If you are in the USA this is normal that the therapy agency will not disclose a past therapists whereabouts and contact information.

One reason is that in the USA there is a mental health ethics law that the therapist cannot have contact with the client until a designated amount of time passes from the date of the last therapeutic session. Here where I am that time fram is one year. The time frame varies depending on the states mental health ethics rules, Some as little as 6 months and some as much as two years, a majority of the states its one year.

Here in the USA agencies also leave it up to the therapist to let their clients know if contact is ok after t he time frame ends. It is standard protocal that the agencies do not give out ex therapists locations. they are therapists and not all clients are non violent and so on. this is a safety measure. If the therapist does not talk about after therapy relationships, then that therapist does not want contact with the cleints after they are no longer a persons therapist. So basically you are going to know all that you already know and nothing more about that therapist. Since the therapist did not discuss things with you personally when she left You will most likely not know any thing about her regardless of your efforts.

Feeling worse after a session is normal and kind of is what should be happening. A therapist is there to make you stop avoiding your problems and look at them from all angles. and if it didn't hurt to do this all of us clients would not be ignoring and stuffing our problems. Bringing hard to deal with situations out in the open where you can see all sides of it is going to hurt, basically because you are no longer stuffing your feelings down. In the therapy world there is a saying - things get worse before they get better. this is not because the client is becoming more insane but due to the client allowing themselves to feel. as you get better with taking care of your problems taking care of them doesn't hurt so much.

Alot of therapists do believe in the tough love type of approach. it isn't because they don't like you and are against you and so on. They do this when they see someone beginning to become too dependant on them as in beginning to expect the therapist to fix everything. A therapist can not fix anyones problems all they can do is be the tool - someone to listen and pointout the things the client is avoiding and giving them pushes when they don't do what is needed to take care of themselves. Therapists are like a couch going into a very important sports game. They talk, they listen and kick butt when needed but most of all expect the players (clients) to look at the goals and accomplish them, If the client does not accomplish the goals well the therapist has a choice to make continue with that client raising the bar of expectations or send them on to some other therapist. A therapy agency has waiting lists so they have a set time frame in which to accomplish the goals of teaching the client better coping tools so that they can take care of their problems. Most of the time now insurance agencys set that time frame of number of times that therapist will get paid wor working with that client and as some here have found out when the money is gone the agencys and therapists have no choice but to move on to those that can pay. I know its not a great system but we're stuck with it.

therapy does not keep clients stuck in the past. Clients keep clients stuck in the past. Some people are afraid of change and getting well.

A therapist and the therapy program is only as good as what the client brings into it. The first few sessions of therapy in the USA is the therapist and client setting down goals and plans to meet those goals. It is the clients responsibility to meet those goals that they and the therapist agreed on. If you have a client that goes into therapy not talking, not willing to keep the jounals, and not willing to try any suggestions that client is basically sabotoging their own therapy time. but if you have a client that is willing to try the suggestions and willing to talk about things and brainstorm with the therapist on ways to solve their own problems that client will accomplish the goals and will not be stuck in the past issues over and over again.

If you want a good therapy experience and your problems solved sit down with paper and pen before attending therapy and set your goals and what you are willing to do to accomplish those goals, and then follow through by taking that information to the therapy sessions and follow through with those ways you came up with to solve your problems and report back to the therapist if the ideas worked ofr not and how they did and didnt. By doing this you and the therapist can workon those ideas and change themor try other ideas that nay help. That is what therapy is - setting your goals and accomplishing those goals with a neutral person who can point out areas you may be missing and give you those pushes in the right direction when needed and yes sometimes getting those verbal kicks in the rear to get you back on track and keep you there.