Worst Therapist Story

[mamachick]

The therapist I mentioned above (I should have include) was for marital counseling, but I did think he should be competent enough to help my partner understand. He also horrible analogies....During one session I was sharing my hurts about being estranged from my 26 yr old daughter and he compared it with his 45 yr old son not attending catholic church. In another session, I described my husband knocking me down the steps, and he ignored it so I stated it a couple more times, which is when he asked husband to leave room and asked if I wanted to see a shrink because I was so upset. He would write notes at end of session and stated "physical attraction" to cover his ass. He is a very nice man,,,but a really avoidant therapist. I have been blessed with good T other than this. If this had been my first round, I sure can see why people don't want to go back and lack confidence.

 

[Amy942]

I feel so much empathy for everyone on here. My experiences with therapists have been astoundingly bad. The worst would be my father, who of course didn't treat me in the normal sense of the word, but used me as a psychological experiment and sex slave for my entire childhood. He is a research psychologist aka dissociative programmer. I cannot begin to find a therapist who will help me with this stuff. It's been a nightmare trying. Most are terribly under qualified to treat basic trauma, let alone that. Someone mentioned "negative transference." Don't get me started. Seeing female therapists has been better, but have my own issues with women in authority because my mother was sexually abusive and programmed me as well. One day, I hope to find a good trauma therapist with experience with RA/MC. Til then...

 

[Supervixn]

I had one who nodded off sitting up and would fall asleep during sessions. Almost every session. Pretty sure he was abusing prescription drugs. Funny now that I look back, but only because it was couples therapy and not trauma therapy.

Oh I also had a therapist who texted and took phone calls throughout the entire session. From her husband, other clients, family etc. She was also 10-15 minutes late every session and always ended early. She knew poverty was a big issue of mine at the time, I was working two jobs working seven days a week, barely ate, but she would go on and on about her shopping exploits.

 

[Emotional girl]

On the NHS in the UK the main difficulty for me has been the lack of time that you get with a psychologist as it is normally 3 months at the most.When you have trust problems it is very difficult to build up a therapeutic relationship with a therapist in such a short time.
I have had 4 therapists over 16 years and it has been a mixed bag and I have to say I have got on a lot better with the two male therapist's I have had than the female ones.
I had one female therapist who I didn't get on well with at all,I found her to be quite rude and very disinterested in me and the relationship was very functional and it seemed like she didn't care at all.In fact with her I got to the point in which I would find any excuse not to turn up to sessions because there was such a lack of a therapeutic relationship between us and I ended up getting nothing out of therapy.

 

[somerandomguy]

I'm glad this thread has been revived, because I've had some real treasures.

T #1 reacted with shock and horror when I told him that I'd like to kill my abuser and her family. OK, that was an over-the-top thing to say, and I never would have done it (and yes, I am over those feelings now), but jeez dude, freaking out is not going to do me, your client, any good.

T #2 was a sex therapist who claimed to be doing CBT with me but instead was just ganging up on me with my wife, telling me all I had to do was to "change my attitude." Well, how do I do that? "You just change it." OK, but can you give me any steps or guidance or anything? "Nope - just change it. Change it and you'll be fine." Well, you, sir, are an asshole and a bad therapist.

T #3 was the worst of all. She was a couples' therapist I was seeing with my ex. My ex told her that she had never had sex with me willingly in ten whole years - actually, maybe "once or twice" - and the therapist allowed that assertion to stand unchallenged while my entire world collapsed around me.

 

[Mach123]

I just was angry at the whole thing, that no one ever realized I was trying to tell them I had trauma CSA ptsd. In retrospect my behavior made it so evident a child should have been able to diagnose me. That and their idiotic reliance on 12 step programs as a way of washing their hands of substance abuse issues. : ) On the upside I didn't give up and now feel I've had really good treatment given what's available and I'm much better because of it.

 

[Ms_Lemonilla]

I have been in and out of therapy for a decade. I have seen 11 different providers and had success with 2 of them. It's tough!

My worst was when a therapist pointed at me and said, "So, you have no backbone," as I explained the basics of the sexual and emotional abuse I suffered at the hands of my parents. Literally, it was our first meeting. No wonder he offered me any appointment time I wanted! :rolleyes: Dude was desperate for clients but he didn't get anymore of my business.

 

[mylunareclipse]

The worst was the therapist that on the first meeting told me that even people who live in war aren't depressed. Then continued to tell me that maybe I didn't want to get better and I couldn't handle criticism. She let me tell her a big abuse story on the first session and then on second session told me that I didn't trust her and I didn't want to share. She wanted to prescribe medicine and I asked how could she prescribe me something so quick when we had just met and she said "I have seen hundreds like you".
Needless to say after the second session I never went back. I think I am a little scared from that experience even though I have seen my current therapist for almost three years.

 

[littleoc]

I think it was between two, but the "feminist psychologist" was the worst, and definitely not a feminist. She would put words into my mouth and ask weird questions that weren't even relevant. For example, she kept asking me if my straight male white friends made me feel angry and jealous, especially the one rich one. Would they have been my friends otherwise?

She also did similar stuff when my male white friends (only one of them was straight! lol) managed a serious dissociation I had (I thought I was 10 or 11, apparently) in a public area. They had NO training and managed to quickly organize a space to leave me alone so my service dog could do her job without people getting too close. They also helped afterwards, and helped me get away safely later. :)

I told therapist how proud I was -- and without skipping a beat, she said, "Do you think your white rich straight male friends made it worse? Did it make you mad that they were so entitled that they took charge?" Etc, etc.

She also hugged me frequently without permission. During extremely tough sessions, her young child would burst into the room, asking for cereal. She had no noise machine, so I had to whisper to feel safe (my well-meaning mother warned me she could hear me in the waiting room). Also, she would leave a back door wide open right behind me, despite a random dog occasionally trying to come in and mess with my service dog. She had just been attacked, so I couldn't relax in that room.

She also tried to get me to act on crushes, when I couldn't actually handle basic friendships. I was "friends" with my ex who had forbidden me from dating anyone else, and I didn't feel safe enough to bring this up because she immediately only wanted to talk about my plans on how to get a date.

The other therapist... I can't remember what she did specifically, but she was depressed and very negative. She was well disliked in the university I was attending. I'd leave feeling empty and depressed. In the same university, right before her, I had a therapist with overly wide eyes who was so new that she would usually respond with "and how does that make you feel?" I was 18 and decided not to argue with her, but eventually asked to change to the depressed therapist. Later, I went back and asked for the inexperienced one, and (1) the depressed one immediately started sending me emails asking what she did "wrong" and asking why our relationship was falling apart, and (2) the inexperienced one had apparently taken a job elsewhere.

They put me with a new therapist who I couldn't tell you the name of becuse we met once for 15 minutes. She really did have good intentions, having read through all the notes. She thought that because I was being shuffled around so much, maybe I should see the "feminist psychologist." (1) This was no longer free/paid by my tuition, and (2) ouch. But I knew she meant well, so she's not really on my dislike list. She told me everyone there was basically a Councilor, not a therapist.

So, after I gave up on "Feminist" (who forgot to bill me until two years later, when we were legally excused from doing so because there was no legal way to prove if insurance would have covered it), I went back to the university and "risked" speaking to a male councilor. I'd had a male therapist as a kid, so. That male definitely turned out to be one of the best I'd ever met. He respected me, but in a useful way.



The male therapist I had as a kid made me feel betrayed, but not directly and it was absolutely human error. His goal had been to only have us in therapy for as long as necessary, and he hoped to prevent diagnosing us kids further by allieviating our bad coping skills. He worked with me and my little brother. When my little brother started doing well, he congratulated him and let him go.

Problem was, my brother quickly relapsed, and my mom just kind of ignored it. I guess she wanted to avoid it/seriously thought he didn't need therapy anymore. He started cutting with ACTUAL SWORDS, hadn't yet "admitted" that our dad had sexually abused him, and started getting so depressed that he broke every wall in his room, the windows, my mom's stuff, and was terrifying his entire family with anger outbursts -- which we all compared to our dad. (I feel incredibly guilty for this.) He got suicidal and cut himself deep one night, and I with my small amount of kids-under-18 nursing training had to save him.

That male therapist was kind and well meaning, and technically I guess my mom would have been to blame? But I felt incredibly betrayed by the therapist who couldn't have predicted that.





My current therapist is pretty awesome. A trauma specialist. She talks about herself a lot, but often it helps me. I'm very social and like to chat a lot anyway, so it works for me. Only problem is that I'm still scared of being heard through the door! Thin walls. Otherwise, all good :)






To be honest, it wasn't incredibly difficult to recall the bad therapist experiences, for the most part. Most have been good for me! :)