Should a Therapist Twitter?

I am a coach with a thriving business which includes two niches, individual clients, groups, newsletters, this blog and several other marketing activities.  I am also a Licensed Professional Counselor and have a busy private practice specializing in marriage counseling and trauma recovery.  In the past few weeks, I have uncovered a dilemma in my life about Twitter.

Many of you know that Twitter is a new, very popular social networking site.  Many coaches are having great success with using Twitter for business development.  What they are finding is that connections and networking on Twitter happen very quickly.  Twitter is made for just that – quick little bursts of info about you that others receive and follow.  You get to know people quickly and they know you based on what is posted.  The way this happens is that you write brief posts about yourself and your life that you send periodically throughout your days.

The excitement of Twitter is very obvious to me as a coach and entrepreneur.  The exposure of Twitter is causing the counselor in me to be concerned. Although I am not a traditional therapist by any means, traditional therapy says that the counselor knows all about the client and shares nothing about themselves.  Not only is there this inequality of information sharing, but the inequality is considered to be essential for the benefit of the client.  Even though I share freely about myself with my counseling clients when I believe it will be helpful for them, now I am taking pause and wondering what the impact would be on my counseling clients for me to start twittering.

My counseling practice is in a small town with clients who are not typically online entrepreneurs or in other ways likely to Twitter.   However, many are youthful and spend time online.  I have decided that if I Twitter, I will not automatically post to other social networking sites.  I know that I would only post about the coaching and business part of my life – not the counseling part.  Yet I am still hesitating – I signed up for a Twitter account and haven’t posted the first thing.  I would love to hear your thoughts on this.  Should a therapist Twitter?  What should I look at and think about as I move forward or not on this?  Leave your comment here and let me know.