What most therapists write down is either stuff for them to refer back to, or super clinical stuff they need to put in for the insurance “continuity of care” song and dance.

You can totally ask in your first session if they’d be okay not taking digital notes, and only documenting what’s absolutely necessary for diagnosis. That’s usually all that gets communicated anyway, unless your therapist ends up having to go to bat for you with an insurer over the phone or something. Trust me, they’d probably be relieved to hear you’re fine with them skipping all that.

That said, I don’t want to downplay the concern. Clinical info does get shared, and it is stored on some server somewhere.

Some healthcare company out there knows my mental health diagnosis. But it doesn’t have to go deeper than that.