Poll-have you ever been harmed by a therapist?

Unfortunate events… I would find that intolerably manipulative. It's that kind of s**t that made me stop.

I didn't even get through all of your posts. This is so sad. And it triggered my own despair, so I stopped reading.

This article (though 1993), particularly this table (#3), notes Therapists' Anger, Hate, Fear, and Sexual Feelings that some 50% of therapists get poor to no training in their graduate school programs about how to deal with fear, anger, or sexual arousal when working with clients.

That is unconscionable. How can that even be allowed? Coincidentally, that proportion matches the rate of those harmed by therapy as indicated by this poll.

It's kind of like having an airplane pilot program without any training of how to deal with bird strikes, a passenger crisis, or a cabin fire. That would never be acceptable.

The industry is really giving themselves a bad name. I guess it doesn't matter to them, as they can still charge some $200 an hour (many with only a graduate degree) due to making themselves sort of equal to health care practitioners. As long as people are willing to pay, and don't demand differently, it probably won't change much. The only thing that might change it, I think, is online therapy. Many more will do it, and so it will become more competitive. Rates will be brought down as supply exceeds demand.

Or, it's the other way around. As people have more disposable income, they have more money for therapy. And the population is growing.

I wouldn't say my therapist harmed me, she just wasn't what I needed and I didn't understand that. Nor did I want to be in therapy. She was pretty useless but not harmful.

However, my ex-psychiatrist absolutely harmed me, he was a nightmare with a bad temper and tendency to yell and also ignore my politely voiced disagreements. I think it's part of why I had a panic attack when I was mistakenly put in a room with a male counselor last week. I get so on edge any time I have an appointment because I'm anticipating being mistreated again the way he treated me. I was too inexperienced with mental health care to understand that I should not have been treated that way. I just assumed they were all incompetent and/or complete jerks with the sensitivity of a rusty chainsaw. In retrospect I feel abused by him. He was needlessly cruel and I feel deep shame for having gone to him for years.

What do you mean by harmed?
A counselor in my rehab and myself had an episode. But I put him in his place and he was the one that found me the T in with more, once he realised I needed more then he could offer.

BudFox, I didn't describe my therapist's comment clearly. He calls my many harmful therapists "a series of unfortunate events." I didn't realize it could be perceived a different way. For me, this helps. Phrasing it as a series of unfortunate events means that I'm not the core problem. I'm not inherently messed up and so cause these therapy breakdowns. I'm not destined to forever be betrayed and hurt by therapists. I'm not a faulty, detestable person.

My therapist says it's a series of unfortunate events, meaning that these are a whole ton of REALLY crappy things that have happened to me and around me. It's validating that the therapists were really sucky and that I didn't deserve it.

I hope that makes more sense.

_Mouse, when I talk about my harmful therapists, I mean that they left me worse off than when we met, or their actions created a strong negative belief that I've struggled to get rid of. I've had a lot of therapists. Seven have caused lasting damage that permanently affected how I view my world or myself, plus another therapist who was a great therapist but also left some damage.

Ok i think i see what you mean. I find what he said to be rather ambiguous. Sounds like he was attributing your many harmful therapists to plain bad luck. Would be more honest in my opinion to acknowledge the possibility that there is some systemic problem, and to explicitly absolve you of blame. But i wasn't there and i am just thinking in general terms.

My first t harmed me and my t before current t. First t terminated me when I said I had feelings for her, she abandoned me. She didn't give me a referral either she completely neglected me. The other t gaslighted me. She was over 200 miles away and used to forget about our appointments. I drove all the way there and she would try to say I got mixed up. She also sent me a friend request on Facebook which she later denied and blamed me again. I started to doubt myself and thought I was going mad. The two of these experiences were very tough times for me. I don't think I can ever really trust a t again but my t is doing her best, she is not perfect and she reminds me she is human and there will be mistakes and ruptures and there have been lots of them. I don't believe that she tries to hurt me but it does happen. We always try to work it out and to come to some agreement. Like she will tell me to communicate more of what's happening for me when I feel hurt. I can see how this would be more helpful for her and yet I still find it hard.

I was harmed by countertransference and a lack of experience in my type of diagnosis.

I'm in UK. My NHS therapist sometimes did not appear at my appointments and eventually stopped coming without any reason given to me. I felt abandoned. I had also told him some significant things about my past and opened some wounds. I find it hard to trust now.

It's taken my T and I five weeks to reach a point where she has admitted that she doesn't have the 'neuroscientific understanding' to support me through the situation I came to work with her on. I spent the first three weeks trying to help her understand. I've ended up seeking support elsewhere.

Yes, my therapist had issues keeping confidentiality. She asked to see a picture of my an old boyfriend of mine when I was talking about him since she said it "sounded like an old client of hers." Then, she revealed he was a client of hers and that he had issues with his wife at the time (now ex), which is why he went to her. Since she broke confidentiality with him (and made me feel very uncomfortable in the process since I was talking about him in sessions about an issue), I immediately thought she can easily do the same to me. Extremely unethical. It ruined my trust, and I was already struggling with trust issues. I told her I was never coming back and found someone much more professional. If I were him, I would have sued her. Who knows what else she would have revealed about him if I were to have continued therapy with her. I also still wonder if she'll ever reveal to anyone that I was a client of hers.

I can't believe I had to vote that I am with the group who was harmed by an unprofessional, unethical, sadistic and cruel T. He knew exactly what he was he doing to me but he received MORE money and MORE attention from his peers for hurting me. They thought it was funny. They sat back and enjoyed the show listening to my ex t discuss my life with everyone under the sun.. He even told people who worked in other offices (not therapists) in his building. He told his friends, his family, former girlfriends (what??? are they experts or something??), he told the town council, the clergy, he wrote blogs on the internet, basically he slandered me to everyone he came in contact with. I have the worst luck of anyone that I know. To have this happen on top of all the other problems I have to face, I found a T who has no morals or professional standards.