About stopping medication - I didn't mean you don't have the choice to stop it and you don't know how you're feeling. I was saying it's beyond the scope of psychotherapy and the competence of the therapist to tell you to stop taking a medication or even to endorse you going off a medication without speaking to the prescriber because there would be a case for malpractice if something bad happened as a result. Many medications have severe withdrawal effects either psychologically or physically. For example, when I was weaning off of Cymbalta (under the supervision of my psychiatrist), I felt physically ill and cried all day. I quit my job because everything felt so overwhelming. I failed one of my classes. I'm also on a mood stabilizer, and stopping that abruptly puts me at risk for seizures. Yet another medication when stopped gives me withdrawal panic attacks that paralyze me and prevent me from following through on my commitments. I guess all I'm saying is that stopping medications, particularly psychotropics, is no joke. A therapist can only advise a client who is experiencing adverse effects to speak to the prescriber. If yours didn't do that, she should have.

Here is the relevant excerpt from the APA Code of Ethics (emphasis mine):

2.01 Boundaries of Competence
(a) Psychologists provide services, teach, and conduct research with populations and in areas only within the boundaries of their competence, based on their education, training, supervised experience, consultation, study, or professional experience.

I agree that the ethics rule about terminating clients is flawed. I've read multiple client accounts where the client was terminated using this excuse and it was really devastating to the client. I do think you probably need a higher level of care, but I don't think the way she went about it was in your best interests. It was about protecting herself. Honestly, I can understand why she did what she did since it's her livelihood at stake, but that doesn't mean I think you got what you deserved or that I don't wish things were different.

Here is the excerpt of the relevant ethics rule (emphasis mine):

10.10 Terminating Therapy
(a) Psychologists terminate therapy when it becomes reasonably clear that the client/patient no longer needs the service, is not likely to benefit, or is being harmed by continued service.

In my opinion, you made a really good point when you asked her how referring you to another therapist was going to get you more help. Technically, the hospital was responsible for arranging your post-discharge treatment, so she's off the hook (even though I disagree with that, it's the way things work). But I think she should have tried harder to identify a program or service that would provide more intensive support. Instead, it seems like she decided to just make you someone else's "problem." I disagree with that.

You can read the complete Code of Ethics on the APA website here.