Legal action against therapists vs reporting them

This is just an idle musing really.

My phone company made a booboo with my new contract, which has ended up costing me hundreds of pounds. Under the law here in the UK, there are quite strict regulations around trading and mis-selling services. I will probably get all the money back with relative ease - if I don't, I will be taking it to the ombudsman, and almost certainly will get the money back then.

It got me thinking about the money I have spent on therapy, thousands of pounds, and about the clear 'mis-selling' of services in my situation there too. The trade descriptions act is very hot on this sort of thing with almost any other service or product. When things go really wrong in therapy, the focus seems to be on reporting to the professional body, rather than going via a trade route for buying a service sold under false pretences. Why is that?

Looking at it under the light of trade rather than a personal relationship, I suddenly feel very uncomfortable and hoodwinked about the money I spent. I know I got a lot of free sessions too, but when I think about all the money I chucked at her when I was really desperate... It's a bit like she exploited that desperation. It all feels very unethical and on a par with payday loans, or with a dealer getting somebody hooked on drugs so they keep crawling back, desperate for a fix, running up a tab.

Hmm. Well, I suppose the car she covets does cost a hundred and fifty thousand pounds, so she has to get the money together somehow.

What is it like in the United States? What form does legal action against therapists take? Is it separate to reporting to the regulatory body?

I know people can sue medical doctors (and I assume p-docs) for malpractice--there are lawyers that specialize in that who advertise on TV a bunch (like for medical mistakes or drugs that caused permanent side effects). I'm not sure about therapists though--I imagine that's a fuzzier area and harder to prove that they breached a contract or caused harm rather than good. (I mean, assuming it wasn't a case where they were double-billing you or something).

I'm not in the US. But I do want to say, I agree with a lot of what you are saying.

I think it is really, really hard to sue a therapist here in the US. It's really hard to even have them reprimanded for unethical actions.

Interesting. I do wonder why they seem to be able to do exactly as they please and take money for it - it kind of reduces the credibility of the profession as a whole to have no clear accountability even on a basic, practical level with monies spent. It's actually kind of insane. Fuzzy, vague descriptions are so frowned upon everywhere else.

i sued my Ts insurance company. i was going to sue my T but he lost all his assets. it was a civil suit and it took 2 years to reach a settlement.

I kind of see your point, but it's hard. I mean, you chose to keep going to therapy. If you could prove it was detrimental, I don't think you'd get your money back, but they could be struck from a register. I don't know what I'm trying to say. I can sort of see your point, but I can see how it would be hard to prove anything.

Were you able to prove a detriment to your mental health or something like that?

yes . i reported him to the board prior and they took his license forever. so that helped a lot. i got all the records from all my hospital stays (20+). i got a letter from my pdoc at the time who had communicated with my old T about my care saying that he thought the T groomed me and all this stuff. it took a really long time, but the insurance company ended up giving me money. but it went into a special kind of trust account bc i have disability. its not like a regular trust

I am sorry for what happened to you. I'm glad you got some restitution and that they have lost their licence.

The profession has no credibility really. There's no real science to it. People get more messed up by it most of the time. It's horrible and it is insane. Many therapists are way more messed up than their clients.

I don't think you can really compare therapy to a cell phone contract. How do you feel the services you received were misrepresented?

I wouldn't go so dar as to say there's no credibility with therapy- there are plenty of people who find it helpful. But it's not a guaranteed service the way utilities are. Either your phone works or it doesn't, it's very black and white. Therapy services are subjective - what works for one doesn't for another and a client should be told that from the beginning.

I dated two therapists. They were the most messed up men I ever dated. I dated a lot.
They themselves admitted how messed up they were. That's the funniest part

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I think it's hard to prove unless they have actively done something wrong IE: s*x with a patient. Otherwise they can just blame you for not getting better. They provided the service after all.

I don't want to bore people with the litany of questionable things that happened in my therapy, but essentially my therapist offered stuff she was not entitled to offer (job, love, forever, blah blah) which I rolled with in good faith. All backed up by email and text.

My pdoc actually stated that I decompensated under the 'care' of ex therapist.

It's not directly comparable to a phone, no! But it wasn't a black and white matter of the phone working or not. It was a case of being mis-sold a package, over a telephone call. My phone still worked, that was not the problem - the poor communication of the salesperson sold me a different product to what I thought I was buying.

Anyway, it's all academic really.

You don't promise 'forever' (well, until death or serious illness) in a professional, therapist-client relationship, over and over and over, verbally and in written form. That promise is never yours to make in the first place. And then terminate somebody by text. Funny definition of forever, that.

You don't con somebody into trusting you, and then bugger off because it doesn't suit you anymore. You don't blow hot and cold with your 'new boundaries' that sometimes mean stuff is ok and then sometimes mean you get really f#cking pissed off at the client.

Ah, I could go on...but I'm going to stop here for now before I get annoyed

Decompensating. My t 30 years ago mentioned that. Sometimes they have to take you apart to put you back together again. Kind of like they do to people in the army, only there, you end up all being put back together in the same pattern. In the army, resistance is futile. In t, resistance is your choice as a free person, but it works against your choice to change your circumstances.

I'm not sure what point you are driving at Hankster but I'm taking offence at you basically calling me resistant. It seems like a passive aggressive dig.

I understand therapy sometimes needs to deconstruct aspects of the self so we can build a new, healthier one. What it does not need to do is bulldoze and retraumatize and add a fresh layer of confusion and chaos.

If I have a bad tooth, I go to a dentist and hopefully they remove the tooth in a humane way, adhering to protocals and procedure and checking with me whether the pain relief is adequate. It will still hurt and be scary but will be ok. If I get a nutter dentist (this happened my brother and sister, way back when) who yanks out the tooth without pain relief, without telling you the steps he's going to follow, well f#ck me - the end result will still technically be the same, ie the bad tooth is gone - but one dentist was humane and appropriate, the other simply was not.

There's more than one way to skin a cat, some of them acceptable, others not.

And I'm starting to take a very dim view of therapists who foist their bullsh#t on people who come to them already in a vulnerable state.

What was the context of t saying she will be there forever? And was there a serious reason for her to break the promise?

I promised to be there until death do us apart but when my ex acted bad I ended the marriage. I know it is different but when I said vows I didn't anticipate my ex acting funny.

I am often in my former students life literally forever after they graduate they can always come and call and ask and I will be there for them.

It doesn't mean though if they ask for thousand bucks 10 years later I am going to give it to them. I might have a suggestion where they can get that money or if they are hungry I'll feed them. But if for example they become dangerous for whatever reason I most likely would have to protect myself and end my promise. There is a context to this "always and forever". How did she mean she will love you forever? Maybe she will love you big just not be your t forever? No one can be your t forever.

Could it be your t meant to be there forever in some context with whatever conditions or something went so bad that "forever" stopped being possible? Did she explain why she won't be forever there?

As about offering you a job that is unethical I agree. What kind of job she offered you?

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The bit in bold is why therapists should not make promises like we do in personal relationships. Once they make those kind of promises, all bets are off. I think it invalidates a therapeutic space as being purely therapeutic - because of course they are human, and their wants change, and nobody owes anyone else a relationship. Hence, being trained and having a zillion years experience and all, they shouldn't make those promises...

Oh, what caused her to end it was me getting annoyed at her cancelling for the umpteenth time. But there were long months building up to that. ALL which could have been avoided had her boundaries been clear and appropriate from the start.

I'm not dangerous and not asking her for money

The jobs were to ebay her things and her sister's things and split the money, and also to be a personal assistant to her in the clinic.

I know you aren't dangerous it asking for money. Those were just examples. I am just saying sometimes people do things that makes us break promises. It was dumb of her offering you job or things on eBay.

I don't think you can demand legal actions against her based on that though. Maybe she could be reprimanded?

If you already reported her that is all you could do I think. Asking money back is not realistic. I am a bit apprehensive how it looks though that you reported her yet keep emailing her?



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Divine, it's not good enough that people take it for granted that healthcare professionals act inappropriately and then expect clients to shrug it off. That's all I'm saying really. Why are you excusing her behaviours, with 'we all break promises'? Christ, the point of therapy is that the other person leaves their sh#t outside the room. That they don't get embroiled in your pattern with you. They have one job...and time and time again, seem to forget the whole point of their one job. But take money for it no problem

I was drawing in the legal aspect as an abstract, like I say in any other sector this wouldn't happen. I'm not going all guns blazing into some legal action. I have wasted enough time on a wild goose chase already and I'm bored of it. It was thinking aloud and considering.

No, I have not yet reported her. I'm FAR too mixed up to go down that path yet. First I'll wait for my clinical notes to arrive. These are overdue, so goodness knows when I might get them.

Nobody should ever make that kind of promise, in any relationship. People who are not trained to think about what breaking that kind of thoughtless promise would entail might be excused for doing it (though I hope I would recoil from anybody who said such a thing to me!) but a therapist has to know better.

Mine promised me she would never leave for over 5 yrs and then broke my heart. Now she keeps changing her mind and her boundaries. It really screws with the mind. I feel you.