Reviewing therapists on Yelp

No. I am saying that is the best way for me. Sorry if that wasn't clear. But I do think the people one is likely to ask for a referral to a plumber, lawyer, therapist or whatever profession are also likely to be people one associates with for some reason (shared traits, values, standards, expectations, etc.) and trust enough to ask for a referral, meaning that what worked for them is likely to work for oneself.

That doesn't make Yelp reviews irrelevant (nor did I say it did) but it makes them a less useful source of information to me if I have someone giving me a personal referral.

True and there are myriad other scenarios that could arise. But the review might still be relevant, and perhaps could be framed as a review of the process as a whole. If the client had a bad experience, they should be able to document it, and not have to rationalize the s**t out of it or jump through a thousand hoops.

Update: I have written the review. Haven't posted it, because I am a coward, and because of some deep seated need to protect the therapist/mommy figure, and because I fear it will kill any chance of future reconciliation. But I likely will post it.

BTW, if a therapist or any business does not appear on Yelp, the consumer can add them.

If you think it will be helpful or cathartic, do it. You deserve to have some sense of closure here.

ETA: or if you think it will protect other clients or introduce some transparency to the process, that could be a powerful reason to do it, too, as I remember you found advocacy healing and helpful.

I hope you do. Why does this person have to be protected? She's made it clear she can and does look after herself and put herself first. And would reconciliation really be a possibility?

I would post it. I think we're living in an age where many people do take online reviews into account when they are considering a service provider. I know I do. I know lots of people who check online reviews and take them into consideration. People need to be warned of providers like your therapist. BUT if you don't feel comfortable then don't do it. I have posted reviews of my therapist and they just stated facts about what he did.

I think posting it is a good idea. I see a lot of reviews for pdocs and therapists and think they can be helpful for potential clients. It's often the only real opinions people can find about therapists. Some therapists will argue against this, but I think they should be subject to the same scrutiny as any other business owner.

The protection thing is subconscious maybe. Feels like a learned impulse, possibly from having a mother who was unstable and erratic. And so being openly critical of the T feels like a huge betrayal. Also feels like a move that could pull me backward some.

Reconciliation... probably unlikely.

Thanks for the feedback folks.

I guess that my general impression of Yelp is that anyone can go on there and say anything they want about anyone with no vetting process in place. I'm not saying that a client shouldn't have a venue to voice grievances or concerns about a therapist's professional abilities, but say for example, my ex wife went on there in an effort to take me down and hurt me professionally. She could theoretically get dozens of her friends to write fallacious reviews of me as phony clients. Are there any safeguards against this? On one hand, it could be a great public service and on the other, there are many ways in which it could be abused. I've heard some horror stories about how restaurants have had their own employees go on there and slam the competition.

I do know Yelp has some kind of alogrithm that goes through reviews and determines which should be recommended and which are not. If they're not recommended the review is hidden. You can still view it if you want but it's not on the main page and isn't counted into the overall rating. I think reviews that either gush on and on or that seem like an angry rant Fall into this category. Also reviews that seem too similar, as if they could be written by the same person might be flagged too. There's a risk on any rating site but I think Yelp is more widely used and trusted.

Yelp does some vetting of its own, hiding some reviews on a "not recommended" page. Bit mysterious to me what the criteria is though. And I believe some reviews are actually removed entirely if they are suspected of being fraudulent, but don't know what algorithms or logic they use.

Also other sites like Amazon of TripAdvisor have similar issues. It's just nature of the beast I guess.

I contend that most of the time it's not too difficult to spot a questionable review, whether positive or negative. I think if you put enough time and thought into the review, as I have, it shows and people will take it seriously. But yea certainly the tool can be abused.

I agree. I think most people can tell if someone is upset and venting irrationally. I rarely see such reviews. Most reviews I have read do seem thoughtful and sincere and keep to the facts.

I posted my review about a month ago. Within the last week, 2 other reviews appeared, both 5 stars. One written by a therapist trainee who worked with my ex T, and one other very short and saying very little.

Presumably she is recruiting people to write positive reviews. I also know now that she has read my review. Kinda makes me physically ill, the whole thing. Kinda feels like eye for an eye, but keeping it a secret seems wrong.

It is a double-edged sword, like everything else on Yelp. But to answer your first question, no, a business cannot opt out. If you are not finding your ex-T, it is probably because nobody has reviewed her. Another thing I learned about Yelp (I had a boss totally obsessed with it) is that 1) you cannot use an alias and 2) until you have reached a certain quantity of reviews they remain hidden on the site, filed under "comments not recommended". Therefore, finding anything regarding potentially sensitive information on the business or the user is very rare.

They all do it. Why would she suddenly become ethical now?

Yeah...I've been thinking of posting a Google review of a bad doctor I saw last year (partly in thanks to an earlier comment of yours on this thread). I noticed that someone else recently posted a negative review of said doctor (first review ever) and then two weeks later someone - not a patient, a colleague - posted a 5-star review. Obvious shenanigans.

On Google you can report reviews for conflict of interest, which the trainee review sure sounds like to me. On Yelp, businesses can actually respond if they get a Yelp account.

Also, healthgrades.com now accepts 500-character reviews instead of just surveys like it used to.

Yea though it's still unpleasant. Cant even blame her entirely. She has a business to protect. The whole thing has been so dysfunctional and warped. Both people got hurt, and for what?

She shouldn't be recruiting *clients*. Was the second review a client, or do you think it was another peer?

I remember reading that therapists asking clients for reviews is unethical and shouldn't be done. Here's what one therapist says:

This is from: The Yelp Dilemma: Clients Reviewing Their Therapists on Review Sites - Dr. Keely Kolmes

I think I mentioned it before... but I really, really hate when therapists (or doctors) have reviews from co-workers/peers. There was one therapist that my ex-T had recommended to me (loosely recommended, he didn't know her personally), but she only had 2 reviews up, one was an unhappy client, and the other was another therapist in the area (I recognized the name) who did NOT disclose that he was a therapist. It seems so underhanded (obviously, I chose to not call up that T).

I'm sorry it's been so hard for you.

guilloche: I am fairly certain the second review is from a client, though it is very short and vague so hard to say for sure.

Thanks for the link. I brought that article up earlier in this thread. I agree that soliciting reviews from clients is questionable. And reviews from peers even more so.

BTW, reading this article I again I find it even more condescending and duplicitous than before. She addresses clients like they are children who cannot act in their own best interest without the guidance of the all-knowing therapist. And mainly she seems to be attempting a preemptive strike, an attempt to talk clients out of posting reviews for reasons that are ostensibly about protecting them, but seem more like a nervous defense of the business.

The providers' discussion, and fear of negative Yelp reviews is an interesting peek at the entitled, narcissistic attitudes of some corners of the mental health field. Discussion is all about them, while their critics are invalidated as the discontented, disgruntled and unstable. Nowhere in the Yelp discussion do I see these therapists consider that a negative review is deserving feedback from someone harmed. Never do I see them discuss how they might reconsider their model, create informed consent or improve their practices. Concern is solely about image, not services or substance.

Regardless of the consumer, or his "diagnosis," if he's compelled to leave a negative review, obviously he's squandered money, time and hope for a failed service. I think that should be respected.

Modern Day Digital Revenge on sites such as LinkedIn, Google+ and Yelp

Love Kolmes' quote below: "Of course, no one wants to be the subject of a bad review, but psychotherapy services are special."
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/19/op...lmes.html?_r=1

The blogger from shrink rap got all in a wad that she was not beloved by all

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog...-professionals

http://www.psychiatrist-blog.blogspo...r-reviews.html

Oh lord, I rolled my eyes at these articles.

Good lord, that therapist has an inflated view of herself.
The idea that somehow clients won't be able to write an objective review of their therapist is so patronizing.

Yes exactly. Not a difficult concept really.

Clients are encouraged to give feedback only through official channels -- talk to to your therapist, consider finding a new therapist, file a formal complaint. The fear seems to be that a client will give feedback in a form that cannot be controlled by the business. And the implication is that such a review is not valid unless first interpreted by a professional (why does that sound familiar?).

Keely's setting up of a counter-argument in advance of negative reviews seems to border on paranoia.

The other thing all this brings to mind is the level of secrecy surrounding all aspects of therapy.

Hi Budfox,

I'm sorry, I didn't realize you'd already posted about the article. I was just trying to find something that referenced the ethics about soliciting client reviews, because I remembered seeing a note that therapists should NOT do that... I grabbed the first article that I saw that referenced the ethics code

At any rate, I completely agree that many therapists who write about this don't give clients enough credit. I do think that there can be privacy issues, and that people need to be smart enough to sort that out for themselves. I'm really grateful to anyone who's comfortable posting a review, because there's often not much information to go on when choosing a therapist, and unfortunately, testing out therapists is *expensive*. I don't know if they realize that this is a real burden. If it costs me $150 to meet with a therapist, I'd much rather have some upfront information so that I know whether it's likely that they'll be a good match, rather than flushing my money down the toilet b/c there's something obvious about them that I could have found out in a review. Even worse is seeing a therapist for months and months, and THEN realizing that they're not able to help you.

I also think therapists underestimate that most consumers are pretty savvy about evaluating reviews these days. We have to be, there are so many fake reviews out there! Obviously, if someone complains that the therapist consistently runs 10 minutes late, and I know that that's not something that bugs me, I'm not going to rule them out based on that review.