Reviewing therapists on Yelp

There is a smattering of articles and blogs on this topic, seemingly all written by T's and all making the same points -- it's a bad idea, client privacy might be compromised, T's cant respond so it is one-sided, it's too open format and there's nothing to ensure relevant criteria are included, reviewing a therapist is far different from a plumber or mechanic.

But mostly the reasoning appears to be about protecting the T from client honesty. Seems to me the trepidation and fear among T's could be in direct proportion to how much they have to hide.

Clients are urged to see formal grievance as their only recourse. But this is a rigged process that potentially keeps power in the hands of the profession.

Why not use a simple, direct, immediate tool (Yelp or similar sites) that gives the client the ability to restore the balance of power?

I also found that my primary ex T is not on Yelp. Are business owners able to keep themselves off Yelp?

There really isn't much recourse when you've been treated poorly by a therapist. I've noticed that when a therapist has a negative review people here dismiss it by saying the client is just disgruntled and getting revenge. I don't know.

I'm not sure how Yelp works. They probably can keep themselves off there.

In my country I have found a few sites where clients can review. I had issues with a ppdoc and found some not-so-favourable reviews from former patients but the pdoc had responded in a slightly threatening manner but that could just be my interpretation.
This pdoc had a patient review which again was not-so-favourable and the same patient reviewed again a few days later saying how he liked this pdoc . I don't know.

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.

The issue I had with this pdoc was the same issue that 5 other people had with him that can't be coincidence. These were quite specific reviews too.

Can't really take yourself off Yelp:

Yelp maintains its stance on removing business listings:

Yelp publishes business listing information so that consumers can share their experiences about local businesses, and because the information is typically a matter of public record and public concern. Therefore we don’t remove such information from the site.
While we understand that some business owners might prefer to keep a low profile, it’s important (and a legal right) for consumers to be able to find and share helpful information about great local businesses.

That's the kind of circumstance I mean when it would be useful - a number of reviews that agree on key points. But most of the people I've seen reviewed have just one or two reviews, which often disagree, so how is that helpful?

I will say that I have noticed a trend of therapists writing positive Google reviews for other therapists. And that to me is unethical and unprofessional, even if they make it clear they're colleagues.

But that to me is all beside the point. A single thoughtfully written, respectful, insightful review on Yelp could have an enormous impact, whether positive or negative, and regardless of the existence of other reviews. If that were not so, then I don't know why T's are seemingly so frightened of the prospect.

I agree about the love vs hate thing. Reviews that are gushing and glowing, as well as those that are angry and attacking, can be kinda thrown out as extremes. But the ones in the middle might be very telling. I think most people are savvy enough to spot what's meaningful or not.

I've honestly never seen a doctor or therapist review "in the middle" on a review site. They are always either gushing or almost insanely ranting. I discount both as completely unhelpful.

I choose to save review sites for things less important like choosing restaurant or car mechanic and search for my physicians/therapists via more objective criteria such as years of experience, training, hospital affiliation, perhaps recommendations from people I actually know and respect, etc., and save my final "review" to my own experience in meeting said practitioner. What I've learned over the years is that what one person loves in a provider may be completely opposite of what I like, and what I desire in a provider might be a big turn-off to someone else.

I see your point, but I could write that thoughtfully written, insightful review of a doctor who really screwed things up for me medically this year. And it would get drowned in the glowing reviews on Yelp about him (of which there are a good dozen). And the fact remains that he's still helped the vast majority of his patients. Should people avoid him because I happen to be able to be articulate about my bad experience? Odds of him making this particular mistake again are low.

Would you mind linking some of the articles about reviewing therapists online? I read a few back when I started therapy and don't remember them coming across as frightened. Thanks!

regardless of how fawning or damning if the review has more than one typo and any grammatical errors I discount it immediately. people who write yelp reviews remind me of people who call talk radio programs; neither being groups whose opinions I find useful or productive. both overrepresented by people with axes to grind. why do so many "positive" reviews lob vitriol at a competing business. Yelp reviews are where the bitter go when they are done writing angry spammy comments on HuffPo articles.

I think reviews are useful. Even if it is only pissed off people, I find it useful to know that a therapist has managed to piss off X number of people.

I think it's kind of like Rate My Professors—the people who write the reviews are going to be the ones with an axe to grind, and their reasons might or might not be good. Some people think therapy is like magic, you go ten times and bang you're cured, and they get mad when that's not true. Like I used to have a friend with a heroin addiction who could never stick with a therapist, always said he was too smart for them, whatever. Truth was he just lied to them about his efforts to quit using. He thought that didn't matter, if they were good therapists they should be able to cure him anyway.

Plus there is so much talk about the "fit" between the therapist and client. I can imagine a lot of clients giving negative reviews to therapists who just weren't the right fit for them, for reasons beyond anyone's control.

All that said, if the same issue is mentioned by several people, there is a good chance it exists.

What is the motivation for positive reviews then?

I suspect it is much the same. Strong emotional experience that they want to share.

It would be lovely if people would actually write reviews outlining both sides of a particular provider, but I have never really seen it happen. I DO try to do that whenever someone personally asks me about a recommendation for something such as a doctor, dentist, babysitter, even a therapist (and yes, I've discussed my own therapist and pdoc with others who were looking). I try to tell them what I personally like about they way they practice, but I also try to let them know of any particular quirks I am aware of that may not bother me but could be important to someone else.

For instance, I LOVED the pediatrician we used for 25 years and he came highly recommended to me before the birth of our first child. BUT, I also know that he tends to run long in his appointments because he takes lots of time with his patients and their parents, so if someone is a stickler for schedules, he is probably going to drive them nuts even though his skill as a pediatrician is probably unsurpassed. That kind of thing.

I just never see that kind of two-sided objectivity on a review site. I much prefer to get my reviews from people I actually know and whose opinions and can trust to be honest with me.

Positive reviews? I'd say again that you'd see a lot of reviews from people on the other extreme end of the spectrum. And you can't know if those are people who have an unhealthy idealization of the therapist, or who want to gain favor with a therapist, or who might be feeling temporarily very good and like they're cured when it's just a matter of time until they go down again. And again, there's the fit issue. Just because one person has a great experience with a therapist doesn't mean that anyone and everyone can expect the same.

I really like my own therapist, I think he's smart and professional and all that. At the same time I don't think he's perfect for everyone and I'd feel weird writing an online review of him.

I think it's fine to write reviews of therapists and psychiatrists on Yelp. There are plenty on there and also on Google. The business owner does not not need to list themselves on the site, so you can write a review of anyone you want. Yelp does have moderators however, so reviews that are negative to the point of appearing spiteful may not approved and won't be shown. There are a wide variety of reviews so it doesn't appear to be biased. I would imagine some therapists wouldn't be thrilled about clients writing reviews and do mask it as a concern for confidentiality. If a client chooses to post publicly then that's the their choice. So long as no one else is named, I don't see why that would be a concern to the therapist.

I freely admit that I read reviews on all doctors and mental health professionals. Yes, there are some that are rants, but I often read these reviews and recognize red flags that the person writing doesn't even know are red flags that are helpful to me in knowing that the person they're reviewing is a poorly trained therapist or arrogant and ill-informed physician. I really like reviews. I have to admit that if a review is TOO positive, I'm more inclined to reject it than one that is a total rejection of the professional's worth. I guess that's the pessimist in me.

Personal Experience: I was taking a new therapist for a "test drive" and didn't do my homework ahead of time. I thought she was pretty good. I was feeling pretty confident that she was well-trained, compassionate, willing to accept her end of the relationship and was open to continuing training and education. I saw her for about three months. At one point, I did a better, deeper search on her credentials on the internet. I found that she had a serious ethical charge brought against her by a client and she was sanctioned. She didn't lose her license, but she had to seek out further supervision and take an ethics course. Not a terrible "punishment" but I figured that her infraction wasn't terrible. Well, I found through further search that her former client had posted the ENTIRE judgement against her on the internet. Boy, was that thing informative. It told me exactly how this therapist had failed this client and how she was unable to accept or recognize her mistakes--her defense was in the document. I quit immediately and looked elsewhere. I appreciate that the woman (former client) was willing to expose herself to that degree to inform others. Her name was blacked out, but I know it was a risk for her. Kudos to her!

I think a positive review can be a way of showing gratitude. In a profession where gifts and cards fall into a weird gray area, a positive online review can be a good alternative. If useful information is included they can be very helpful to people. I have to admit I use these sites all the time and sometimes they are very helpful. I think it's pretty easy to weed out posts that are either spiteful or too adoring and find balanced informative posts. An old pdoc of mine is reviewed on Google and most of the posts are quite negative. Although I liked her at the time, the reviews that were more thoughtful and not just a rant recounted experiences that were very similar to mine. Had I been considering her today, these common experiences would have been a deal breaker for me.

Thanks. Cant find my ex T though, so I'm confused.

I don't see how the preponderance of useless reviews on Yelp precludes the writing of a useful one. If I reviewed my ex t, it would be neither gushing nor ranting.

That's awesome and the way it should be.

Seems like in the process of trying to find my husband a new pain specialist I ran across a review site that actually did set up the reviews in pros and cons, asking reviewers to list both, which was actually rather refreshing and somewhat helpful. I have no idea which one it was anymore; that was a few months ago. I sort of stumbled across it.

Personally, my review of a former physician would NOT have anything positive about it! In fact, I quite freely admit that my review of her on NUMEROUS sites is quite the rant. I want people to know how dangerous and incompetent this physician is!

The woman missed a major heart birth defect (sure other docs did too, but this was the one who was totally clueless); she encouraged me to continue to exercise(leading to possible heart attack or stroke) and saw me less than two weeks before I had a major episode that could have lead to death. Needless to say, I was pretty harsh in my critique of her. Following the episode that lead to open heart surgery and other interventions, I went back to see her. Guess what? She denied seeing me the two weeks before my episode (even though I had her receptionist on my phone admitting I had a physical appointment before this). She ALTERED my medical records to indicate that I didn't have an appointment with her that morning. No, I wasn't after to sueing herI would have appreciated an apology and a promise to do better in the future. Jeesh, I wonder how the woman talks to her kids about being honest and straightforward when she talks to them about ethics . . . and yeah, I knew more about her personal life than she knew about mine because when I had appointments about her she chattered like a magpie about her own life--should have been a big red flag to me . Live an learn. I guess what I'm trying to say is don't always dismiss "rants" about professional people. Often they indicate a problem. I'm not saying don't see the person, but consider that the person who rants might have a legitimate grip. I sure did!

I left negative reviews for a veterinarian who did her dead level best to kill my puppy on every site I could find.