Quote:
Originally Posted by atisketatasket
I've seen some of the therapist reviews on Yelp. One of mine and my psychiatrist are reviewed on there.
My problem with Yelp reviews - or Google, or whatever site - isn't about protecting the therapist. It's that online reviews of any medical or mental health professional are pretty useless, in my opinion. People either love their doctors or hate them, same goes for their therapists. In fact, all online reviews, since the participants are self-selected, have to be taken with a large grain of salt. If there's a significant number of reviews that all trend negative or positive, that's more useful, but there rarely is. So the way I see it, Yelp reviews have the potential to do the client a real disservice if they are the basis on which a therapist is overlooked or chosen.
I imagine Yelp has some feature where you can add a business to review. I actually wouldn't do it because no way am I risking my confidentiality, but others obviously feel differently.
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Additionally in the pseudo-anonymous nature of the Internet, it is socially safer to post things that would not normally be stated in person. So in addition to the issue of self-selection, there is also negative response bias (The only things worth taking the time to post are the negatives).
In looking at my local area, I see a slew of negative reports about my therapist on Yelp. He happens to charge a high fee, and in looking at the reviews not one person mentions his therapeutic skill. It's all about the fee for these reviewers.