Q: How long does my therapist keep my records?
A: In California, seven years from the date therapy ends. If you were under 18 when you were seen, the clock does not start at the last session — it runs seven years from the date you turn 18, so a 14-year-old's file is kept until they are 25. The rule is identical across the Board of Behavioral Sciences licences: marriage and family therapists, clinical social workers, professional clinical counsellors and educational psychologists all sit under the same seven-year floor, written into four parallel statutes in 2014.¹ Records may be paper or electronic. It is a floor, not a ceiling — many therapists keep files longer, and none of this stops you asking for your record at any point while it exists.
Worked example: you finished therapy in 2019 and in 2026 you need documentation for a disability claim. You are inside the window — just. Seven years from 2019 runs out in 2026, and once it does the therapist is free to destroy the file. If a record might ever matter to you, request a copy while you are still in treatment, when it costs one email.
Do this: ask for a copy of your record before you need it, and ask specifically what you are getting — the chart summary is not the same thing as the therapist's private process notes, which are held to a different standard. If your therapist is retiring, closing a practice or has died, ask who the custodian of records is; California therapists are expected to name one.
Sources
- California Business & Professions Code §§4980.49 (MFT), 4993 (clinical social worker), 4999.75 (professional clinical counsellor) and 4989.51 (educational psychologist), all added by SB 578 (2014): "shall retain a client's or patient's health service records for a minimum of seven years from the date therapy is terminated," and for minors "seven years from the date the client or the patient reaches 18 years of age." Applies to therapy terminating on or after 1 January 2015 — codes.findlaw.com, leginfo.ca.gov. Verified 17 August 2026.