Questions to Ask Before Recording a Therapy Session

Recording is a shared decision

Your therapist's voice and words belong to them, and the session is a co-created space. Recording without consent can damage trust and, depending on where you live, may have legal implications. The right first step is always an open conversation.

Questions to ask yourself

• What's my purpose? Wanting to revisit insights is a great reason. Wanting to "catch" your therapist or gather evidence is a different situation worth examining.
• Will I actually use it? A recording you never listen to can become a source of anxiety rather than insight.
• How will I feel hearing it again? Some people find re-listening grounding; others find it reactivating. There's no wrong answer, but it's worth considering.

Questions to ask your therapist

• "Would you be comfortable with me recording our sessions for my own review?"
• "How do you feel this might affect what comes up in the room?"
• "Are there parts of a session you'd prefer not to be recorded?"

Protecting what you record

If you record, treat the audio and any transcripts with the same care you'd give a journal entry about someone else:

• Store it on your own device, not a shared account.
• Delete recordings you no longer need.
• Don't share them without your therapist's explicit permission.
• Be mindful of what you forward to any third-party transcription service.

Tools that process audio locally or let you control when content is sent for transcription give you more say over where your most sensitive conversations go.

Key takeaways

• Always get your therapist's consent before recording.
• Know why you're recording and whether you'll actually use it.
• Protect recordings with the same care as a private journal.
• Understand where your audio goes when it's transcribed.