News Bessel van der kolk - fired over allegations of employee mistreatment

[StellaBlue]

Came across this today. I read his book and found a lot of it helpful in my own healing...

Allegations of employee mistreatment roil renowned Brookline trauma center - The Boston Globe

 

[shimmerz]

Wow! I don't know enough about it to offer an opinion re van der kolk, but I smell a rat when I hear about the money issues that are interweaved in the article. I agree with the last paragraph regarding the funding lost for childhood trauma issues. This all really sucks.

 

[Vee]

Oh no! I used his book in my therapy so often! :inpain:

 

[Freida]

oh that sucks. His book is my bible -- so sad ....

 

[Friday]

I have never, in my entire life, known anyone truly brilliant who was not a complete and total asshole -or idiot- in at least one area of their lives; professional, personal, political, parental, romantic... and often in several areas.

He could be a brilliant therapist & terrible boss. Wunderkind writer & complete tosser. Shrug. People are complicated. Being good at one thing doesn’t automatically confer brilliance across the board. It usually precludes it.

And that’s even assuming the allegations are true. I don’t work for the guy, have never met him, I have no idea whether he’s a walking hostile work environment, or a total sweetheart being screwed over politically.

Only thing I know for sure?

“I shall never be ashamed of citing a bad author if the line is good." - Seneca

If the book is useful for people? It’s useful.

His personal problems don’t really change that.

 

[Gs172003]

I have never, in my entire life, known anyone truly brilliant who was not a complete and total asshole -...

Yeah my brother is smart as all get out. He's also a pain in the butt. Go figure.

 

[Suzetig]

There are allegations at the moment, and I’m guessing the truth of the situation will get lost in the reporting, posturing and law suits that will doubtless follow. So, we don’t know what has actually happened here.

In saying that, whatever has happened doesn’t change the ground breaking work he did, or make his writings less useful or mean he’s a terrible person. It’s hard to think that people we look up to and respect might have feet of clay, but most people have their flaws and if you’re in a high profile role, those flaws are often known quite publicly.

 

[StellaBlue]

It’s hard to think that people we look up to and respect might have feet of clay,

Yeah - I tend to put people I like or admire on a pedestal. I also tend to be highly critical of my own flaws...so it's something I'm definitely aware of and consciously working on.

I have never, in my entire life, known anyone truly brilliant who was not a complete and total asshole -or idiot- in at least one area of their lives; professional, personal, political, parental, romantic... and often in several areas.

True.

 

[Mach123]

I went there about a year and saw a therapist. I thoughT they were awful. I left a therapist that was good to go there. I went back to the original therapist then she retired three months later. It was a real nightmare. It took me over a year to get "admitted" to the trauma centre and I dealt with some awful people during the process. I admit I was very unwell at the time and had had substance abuse issues (not really unusual for someone with cPTSD) but it was like trying to get accepted to a college or hired at a job or something. It was like they wanted you to be mostly well before they'd see you. It was more than that but I never figured out what their problem was. It was a huge disappointment because I thought like "I'm going to get treated at the best facility in the world for my condition." Now I see my therapist a few blocks down. I'm not surprised this happened after my experience there, they were a mess I thought. I thought it was going to be like being involved with them or being part of the "trauma center" but I ended up just switching therapists from one I liked to one I didn't. Now I have one I like, thank goodness.

 

[shimmerz]

"I'm going to get treated at the best facility in the world for my condition." Now I see my therapist a few blocks down.

It just goes to show that there can be a smoke and mirror effect regardless of how altruistic someone may be perceived. Much of that perception is fed by media of varying types. I hate to see vulnerable people being sucked into this. Getting help from the best facility in the world must have inspired so much hope in you. I am very sorry that happened to you.

ETA: StellaBlue, nice to see you again. I have missed you.

 

[Justmehere]

There isn’t any reason to throw out the principles of recovery because a person (or a clinic) sucks.

I saw a therapist once who is a well known expert. They had just moved to my city to open a clinic. They are well known as a writer and speaker on treatment of trauma. It was a pretty terrible therapy experience. I stuck with it longer than I should have. It ended when they told me there was no hope for me outside of their help alone, and only their help. That’s when I remembered, I don’t place my hope for recovery in 1 person being the end all be all.

The clinic they opened? Fell apart in a year because of poor management and they moved away. Being really good at one thing doesn’t mean someone can do everything well.

Understanding trauma alone doesn’t make one a stellar therapist or boss. Running a small healthcare nonprofit is one of the toughest things someone can do. I’m not at all surprised he might have run it very poorly.

It’s also possible he’ll win his lawsuit and prove the clinic was in the wrong.

 

[Suzetig]

Being really good at one thing doesn’t mean someone can do everything well

I think that’s really fair - I’ve know lots of very good practitioners who were promoted and turned out to be really poor managers, good therapists sometimes are terrible administrators, good administrators might be awful at customer service and all could find themselves trying to run a prestige project and really struggling.

Given the politics in these situations any number of things might have happened but his research still has credibility.