'I suspect my GF might have an inappropriate relationship with her therapist.' UPDATED

"My gf’s relationship with her therapist is inappropriate and I don’t know how to bring it up."

My gf (25f) and I (28m) have been together for 3 years. She started therapy 3 months ago due to her mental health getting pretty bad. Therapy seems like it’s working for her so I’ve always been supportive of it. She’s been happier, more positive and a lot less anxious. I don’t know much about her therapy except she found him through a recommendation and her sessions have been online.

A couple days ago, I was using her phone and she got messages from a name I didn’t recognise. The messages were pretty innocent (how are you, asking about her work day, if she ate yet). I asked her who it was and she said it was her therapist. I was curious and looked up his name and was honestly surprised at his photo. He didn’t fit my perception of a therapist, and to be honest he’s exactly her type.

I had a weird feeling and checked her phone while she was asleep. There’s a lot of messages between them, texts back and forth every single day which I think some are flirty, phone calls on days she doesn’t have a session. One in particular from a few weeks ago was about a concert she went to.

She asked him if he was going, he said maybe, and I assumed he went as she messaged him later that she got home safe and he said goodnight with a smiley face. She goes out a lot and didn’t mention anything about that night. I stopped scrolling after that.

(Edit to add info): We live in South America, and apparently in our country, if he has a license from a different country he can practice here but I’m unclear if he also needs to register here because a lot of expats also work online illegally.

This makes me wildly uncomfortable and I don’t know how to bring it up with her. I honestly don’t know if she sees this as inappropriate. How do I tell her I find her relationship with her therapist inappropriate?

What do you think? This is what top commenters had to say:

Acrobatic_Ganache220 said:

Yikes! Make sure: 1.) She has a real therapist. 2.) If this actually IS the therapist. 3.) Then report him if he is doing all this

VoorCrazy said:

Yup that's suspect as hell. So is your girlfriend though. It kinda sounds like he's not her therapist, but her F buddy....

alisonzombiemermaid said:

Therapist here! Not appropriate at all. You should report him to the board and if he works for a practice, report him to the owner as well.

And trashsouls said:

I think she's just cheating on you honestly, if not physically, emotionally for sure. Don't bring it up as therapist issue, bring it up as what it really is, cheating.

And lapsangsouchogn said:

"He sounds like a really great therapist. Maybe I should see him too. Get some help working through some issues."

He later shared this update:

Update for anyone interested: We broke up the day after this post. He was actually her therapist around 2 years ago but isn’t currently. They started texting again start of this year and she swears it’s just friends but she still lied. Thank you to all the comments helping me see it for what it is.