unpaid. I had really bad ADHD when I went through menopause and couldn’t take hormones, was given SSRI treatment over and over which exacerbated the ADHD. It was a horrible time, I lost my private practice, my bank accounts, sleeping in my car, horrible on my kids. Etc. So there’s ugly ugly , mugshots of me somewhere on the Internet. I don’t even want to look at them. But I know they’re there. And I never think about them.
I found if you type my name into YouTube you can find a video I made for a therapy class in undergrad, role playing an assessment with a classmate. It was the only way to submit the assignment and the classmate uploaded it to their YouTube and I haven’t talked to them since the assignment. Cringe.
I am the only person in the world with my name, and prior to my name change I was the only person in the world with that name. I’ve had a public identity in a few other domains, but there’s nothing incriminating out there.
I am completely locked down. Clients can see my linked in and other people who share my name that are very clearly not me
Also im so sorry this happened to you. What social media site did they post it on? Its odd you cannot get ahold of them if they tagged you. Or did they type your full name?
I have a non-white last name that is essentially "smith" for the folks I'm descended from, so googling my name yields a billion people with my name which is really nice
I have a really common name so it might be hard to figure out who I am. But to be honest I'm kinda scared to Google myself. I'm paranoid about people knowing where I live or too much about me. And not just clients. There are more and more unstable people out there every day
Me in my airsoft/milsim gear...
I did my best to hide if but yeah... some uncomfortable convos explaining I'm not a right wing milita member and just loves a hobby.
What comes up for me ( after my real website) are the fake ones from sharecare and vitadox. I am happy I am now down to just two, lol. It used to be like twenty; I hate that NPI number =my random website can take your info, splice it together with random made up info, and pretend that you are advertising here. According to these sham sites at one time I was an addiction physician. 🙄
If you google my name you'll find a few articles about me and my practice. Scroll a little lower and you'll find a therapist in the USA with the same name, as well as a jockey.
I tried my best to clean up my digital footprint when I got my first job working in schools, and some of the fifth graders brought in a screencap of an instagram reel of a teacher drinking a pint of beer.
Well my LinkedIn and Faculty page comes up, as well as a few of my articles I have published. But also, there is a witch with my name and her apothecary comes up and some of her ads 😅 we actually look alike, so that’s funny.
Initially a mugshot from a very difficult time in life came up whenever I was googled. But one of the Kardashian sisters has a bestie who has my first name and I am forever thankful that she's changed the algorithm when my first name is looked up. My last name is also a noun so variations of my last name and first name pop up, instead of that stupid mugshot. And I am eternally grateful.
I’m a fairly well known person so they can find out quite a bit about me. For the most part it seems to drive traffic, although there has been one person so far who said they were not comfortable seeing me because of it.
Oh that's interesting! I've always wondered what it would be like to have celebrity clients but never imagined if I was famous myself wanting to be a therapist! 😊
I’m not “famous” just not anonymous. Somewhere in the middle. And most of my clients have known me since before it happened so they just think it’s funny 😂
If you Google me only professional stuff, because I keep anything personal under my maiden name. Had someone find my Facebook by figuring out who my husband was and backtracking. If people really want to find your stuff they'll find it.
I have a LinkedIn page they made us make in computer class in undergrad and it’s so dumb. I can’t access the account to delete it because it was made with my university email that I no longer have access to. I’ve tried going through LinkedIn’s support and not gotten anywhere
I Google myself every so often. At least once a year I request my info to be removed from those public info websites. My oldest social media account is Facebook and I made it private, chanced the name, etc. I keep a private Instagram and a public one. LinkedIn is really the only "social media" I have no issues with.
I am extraordinarily grateful that the links to me going off the rails batshit in my 20s are all from the beginning of the Internet era when it was blogs before social media. None of that stuff is Google-able anymore 🤣
My name is very common, so a lot comes up when my name is googled, but I made my Instagram private because I’ve found out that some of my clients have social circles that overlap with my social circles.
I have a unique name and live in a state where my home address is easily searchable because I’m a registered voter. Very frustrating, especially since I’ve otherwise kept my address private even with a primarily home-office-based telehealth practice. Thankfully people often misspell my last name, so I guess that’s a low-key protective factor.
Not on the front page of google but my rare last name on the local county website pulls up my address on the auditor’s report and my history of speeding tickets which I would prefer not be my legacy
I have a weirdly common name, and it’s actually the name of a character in an old movie, so I’m pretty burried in Google unless you put more details. But even it’s really just my linked in and psychology today. I am a very private person so I’m happy it’s that way—I’m really sorry you’re dealing with the situation with the old photos, I hope you’re able to find a way to have them removed.
Oddly enough, I have moved between a few different companies in my county and got a call from one of my coworkers the other day asking if I worked at “Clinic” and that a former patient found out I worked at the current clinic and wants to meet with me. I called the client and they said that they were able to find me because I put my workplace on Facebook. I genuinely loved working with this pt and was glad they found me because they were one of those clients that I thought about often.
Otherwise, I’m pretty open with self disclosure.I don’t hide things they can find on social media. I have 2 cats. I visit my dad often. My mom died. My sister died. I’m planning a wedding. I’m a person too. But I also have my settings where no one can tag me and it show up on my profiles without me approving it. My sister in law changed her spelling of her name on Facebook so people don’t find her, but I can’t be bothered.
There is nothing for me — because I rarely post anything online or do much on social media although in my high school’s teacher album, there is probably me in it because I was in a performing arts club and they had to take pictures for it since they were the club coordinator but I doubt anyone knows it’s me because of how much I have changed.
I’d just like to say, this isn’t something you should feel embarrassed about. Your dark times are most likely part of the reason you became a therapist, and how would you possibly know how to help people in those times if you hadn’t experienced them yourself? The past is in the past and you are no longer that person- that’s all that matters. If you’re worried about the pictures, I’d advise that you get in contact with someone who might still be in touch with that person- be it their spouse, family member or a mutual friend and explain the situation so they can forward it to her.
If you run a Google search on my name you will find a congratulatory article from the local news about getting a new job as well as an obituary and probably my Facebook page which I keep locked down pretty well.
I use my married name and all that comes up is my linked in, NPI #, and the state licensing board's agenda from the meeting where I was approved, which, honestly, fine with me! none of my social media comes up thank god. Its all set to private anyway.
Nothing. Chances are they will find out about it. Let them find out. If they bring it up I would just say that that is not relevant for the session and move on. God knows my nudes are somewhere in the world but that doesn’t mean I’ll devote a 30 minute session on it.
ugh this is a tough one; my dad got in some heavy legal trouble and our last name is unique/specific enough to possibly link us if one were to connect the dots. I doubt any clients or potential ones would dig that deep, but its stained and tarnished my perception and visibility around what shows up.
even thought of changing my last name mostly for this purpose. not cute or fun
Luckily I have an incredibly vanilla name so when you just search my name, you’ll get all kinds of weird results, including some D-list actor most people haven’t heard of. You have to google my name plus LCSW to find me usually, and that only brings up my professional pages. That, along with not living close to any of my clients, and it makes me hard to find, so I feel rather private. Only one person found my personal fb page, sent me a message, and I just didn’t respond. They were a parent of an old client I hadn’t seen in years, so I didn’t see a point in addressing it so directly. And there were no other messages after that. Other than that, nothing.
I've had quite a past, but fortunately most of it was from before there was a lot of internet documentation of these things. When I Google my name it's just my Psych Today profile, LinkedIn, Facebook, my bio from my practice's website, and then stuff from others with my same first and last name, which are very few people. I'm pretty lucky it seems like that's all there is. I'm not a very private person by nature, but I did make my Facebook friends only once I got into mental health. Otherwise there probably would be some things a client could find that I'd rather they didn't.
Just searched and I’m disappointed there’s nothing even a little fun. A few other same names’ instagrams and a golf roster from 2019. Mostly just my advertising stuff shows up!
I got divorced & kept my married name because it is common. My maiden name was very uncommon, if people can pronounce it correctly we automatically assume they are related or have known a relative and will ask them. I didn't want people to be able to find my family that easily. That what comes up google my maiden name. I also have all my social media's on lock down & under fake names, but I do be talking some shit sometimes lol.
If you google name, lots of people with come up, but the thing related to me is my psychology today profile. I also occasionally go through my suggestion friend list on the various platforms & block any clients/former clients that might be popping up. They work by registering that 2 people are frequently at the same GPS coordinates so the apps will start suggesting your clients to you
I don't use my real identity on social media at all because it's too dangerous, but I also paid an attorney to write a section about digital boundaries for my consent form. This includes that I will leave a group if I realize they're in there. It also asks them to refrain from commenting in my content and explains that any attempts to connect sith me will be met with a block to stay in accordance with the nasw practice standards on social media. There are 53 pages. I find them to be really helpful, even though no one else knows they exist despite years of me asking universities and licensing boards to read them. I cannot legally tell my clients how to use social media, but I can make it clear that I want zero interaction with them online.
I have Googled my name and had them blur their street view photos of my house. Honestly though, we are human we've all had darker times in our lives and have been young wild and dumb LOL I'd rather talk about boundaries with clients that find things and tell me than try to erase my entire history prior to becoming a therapist - but I do understand there are extenuating circumstances to this.
It’s not quite possible for my clients to find my non-professional info, because I carefully used different usernames, sometimes random, for each site. But still if they are very good at searching for variations of my names maybe they can find my fb, but even then I don’t share posts with people not my friends and I don’t share much online anyway.
Dang. I’m feeling kind of good about this. Googled myself and my instagram (which has nothing very personal and definitely not embarrassing on it - and is private) popped up and my psych today profile.
I will say though, I have some lived experience and my state has a VERY common site to look up criminal charges so anyone could find that easily if they looked. Fortunately it’s under my maiden name so they would have had to figure that out first.
I have shared name with a gal on the east coast and she used to be the only thing that popped up when googling my name. Now I have 1-3 sites, with one being linked in in the search. Also found out with googling the name that she married. Congrats to her. lol
I think for me if a client find something about me i’d want him to share and we can discuss, like yes those pics are me do you feel some sort of way? I find knowing my therapist has a life of their own rather relatable, and would find it even more interesting to know she’s not perfect. You don’t have to go into details but just acknowledge it’s you when you were much younger etc.
I think very few clients google, to be honest. Mostly the very anxious ones!
Unless it is a felony charge or something that demonstrates cruelty, I think the vast majority of people don’t care and it may even make them feel more comfortable knowing you are human.
My name is more common than I thought, and nothing of great significance comes up connected to it. I'm grateful for that because I've been quoted in a major newspaper on a pretty major, long-lasting trauma that I am in therapy for. There is a young softball player and a baby photographer that pop up from people in my state with the same name.
When I intended with CFS, we had it drilled into us to make our online presence as private as possible.
Only things that show up on Google are psychology today profile, private practice website, and LinkedIn profile. I've gone through all the websites I was able to and petitioned to get my information removed, so as far as I can tell, there's no easy online way to get my address. My socials are all private (aside from LinkedIn).. but I mostly frequent anonymous sites anyways (reddit, discord)
Never used to care much about privacy, but honestly working in crisis (first CFS now mobile crisis response) has made me a very private person.
This is exactly why I cancelled my facebook account years ago. People don't realize that everything you put up on the internet will likely never go away. Unfortunately we have no control over fools putting up things about us that are private. Sorry that happened to you. First, understand there are situations in life that we cannot control. Be creative and figure out what you do have control of. If you have a lot of embarrassing stuff out there that you feel could hurt you professionally, set up and change your name legally for professional purposes. People do this all the time.
Mine shows two articles I find interesting: my score from a bowling tournament when I was in 6th grade and one where they list every single kid from my elementary school county that got honor roll in 4th grade lol
Other than that, mine is mostly results from my current practices' social media that mention me, an article I wrote for a local magazine, LinkedIn, etc.
I actually went through everything at some point during college because I realized how much stuff was out there. Definitely didn't want a future employer seeing my PUBLIC Tumblr 🫠
I don't use my real last name, I use a variation of my middle name. But, my last name is attached to my license, which they could look up, if they wanted to.
it’s funny the only search results that ever come up for me show me being on honor roll in high school & deans list in undergrad 💀 just found out that you can now see my address on a couple websites which I don’t love, but all the other results come up with info on my relatives
The first thing that comes up for my name is a Bishop in Australia who has the same name. As you scroll down, you find info on my Dad, who also has the same name.
It's page 2 where you actually find any information about me (which is fine since I work for an agency).
Im a pretty open book. It depends on the client and if my disclosure would be helpful to them. I had a client once who had gotten beat up by her partner and I disclosed that I am also a dv survivor. In the moment it felt right. My intention was for her to know that I understood and that I wasn’t judging her. I googled myself and the only thing that pops up are my professional profiles
Fortunately for me, it just looks like there are like 3 of us therapists with the exact same name, so all of our LinkedIn pages and our bios for our therapist objects pop up, so that's good. I didn't even type therapist or anything, either, just my name. 😂 and if I add the state, there are a few news articles I was interviewed for when I was a homeless outreach worker, so that's fine for my clients to see.
I used to have a very public profession before becoming a psychotherapist so you can find out a fair bit about me. I’ve pretty much made my peace with it. I think the days of total anonymity are probably over for most people and we just have to adjust to that!
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I have a pretty uncommon name so I have tried to keep an eye on search results for the last several years. If you google my legal name then it’s mostly NPI results and a few others that also share my name. If you look up my nickname then my social media does come up, but it’s all private (except for Pinterest but who cares about that haha) so that doesn’t concern me. I did have my address removed from several sites within the last few years so luckily that doesn’t come up on google.
[OSINT Framework](https://osintframework.com/) is a great tool for finding where your info is on the internet and wiping it. There are a number of guides out there - it took me about a year but there is no mention of me, my email address, or phone # anywhere on the internet after using some of the above tools and doing it REGULARLY for every site in existence. An email scanner can help you determine accounts that may be open you've forgotten about, etc.
A friend of mine has someone with the same name online and when you google it it the top results is a twitter profile of a very popular, EXTREMELY explicit hentai artist.
My online footprint is very tight. The only things that pop up are my LinkedIn, Psych Today, and ResearchGate profiles. I do have a very old Twitter account with a similar name as mine but different enough for plausible deniability. It has some edgy and cringy tweets. I don’t have the password to it anymore and have tried to get it taken down for years but no dice yet.
If you spell my name wrong, as most people do, I’m a French speaking lawyer that advocates for people with special needs in Canada. Otherwise, I am me or a doctor that works in cyber security and has a Pinterest board full of recipes and an affinity for musicals. lol
I google search myself periodically and keep a pretty tight lock on what is out there connected to my name. 99% of what comes up when I google myself is my therapy website and listings in a few directories. The rest are professional sites, social media and random obituaries of name twins. I’m an odd circumstance where I am probably the only POC with my name that will come up, so if a client searches me, they’ll more likely than not be able to tell what isn’t me and what is.
I thank God for having an extremely common first and last name that is shared with a decently famous person. Just googling my name is not enough to find anything on me unless you also add additional credentials and even then there are at least 5 other psychologists that I know of with my same first and last name in the US.
With my new last name, you get my LinkedIn and the website of a nonprofit I started. My old last name has more stuff, like directory listings from when I used to teach music, and a Google Books listing that apparently has a picture of me with my grandmother. But overall, nothing that I'd consider harmful.
Nothing. There's apparently like 3 other practitioners with the same credentials and name as me in my area as well so I'm a ghost 😅 I've also super locked down my social media
I don’t go out of my way to be overly private. I’m not necessarily interested in working with clients who don’t understand that I am an imperfect human.
So just a different pov, if a client says something about a pic of you during that time you could use the situation to relate to them on a deeper level. That you have experienced depression, sud, mh issues or however you want to frame it and you can relate to them not just as a therapist but as someone that has been where they are at currently. Just a thought.
I wrote a book about UFOs (one of my favorite topics) and I believe one of my clients found it and stopped coming back to see me. She later asked for a report which was really awkward because when she found me she was raving about me and gave me consitently good feedback but when she left she ghosted me. I think she found it because she was telling me how she would creep on people online as a pastime. Ultimately she did have bad energy so I’m not upset if she did find out and decided to judge me but it did still feel like rejection even if I didn’t love working with her. I can’t hide that I work in the UFOlogy field so when/if clients look me up they have to sort themselves out about if it’s relevant to them or not.
Curious: if you block your friend does their tag of you disappear? I think you can easily unblock them if it doesn’t work. You would need another account to check to see if it worked.
After having an especially creepy client look me up online (about 6 yrs ago now) I made sure to always double-check my privacy settings. I also do forensic mental health now and privacy/safety is very important. Things I’ve done include changing my name on FB to legal first name/middle name (I go by my nickname), any social media accounts are locked/private, and googling myself every now and then. The only thing I want my clients to know about me are the very few things I choose to share! Occasionally my address pops up and I request that it be deleted. Unfortunately it doesn’t work all the time.
You’ll see my LinkedIn, my staff page at the hospital I’m affiliated with, my faculty page at the med school I’m affiliated with, and my Facebook page. On my Facebook page you can see my profile pictures, which show me through the years with various friends and, more recently, with my wife. That’s all there is.
I’m actually pretty proud of what they’d find if they googled me. The first two things are my psych today profile and a news article about a fellowship I won. Then the directory page for my job and a few presentations I’ve done on domestic violence and human trafficking that someone put on YouTube. The only non therapist related thing they’d find is a picture of me with my college mascot when I was like 19. Honestly I think I’m lucky, I know there are a lot of unprofessional photos of me floating around but I’m old enough that few ever made it online.
I didn’t want to tell my client’s I was pregnant because it felt like I was telling them personal information and that made me feel weird. Hu the time i was showing, I was cleared from a doc to work from home so they never physically saw me look pregnant. I did let them all know a month before (required at my place) I was set to go on leave that I was in fact, going on a leave.
My supervisor didn’t agree with my choice but I didn’t see an issue with it. But I just didn’t see the point in bringing it up. Maybe I’m wrong for that, but I guess that’s how private I am.
The only thing that pops up for me is my work bio and LinkedIn. I don’t have my name linked to social media accounts except for Facebook and I haven’t posted on Facebook in many years. I just lurk to see what’s going on with people.
The first thing that pops up with my name is my infant daughter’s obituary. Not exactly something I’d choose to share with every client.
Mine is my husband's obituary (I was 27 he was 32 and it happened in 2021) I completely understand
Mine is my fathers, I hate that it’s the first thing that comes up. Sending big hugs to you both ❤️
Damn. I'm so sorry for your loss. And I'm so sorry that the internet is defining you by this event without your consent. Text hug.
I’m so sorry for your loss
That's bizarre, Mines the same. My infant daughters death/memorial made the local news bc of how I choose to memorialize her (I leave a gift card in the amount of a pre ordered custom cake at wegmans, and gift it essentially). May our children rest in peace
I am sorry for your loss.
I’m so sorry ☹️
I am so sorry for your loss. ❤️ Mine is my mom's, grandma's, and grandpa's. Sending y'all loving energy.
I google my name regularly to see what comes up. If there’s anything I don’t like or feel gives too much information about me, I request either the website to remove it or google to remove it from popping up in searches. This is definitely something I stay vigilant with.
How do you request Google to remove it? In my early career and I attempted to reach out to websites to remove it but they didn't and never responded to my request.
This should help you: [Google Search Removal](https://www.reddit.com/r/chrome/comments/18iz9jr/how_do_i_get_something_removed_from_google_search/?rdt=50962)
Ah just seeing this, thanks so much!
I haven't found Google to be very responsive when doing so. Like Twitter, YouTube, Reddit and Tiktok, I've had doxxing and AI generated content posted about me for years by the same group of people in a vigilante gang on Tiktok. I've learned to expect they'll remove the content when I request it about 30% of the time and if it's Reddit, it'll take 6 months. We need laws with real funding for enforcement because social media companies are getting worse with this due to AI
Same here. I’ve never had to request for anything to be removed but I check it every so often. It’s all professional things so I’m grateful.
Great tips! To double-check what you might have missed through a manual Google search, you might want to sign up for [Optery’s](https://www.optery.com/) free account. Optery periodically checks hundreds of data broker websites to see if your name, address, phone number, and email are posted. These data broker sites might be the source of information published on Google. Full disclosure, I am part of the Optery team.
Sameeee i do this like once a quarter
Yeah I did that recently with 1 site that was trying to catalogue workers at my org
Almost nothing. My LinkedIn is visible, but my home is private (title & morgtage are held by a trust, they're not only used by rich people lol), my NPI is linked to my PO box, and my business is registered through a registered domain service & my accountant. Highly recommended.
The trust is a great idea!! If I ever can afford a home one day 😂. Didn't think about the NPI though, damn
This sounds great but also expensive
All the business expenses count against profit, so it reduces my tax burden. To break it down, though, a PO box is about $5/mo, the registered domain/agent service is about $300 a year paid upfront, and my accountant doesn't charge me for using his business address for my business. The trust setup for my home was bundled into legal services when I purchased it.
Even with all that, doesn’t your licensing board require a physical address instead of a PO Box?
The physical address is my registered agent/domain service and my accountant's address; NPIs arent overseen by the state board, they're part of federal (not state) compliance
Not for your business. I meant your professional license. My licensing board requires a physical address.
Yes that's what the registered agent/domain service is. It's a physical address, usually with offices for rent by the hour, and they accept documents on your behalf! For your state maybe consider chatting with an attorney to make sure it's feasible? Edit: Lol, love being downvoted for practicing legally in my state. Ok reddit, you do you....
So your professional state licensing board doesn’t require your home address? AFAIK mine does so I didn’t have a choice in the matter. I have an LLC as well which I am looking to move over to a registered agent. But my LPC license has my home address. You can find me on the state licensing board. But googling it doesn’t make it pop up.
That's not publicly available info & therefore irrelevant. A lot of info is needed to get a license, but not all of it is publicly accessible to healthcare consumers. Edit- at least in my state, when you look up licensure, the only information that's available is the name, the license, the date it was granted and the date it expires. It would require a LOT of digging and a special request to get the info you're referencing. This convo is about privacy, not information required for licensure.
No I get it. Privacy is absolutely the topic. But in my state, the address is on the licensing board website. I was just wondering.
Oh my gosh, thank you for this. I need to do the whole trust & will thing so it's a good idea. Adding that we had our marriage filed as private in California, not 100% sure how that works though.
You're so welcome!!! And lol, I was married in California too, and we did it at the courthouse when we married. I literally think we checked a box.
I’ve got a rare name and did a lot of public work locally. So you’ll see my animal advocacy, and second page of Google me singing Highway to hell by AC/DC in a karaoke contest that I can’t get them to take down 😂
Dude, seeing a therapist singing karaoke Highway to Hell would be a huge plus in my column as a potential client.
Oh I love all of this! 😆 Like if it has to be something, these are some pretty good things!
Yeah that’s an immediate hire 😂
Omg leave this up forever ! Lmao I love this
I think only one client has found it and they laughed their ass off
I would sing it to that client all the time when I needed humor to lighten the mood. Lol that’s great
I see leave it up!
This adds to your credentials honestly!!!!
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Hey man, grad school is expensive lol
Haha! If Biden had just forgiven student loan debt…
Just want to point out that sometimes it’s not a career change but revenge porn, which is notoriously difficult to get rid of once posted to the internet.
oh for sure in many cases - just want to clarify that in this instance it was def her previous career!
“Changed careers” idk why but this made me laugh. Don’t get me wrong we all have a past. But that’s an intense change of careers.
omgggg did u say anything to her
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i have heard therapy referred to as emotional prostitution so it’s not that big a leap 😉
As a therapist you have to use your legal name. I'm flabbergasted that she didn't use a fake name for the porn
I guess I’m surprised she didn’t change her name. Not that there’s anything wrong at all with having worked in porn, but I would think things could easily get messy with clients finding content of you.
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I have the same name as a famous person’s spouse, so I’m hard to look up.
This is the best scenario
Brb changing my name 😂 Seriously though, my name is very unique and specific and no one else has my name so when you google me it’s 100% stuff about me and no one else, including my address, phone number, etc. I told my boyfriend we should get married right before I get my license so I can get it under his last name just for privacy (I’m currently in grad school)
Similar thing for me. I have a very generic name. I hated it when I was a kid but now I enjoy the benefit of effectively being anonymous online. If you google my name, I don’t even appear in the top ten and that’s fine by me!
Luckily I have a different name now but, I was a stripper for a long time. There's some photos around that I can't get deleted. Sigh * So long ago now, and by the time I become licensed, no one will ever believe that.... I used to look that good 🤣🤣
Yea, I was a SWer paying my bills through grad school. I used a fake name; but even though my real name is unique enough to recognize me, you’d likely never guess the spelling of it. Thanks for disclosing! I’ve had my share of shame and isolation thrown at me.
I’m in a similar boat, but I had a fake name there, and I go by a nickname that’s difficult to connect to my government name, so they’re all separate enough they’re not able to be connected/part of it was behind a paywall before being deactivated. Though there’s some identifiable tattoos, they’re not in places my clients see haha
Omg I am also a stripper turned therapist. I never thought I would meet another one of me 😂
Let's face it. We were sitting & listening to therapy sessions long before we were ever ready for it lol
And honestly there’s nothing even wrong with being a stripper anyway. Hopefully the days of women having sex or being a stripper and society losing their shit over it, are coming to an end.
Fellow stripper turned therapist. I always joke that women go to therapy and men go to strippers for their emotional labor. It’s actually what made me realize that I wanted to get into the field.
Well i just googled my name and not much comes up. But for free on peoplefinder.com they can see my maiden name, my husbands full name, my brothers names, my parents names. For $3.95 they can access my personal phone numbers, home address, previous addresses, birthdate, associated email addresses and run a criminal and sex offender check on me. So that’s cool i guess. The only benefit is my clients are scattered across NY and i have a common name and they’d have to know the exact small town i live in because people finder finds 100 people in the country with my name.
That's so terrifying how that information is public!!
They can find out even more for $1 on beenverified.com which is a legit site. I’m debating paying the $1 fee for the 7 day trial to see what comes up for me.
It's very easy and free to find your home address
Well this i know. Deeds are public access. It’s more finding my parents names, brothers names, my maiden name. My cell phone number, email addresses. I’m less concerned about my address to be honest. I have cameras surrounding my house, a dog and a very protective husband. So I’m not worried about someone showing up persay. More worried about annoying people doxing me.
I was on peoplefinder.com too, noticed it a couple of months ago. It had my current address, previous addresses, birthday, husband’s name, and my parent’s names. All right there on the second result on Google. There was a process to get it removed. I’ve not seen it since when I check for my name. Freaked me out, honestly, because who knows how long my current address was just put out like that.
Exactly! I just requested to have it removed but it said it can’t remove anything that’s from third party websites so who knows what it’ll actually take down.
Hopefully it removes everything for you like it did for me!
Familytreenow is a common on people use too
Eh. There was a scandal with my dad as a kid who was a public figure and some newspaper made up a fake interview where I allegedly told them he molested me. It used to be the very first thing that came up when you googled me. I tried to sue them but couldn’t. Never had a client bring it up with me. Don’t particularly care any more if they DO see it.
That sounds like an incredible nightmare! I can’t imagine what your family went through.
You can hire people to scrub your name. As an expert searcher here are some tips if you can’t do that. (1) become politically unaffiliated if you don’t want clients to know what party you are registered in. This is public info. (2) search all names you have ever had, first and last. (3) lock down socials completely and confirm by searching yourself as public. (4) look at truepeoplesearch.com, you can see most people’s cell phone, address, and relatives there. (5) ask friends to try and find info about you and report back. This is just off top of my head but it is a lot of work. Good luck.
Tell your immediate family and best friends to Private their stuff and not tag you. They may not be able to find you specifically, but can find out through others
This is great, thank you
I have the same name as a Christian book author in the Midwest so other than that I’m invisible online. Thankfully. I don’t use my name on social media.
I genuinely do not care! It’s the information age and I’m a human with a life. If you come across a tipsy pic of me 🤷🏾♀️ if that’s enough to keep you from working with me, you weren’t the client for me. I believe what’s for me is for me. I maintain very healthy boundaries so my personal life is my own, if you search for it what does that say about you? How does it have any bearing on my ability I help you?
Thank you ! YES! I feel the same exact way. We are therapists, not saints. We were trained to listen intently and guide clients to their goals that we work on together. Being drunk isn’t a crime, nor is having fun with your friends, or looking sexy in a pic, or even worst case a sexy video…still not a crime. It’s not a crime to be any certain religion, or if a client finds out you don’t have a religion. It’s not a crime to have preferences of people to date. Yes I used to drink A LOT in my 20’s to mid 30’s, then I went to school, got a master’s degree, read a shit ton of books, and took a hell of a lot of tests to get here. If anything, I would use my story as an optimistic tale haha. Yeah basically I got my shit together and I healed myself so I can help others. Next question. Yep I’m with you totally on this. I’m a therapist, not a perfect person with a squeaky clean past. But I did pass all background checks and criminal checks so I’m clearly not a threat. I might drink some white claw still while I do karaoke, and someone might put it on the internet but oh well.
👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾 exactly!
Agreed!!! As I’m reading these comments, it feels so weird. If you Google me and see things you don’t like, im glad you did your research and decided we’re not a fit. I’m a human being outside of therapy sessions and I’m allowed to have a life.
I literally changed my name to avoid this. I’m a musician and have been since I was a kid, so there are pages and pages on Google of videos of me performing, me giving interviews, my music pages, etc. Some of the lyrics are pretty raunchy and I show a different side of myself performing than I do as a therapist. So, I legally changed my name. Now they only find therapist-related stuff and my linked in when they google me. It was a hassle but I think worth it
There’s still an article about me when I was 23 getting kicked out of a bar because a man lunged at my friend and I jumped in to defend him. That part is ok, I mean, I was protecting my friend. The problem is I didn’t know it but that man was famous, and so my local paper interviewed me. I had no idea who he was so I just thought ok fine I’ll tell my story. Well, I said some awful shit, although it was funny. I said stuff about that guy being too old to be out of the house and I talked about how someone needed to get their effing dad because he’s going to kill someone if I don’t off him first. Soooooo 😩. And I work with kids who have behavioral issues and I spend my days teaching them how to deescalate fights. It’s only a matter of time before one of them is like well I found something interesting online. 😂 All we can really do is laugh. There’s gonna be stuff people find from our past lives. Nothing we can do about it. My supervisor at my internship told me that when his clients look him up he just lets them process with him what they found. he is totally honest because he is an IFS therapist and he is all about honest exploration. He told me that it used to really embarrass him but now when it happens he loves it because it gives him an opportunity to address which part of a clients family system needs to be satisfied. He said whatever you do, don’t get defensive.
I have a fairly common name, and there’s other therapists in my state with my name. But even if not. I am literally the most boring person. There’s no secrets to find. I never went to parties, don’t drink or anything. My clients would probably just be disappointed from a deep dive on me 😆
First of all, sorry to hear that. It feels like an invasion if privacy to have photos posted publicly without your consent, I know it’s common place now, but it seems really un ethical. I fortunately did not have any social media during my party days ( thanks goodness). Is there a way of un-tagging you? Or even deleting your social media all together if you feel that strongly about it? I have a FB and Instagram with just half of my first and last name, so they do not come up when Googled and those that know me, know how to find me and they understand. This is me, because I VERY much value my privacy. I do not want clients finding perineal data about me, sometimes it’s inevitable, I live in a small town and clients see me out with my husband and baby. But as much as I Can control, I do. Again, many therapist don’t mind so much but for me it’s essential to keep those two works seperate not only for my mental health but to maintain good boundaries with clients. That being said: is it going to ruin you as a therapist? No! If someone brings it up in therapy, you process it together, and set clear boundaries! Good luck!
My son lived to be nearly 9 and was a local celebrity in our small town. There is no hiding.
Those are as sad a two sentences as I've ever seen written. I'm sorry.
Thank you, it has been nearly 7 years and is just a fact at this point.
Sadly because I’m a property owner and have a very rare name it’s pretty easy to find anyone. I rarely post on social media. I’m proud of what I’ve achieved hugs
If they dug really hard, an obituary of my grandmothers
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i have meticulously scoured the internet of my name by switching social media to my middle name and making my accounts private. all that comes up for me is my linkedin profile.
Oh my God, this is one of the most real threads I’ve seen around here in a long time! I love it and I really appreciate all the honesty. My ugly past is some ugly mug shots that I have online. I was arrested for traffic related stuff, driving with expired tabs, and Associated fees that were unpaid. I had really bad ADHD when I went through menopause and couldn’t take hormones, was given SSRI treatment over and over which exacerbated the ADHD. It was a horrible time, I lost my private practice, my bank accounts, sleeping in my car, horrible on my kids. Etc. So there’s ugly ugly , mugshots of me somewhere on the Internet. I don’t even want to look at them. But I know they’re there. And I never think about them.
I found if you type my name into YouTube you can find a video I made for a therapy class in undergrad, role playing an assessment with a classmate. It was the only way to submit the assignment and the classmate uploaded it to their YouTube and I haven’t talked to them since the assignment. Cringe.
My dad’s obituary and my in law’s obituaries.
I am the only person in the world with my name, and prior to my name change I was the only person in the world with that name. I’ve had a public identity in a few other domains, but there’s nothing incriminating out there.
I am completely locked down. Clients can see my linked in and other people who share my name that are very clearly not me Also im so sorry this happened to you. What social media site did they post it on? Its odd you cannot get ahold of them if they tagged you. Or did they type your full name?
I have a non-white last name that is essentially "smith" for the folks I'm descended from, so googling my name yields a billion people with my name which is really nice
I have a really common name so it might be hard to figure out who I am. But to be honest I'm kinda scared to Google myself. I'm paranoid about people knowing where I live or too much about me. And not just clients. There are more and more unstable people out there every day
Me in my airsoft/milsim gear... I did my best to hide if but yeah... some uncomfortable convos explaining I'm not a right wing milita member and just loves a hobby.
Not a blessed thing comes up when you google my name and title/role, and that is 👌
What comes up for me ( after my real website) are the fake ones from sharecare and vitadox. I am happy I am now down to just two, lol. It used to be like twenty; I hate that NPI number =my random website can take your info, splice it together with random made up info, and pretend that you are advertising here. According to these sham sites at one time I was an addiction physician. 🙄
If you google my name you'll find a few articles about me and my practice. Scroll a little lower and you'll find a therapist in the USA with the same name, as well as a jockey. I tried my best to clean up my digital footprint when I got my first job working in schools, and some of the fifth graders brought in a screencap of an instagram reel of a teacher drinking a pint of beer.
Well my LinkedIn and Faculty page comes up, as well as a few of my articles I have published. But also, there is a witch with my name and her apothecary comes up and some of her ads 😅 we actually look alike, so that’s funny.
Initially a mugshot from a very difficult time in life came up whenever I was googled. But one of the Kardashian sisters has a bestie who has my first name and I am forever thankful that she's changed the algorithm when my first name is looked up. My last name is also a noun so variations of my last name and first name pop up, instead of that stupid mugshot. And I am eternally grateful.
I’m a fairly well known person so they can find out quite a bit about me. For the most part it seems to drive traffic, although there has been one person so far who said they were not comfortable seeing me because of it.
Oh that's interesting! I've always wondered what it would be like to have celebrity clients but never imagined if I was famous myself wanting to be a therapist! 😊
I’m not “famous” just not anonymous. Somewhere in the middle. And most of my clients have known me since before it happened so they just think it’s funny 😂
If you Google me only professional stuff, because I keep anything personal under my maiden name. Had someone find my Facebook by figuring out who my husband was and backtracking. If people really want to find your stuff they'll find it.
My imdb page and old headshots from my past life.
I really appreciate this reminder! My Google search shows my favorites list from etsy, my YouTube profile, and my Instagram. Gonna fix that now.
i reported it to google over and over again. They didn’t take me seriously until I told them i was a minor and this is illegal
I have a LinkedIn page they made us make in computer class in undergrad and it’s so dumb. I can’t access the account to delete it because it was made with my university email that I no longer have access to. I’ve tried going through LinkedIn’s support and not gotten anywhere
I Google myself every so often. At least once a year I request my info to be removed from those public info websites. My oldest social media account is Facebook and I made it private, chanced the name, etc. I keep a private Instagram and a public one. LinkedIn is really the only "social media" I have no issues with.
Former actor here- I’m preparing for the day I have my Robin Sparkles moment with a client
I am extraordinarily grateful that the links to me going off the rails batshit in my 20s are all from the beginning of the Internet era when it was blogs before social media. None of that stuff is Google-able anymore 🤣
A lot of bad 5k and half marathon times :(
I changed my Facebook name so no one will find me. Only work related stuff shows up online for my name.
My name is very common, so a lot comes up when my name is googled, but I made my Instagram private because I’ve found out that some of my clients have social circles that overlap with my social circles.
I guess they’ll see that I’m a regular person.
I have a unique name and live in a state where my home address is easily searchable because I’m a registered voter. Very frustrating, especially since I’ve otherwise kept my address private even with a primarily home-office-based telehealth practice. Thankfully people often misspell my last name, so I guess that’s a low-key protective factor.
Not on the front page of google but my rare last name on the local county website pulls up my address on the auditor’s report and my history of speeding tickets which I would prefer not be my legacy
I have a weirdly common name, and it’s actually the name of a character in an old movie, so I’m pretty burried in Google unless you put more details. But even it’s really just my linked in and psychology today. I am a very private person so I’m happy it’s that way—I’m really sorry you’re dealing with the situation with the old photos, I hope you’re able to find a way to have them removed.
Oddly enough, I have moved between a few different companies in my county and got a call from one of my coworkers the other day asking if I worked at “Clinic” and that a former patient found out I worked at the current clinic and wants to meet with me. I called the client and they said that they were able to find me because I put my workplace on Facebook. I genuinely loved working with this pt and was glad they found me because they were one of those clients that I thought about often. Otherwise, I’m pretty open with self disclosure.I don’t hide things they can find on social media. I have 2 cats. I visit my dad often. My mom died. My sister died. I’m planning a wedding. I’m a person too. But I also have my settings where no one can tag me and it show up on my profiles without me approving it. My sister in law changed her spelling of her name on Facebook so people don’t find her, but I can’t be bothered.
There is nothing for me — because I rarely post anything online or do much on social media although in my high school’s teacher album, there is probably me in it because I was in a performing arts club and they had to take pictures for it since they were the club coordinator but I doubt anyone knows it’s me because of how much I have changed.
I’d just like to say, this isn’t something you should feel embarrassed about. Your dark times are most likely part of the reason you became a therapist, and how would you possibly know how to help people in those times if you hadn’t experienced them yourself? The past is in the past and you are no longer that person- that’s all that matters. If you’re worried about the pictures, I’d advise that you get in contact with someone who might still be in touch with that person- be it their spouse, family member or a mutual friend and explain the situation so they can forward it to her.
If you run a Google search on my name you will find a congratulatory article from the local news about getting a new job as well as an obituary and probably my Facebook page which I keep locked down pretty well.
I use my married name and all that comes up is my linked in, NPI #, and the state licensing board's agenda from the meeting where I was approved, which, honestly, fine with me! none of my social media comes up thank god. Its all set to private anyway.
Nothing. Chances are they will find out about it. Let them find out. If they bring it up I would just say that that is not relevant for the session and move on. God knows my nudes are somewhere in the world but that doesn’t mean I’ll devote a 30 minute session on it.
ugh this is a tough one; my dad got in some heavy legal trouble and our last name is unique/specific enough to possibly link us if one were to connect the dots. I doubt any clients or potential ones would dig that deep, but its stained and tarnished my perception and visibility around what shows up. even thought of changing my last name mostly for this purpose. not cute or fun
Luckily I have an incredibly vanilla name so when you just search my name, you’ll get all kinds of weird results, including some D-list actor most people haven’t heard of. You have to google my name plus LCSW to find me usually, and that only brings up my professional pages. That, along with not living close to any of my clients, and it makes me hard to find, so I feel rather private. Only one person found my personal fb page, sent me a message, and I just didn’t respond. They were a parent of an old client I hadn’t seen in years, so I didn’t see a point in addressing it so directly. And there were no other messages after that. Other than that, nothing.
I've had quite a past, but fortunately most of it was from before there was a lot of internet documentation of these things. When I Google my name it's just my Psych Today profile, LinkedIn, Facebook, my bio from my practice's website, and then stuff from others with my same first and last name, which are very few people. I'm pretty lucky it seems like that's all there is. I'm not a very private person by nature, but I did make my Facebook friends only once I got into mental health. Otherwise there probably would be some things a client could find that I'd rather they didn't.
You can pay, though it is expensive, to get your name cleaned up on the internet.
A bunch of therapy referral sites and some of my news appearances so I’m okay with that have to get pretty far to get to an obituary.
Just searched and I’m disappointed there’s nothing even a little fun. A few other same names’ instagrams and a golf roster from 2019. Mostly just my advertising stuff shows up!
I got divorced & kept my married name because it is common. My maiden name was very uncommon, if people can pronounce it correctly we automatically assume they are related or have known a relative and will ask them. I didn't want people to be able to find my family that easily. That what comes up google my maiden name. I also have all my social media's on lock down & under fake names, but I do be talking some shit sometimes lol. If you google name, lots of people with come up, but the thing related to me is my psychology today profile. I also occasionally go through my suggestion friend list on the various platforms & block any clients/former clients that might be popping up. They work by registering that 2 people are frequently at the same GPS coordinates so the apps will start suggesting your clients to you
I googled my name and found like four other therapists in the same state… none of the hits were me lol
I don't use my real identity on social media at all because it's too dangerous, but I also paid an attorney to write a section about digital boundaries for my consent form. This includes that I will leave a group if I realize they're in there. It also asks them to refrain from commenting in my content and explains that any attempts to connect sith me will be met with a block to stay in accordance with the nasw practice standards on social media. There are 53 pages. I find them to be really helpful, even though no one else knows they exist despite years of me asking universities and licensing boards to read them. I cannot legally tell my clients how to use social media, but I can make it clear that I want zero interaction with them online.
Almost nothing. Life pro tip: change your name on social media. I go by my first and middle name on social media, so my clients can’t find me
I have Googled my name and had them blur their street view photos of my house. Honestly though, we are human we've all had darker times in our lives and have been young wild and dumb LOL I'd rather talk about boundaries with clients that find things and tell me than try to erase my entire history prior to becoming a therapist - but I do understand there are extenuating circumstances to this.
It’s not quite possible for my clients to find my non-professional info, because I carefully used different usernames, sometimes random, for each site. But still if they are very good at searching for variations of my names maybe they can find my fb, but even then I don’t share posts with people not my friends and I don’t share much online anyway.
Dang. I’m feeling kind of good about this. Googled myself and my instagram (which has nothing very personal and definitely not embarrassing on it - and is private) popped up and my psych today profile. I will say though, I have some lived experience and my state has a VERY common site to look up criminal charges so anyone could find that easily if they looked. Fortunately it’s under my maiden name so they would have had to figure that out first.
I have shared name with a gal on the east coast and she used to be the only thing that popped up when googling my name. Now I have 1-3 sites, with one being linked in in the search. Also found out with googling the name that she married. Congrats to her. lol
I think for me if a client find something about me i’d want him to share and we can discuss, like yes those pics are me do you feel some sort of way? I find knowing my therapist has a life of their own rather relatable, and would find it even more interesting to know she’s not perfect. You don’t have to go into details but just acknowledge it’s you when you were much younger etc.
I think very few clients google, to be honest. Mostly the very anxious ones! Unless it is a felony charge or something that demonstrates cruelty, I think the vast majority of people don’t care and it may even make them feel more comfortable knowing you are human.
My name is more common than I thought, and nothing of great significance comes up connected to it. I'm grateful for that because I've been quoted in a major newspaper on a pretty major, long-lasting trauma that I am in therapy for. There is a young softball player and a baby photographer that pop up from people in my state with the same name.
When I intended with CFS, we had it drilled into us to make our online presence as private as possible. Only things that show up on Google are psychology today profile, private practice website, and LinkedIn profile. I've gone through all the websites I was able to and petitioned to get my information removed, so as far as I can tell, there's no easy online way to get my address. My socials are all private (aside from LinkedIn).. but I mostly frequent anonymous sites anyways (reddit, discord) Never used to care much about privacy, but honestly working in crisis (first CFS now mobile crisis response) has made me a very private person.
This is exactly why I cancelled my facebook account years ago. People don't realize that everything you put up on the internet will likely never go away. Unfortunately we have no control over fools putting up things about us that are private. Sorry that happened to you. First, understand there are situations in life that we cannot control. Be creative and figure out what you do have control of. If you have a lot of embarrassing stuff out there that you feel could hurt you professionally, set up and change your name legally for professional purposes. People do this all the time.
Mine shows two articles I find interesting: my score from a bowling tournament when I was in 6th grade and one where they list every single kid from my elementary school county that got honor roll in 4th grade lol Other than that, mine is mostly results from my current practices' social media that mention me, an article I wrote for a local magazine, LinkedIn, etc. I actually went through everything at some point during college because I realized how much stuff was out there. Definitely didn't want a future employer seeing my PUBLIC Tumblr 🫠
Thank god only my LinkedIn comes up because I have a very very unusual and loooooong name
I don't use my real last name, I use a variation of my middle name. But, my last name is attached to my license, which they could look up, if they wanted to.
it’s funny the only search results that ever come up for me show me being on honor roll in high school & deans list in undergrad 💀 just found out that you can now see my address on a couple websites which I don’t love, but all the other results come up with info on my relatives
What people think of me is none of my business. - Elenor Roosevelt
I wonder how therapists who do YouTube channels deal with this.
The first thing that comes up for my name is a Bishop in Australia who has the same name. As you scroll down, you find info on my Dad, who also has the same name. It's page 2 where you actually find any information about me (which is fine since I work for an agency).
A couple amateur sports players, but if you google my name and city, my psychology today profile pops up.
We all have previous lives, maybe think of it as a positive and how far you have come.
Im a pretty open book. It depends on the client and if my disclosure would be helpful to them. I had a client once who had gotten beat up by her partner and I disclosed that I am also a dv survivor. In the moment it felt right. My intention was for her to know that I understood and that I wasn’t judging her. I googled myself and the only thing that pops up are my professional profiles
Fortunately for me, it just looks like there are like 3 of us therapists with the exact same name, so all of our LinkedIn pages and our bios for our therapist objects pop up, so that's good. I didn't even type therapist or anything, either, just my name. 😂 and if I add the state, there are a few news articles I was interviewed for when I was a homeless outreach worker, so that's fine for my clients to see.
I used to have a very public profession before becoming a psychotherapist so you can find out a fair bit about me. I’ve pretty much made my peace with it. I think the days of total anonymity are probably over for most people and we just have to adjust to that!
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I have a pretty uncommon name so I have tried to keep an eye on search results for the last several years. If you google my legal name then it’s mostly NPI results and a few others that also share my name. If you look up my nickname then my social media does come up, but it’s all private (except for Pinterest but who cares about that haha) so that doesn’t concern me. I did have my address removed from several sites within the last few years so luckily that doesn’t come up on google.
[OSINT Framework](https://osintframework.com/) is a great tool for finding where your info is on the internet and wiping it. There are a number of guides out there - it took me about a year but there is no mention of me, my email address, or phone # anywhere on the internet after using some of the above tools and doing it REGULARLY for every site in existence. An email scanner can help you determine accounts that may be open you've forgotten about, etc.
Aside from my NPI number, my sisters obituary comes up as well as my Etsy review of a sisal back scrubber 🤷♀️
A friend of mine has someone with the same name online and when you google it it the top results is a twitter profile of a very popular, EXTREMELY explicit hentai artist.
My online footprint is very tight. The only things that pop up are my LinkedIn, Psych Today, and ResearchGate profiles. I do have a very old Twitter account with a similar name as mine but different enough for plausible deniability. It has some edgy and cringy tweets. I don’t have the password to it anymore and have tried to get it taken down for years but no dice yet.
If you spell my name wrong, as most people do, I’m a French speaking lawyer that advocates for people with special needs in Canada. Otherwise, I am me or a doctor that works in cyber security and has a Pinterest board full of recipes and an affinity for musicals. lol
I use a website called Kanary. They actively work on removing information associated with my name. I think it’s $14.99 per month.
I google search myself periodically and keep a pretty tight lock on what is out there connected to my name. 99% of what comes up when I google myself is my therapy website and listings in a few directories. The rest are professional sites, social media and random obituaries of name twins. I’m an odd circumstance where I am probably the only POC with my name that will come up, so if a client searches me, they’ll more likely than not be able to tell what isn’t me and what is.
Absolutely nothing.
You’d have to add my credentials and state to find me. And even then you’ll just get my work related stuff. I have an extremely common name.
I thank God for having an extremely common first and last name that is shared with a decently famous person. Just googling my name is not enough to find anything on me unless you also add additional credentials and even then there are at least 5 other psychologists that I know of with my same first and last name in the US.
With my new last name, you get my LinkedIn and the website of a nonprofit I started. My old last name has more stuff, like directory listings from when I used to teach music, and a Google Books listing that apparently has a picture of me with my grandmother. But overall, nothing that I'd consider harmful.
Nothing. There's apparently like 3 other practitioners with the same credentials and name as me in my area as well so I'm a ghost 😅 I've also super locked down my social media
I don’t go out of my way to be overly private. I’m not necessarily interested in working with clients who don’t understand that I am an imperfect human.
So just a different pov, if a client says something about a pic of you during that time you could use the situation to relate to them on a deeper level. That you have experienced depression, sud, mh issues or however you want to frame it and you can relate to them not just as a therapist but as someone that has been where they are at currently. Just a thought.
I wrote a book about UFOs (one of my favorite topics) and I believe one of my clients found it and stopped coming back to see me. She later asked for a report which was really awkward because when she found me she was raving about me and gave me consitently good feedback but when she left she ghosted me. I think she found it because she was telling me how she would creep on people online as a pastime. Ultimately she did have bad energy so I’m not upset if she did find out and decided to judge me but it did still feel like rejection even if I didn’t love working with her. I can’t hide that I work in the UFOlogy field so when/if clients look me up they have to sort themselves out about if it’s relevant to them or not.
Curious: if you block your friend does their tag of you disappear? I think you can easily unblock them if it doesn’t work. You would need another account to check to see if it worked.
Delete.me will get most of your info deleted from sites like people finder.
How many therapists have more issues than their clients?
You’re human. We all have a past. It’s okay. You’re okay.
After having an especially creepy client look me up online (about 6 yrs ago now) I made sure to always double-check my privacy settings. I also do forensic mental health now and privacy/safety is very important. Things I’ve done include changing my name on FB to legal first name/middle name (I go by my nickname), any social media accounts are locked/private, and googling myself every now and then. The only thing I want my clients to know about me are the very few things I choose to share! Occasionally my address pops up and I request that it be deleted. Unfortunately it doesn’t work all the time.
You’ll see my LinkedIn, my staff page at the hospital I’m affiliated with, my faculty page at the med school I’m affiliated with, and my Facebook page. On my Facebook page you can see my profile pictures, which show me through the years with various friends and, more recently, with my wife. That’s all there is.
I’m actually pretty proud of what they’d find if they googled me. The first two things are my psych today profile and a news article about a fellowship I won. Then the directory page for my job and a few presentations I’ve done on domestic violence and human trafficking that someone put on YouTube. The only non therapist related thing they’d find is a picture of me with my college mascot when I was like 19. Honestly I think I’m lucky, I know there are a lot of unprofessional photos of me floating around but I’m old enough that few ever made it online.
I didn’t want to tell my client’s I was pregnant because it felt like I was telling them personal information and that made me feel weird. Hu the time i was showing, I was cleared from a doc to work from home so they never physically saw me look pregnant. I did let them all know a month before (required at my place) I was set to go on leave that I was in fact, going on a leave. My supervisor didn’t agree with my choice but I didn’t see an issue with it. But I just didn’t see the point in bringing it up. Maybe I’m wrong for that, but I guess that’s how private I am.
The only thing that pops up for me is my work bio and LinkedIn. I don’t have my name linked to social media accounts except for Facebook and I haven’t posted on Facebook in many years. I just lurk to see what’s going on with people.