[stopdog]

Is the therapist you hire defensive about their profession?

The first one I hire used to be even though she tried to hide it -but now seems to have reconciled herself with my opinion of those people. I did not change in my opinion - if anything -my low opinion of that profession is re-enforced every day. And I do tell the woman how much they suck.
The second one was not particularly defensive - she usually agreed with me.

I would not be able to hire one of those guys who crumpled at a little criticism

[atisketatasket]

They don't seem taken aback by criticisms of the profession.

They do, however, generally respond defensively at criticism of how they individually do their job.

My ex t used to be very defensive especially when I criticised her once. She nearly had a canary. I said all therapists were bonkers and she was no different. I do feel there are more bad therapists than good but there are a few who listen and know that their profession (and mine) is less than perfect.

[junkDNA]

No he is not

[AllHeart]

I have never criticized the profession as a whole to any of my therapists. Any t I have respectfully criticized individually has taken it well with the exception of my old t. Old t is so messed up I'm not sure I can consider her to be a legit therapist anyway. And, my new t and my daughters t are both very supportive and in agreement of my criticizing old t.

Not at all. In fact, I voted wrong. I voted no, but actually he's pretty vocal about what he considers dangerous practices particularly in how some therapists approach working with trauma, especially sexual trauma.

[nottrustin]

I have never criticized the profession. I work with many therapists. However, we have discussed that there are good therapists and there are bad just like any other profession.

Hah. I was actually planning on ripping the mental health system to shreds in my past appointment, but then I got sidetracked.

Mostly, I wanted to talk about how selfish and haughty many of these so-called "mental health professionals" are. Some of them are so arrogant that they think they're 100% right even when all evidence shows they're wrong. Delusional people, i tell ya.

I'm pretty sure all but one mental health professional thought I was lying when I described my symptoms. Why would I lie about having psychosis or having depression??? Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't see how one would "benefit" from admitting to having psychosis.

I kinda did rip my psychiatrist to pieces in one of my appointments with my therapist. She tried her best to defend him tbh. I'm not sure if she ultimately agreed to disagree, or if it was something else. It wasn't so clear to me.

Somewhat, depends on the context of conversation. Both of mine actually often criticize the business of therapy, and other therapists, quite a lot. And use that to highlight that they are different.

[growlycat]

Kashi reported a fellow therapist in the area. So he is critical of some of his colleagues

[atisketatasket]

Originally Posted by growlycat

Kashi reported a fellow therapist in the area. So he is critical of saying me of his colleagues

Go Kashi.

[annielovesbacon]

I have never criticized therapists or therapy in front of my T so I'm not sure, but she has made lightly self-deprecating jokes of herself as a therapist (things like "oh you know us therapists, we're ____" or whatever) so I don't think she would be defensive.

I answered never criticizing the profession, as it's not an issue that comes up.

In thinking about this topic, my criticisms are unreasonable fees (in relation to training, responsibility, job, etc) and therapists not doing their own therapy, and neither apply to him.

[velcro003]

YES!! I think this is a great poll, SD.

I haven't really outright criticized the profession, but have mentioned how other T's weren't good for me in some way in the past, and she has never balked at that.

I think on the very first session I had with her, she said some weirdo analogy about how she likes to tell clients that she keeps two garbage cans outside for clients to put their "trash" into: One for all the "ufck-ups" parents made, and one for all the "ufck-ups" that past T's have made. It wasn't anything I brought in, but I thought it was interesting that she right away acknowledged that her profession isn't "perfect," or put upon some pedastal.

[velcro003]

Originally Posted by atisketatasket

They do, however, generally respond defensively at criticism of how they individually do their job.

I am terrible at any sort of confrontation, so I have never outright criticized my T, but the few times she was super late (like 10-15 min), and once when she had thought I gotten an email asking to start 30min later than normal, and I had walked out, she immediately apologized and would tell me that I probably am extremely pissed at her, and have ever right to be.

I never actually agreed with her outright, but I also didn't respond to that overture either.

There really haven't been any impasses in my therapy with her minus the time issue, and that has been fixed as she waits for me now (muhahaha), but I truly think if she effed up in some way that really hurt me, she'd own up to it. It is refreshing to know that, even though I could be terribly wrong.

Mine is a clinical psychologist, and she has said she doesn't like counsellors but doesn't mind medical social workers.

I've had lecturers who are practicing counsellors and they compare themselves with social workers and psychologists.

And social workers who think social workers are the best haha.

Therapists here in my country seem to be in different camps...

My T has listened to be talk about outright harmful counsellors who've treated my friends and me badly. Psychologists, too and psychiatrists.

She agrees that there's a lot of bad Ts in the public healthcare system and in private practice and some who are good.

[Erebos]

My Pdoc says most are quacks and new age hippies.

[1stepatatime]

I can recall one time when I was telling my therapist about how my daughter in laws therapist gave her a big bag of plastic Easter eggs filled with little toys for my grandkids... while I thought the gesture was very nice I thought maybe it was crossing a boundary. My therapist is pretty big on boundaries so I figured she would agree with me but she actually defended the therapist. She came up with some crazy excuses.. I was like for someone who is big into boundaries that came as a complete surprise.. so, yes.. she got a little defensive.

[kecanoe]

I don't think I have criticized the profession, but I have complained about specific things that other ts/pdoc have done. T3 tends to try to explain what she thinks colleagues were trying to do, but she will eventually agree that perhaps they messed something up. T1 agrees with me when I say someone has messed up. They all tend to be more pro-meds than I am, so they defend pdoc/NPs. But they are just wrong about that!

[growlycat]

Originally Posted by Erebos

My Pdoc says most are quacks and new age hippies.

Haha at least I got the hippie.

[UglyDucky]

I voted, "Not that I've noticed" or your similar wording. T has only once said that something I mentioned about a thread here on PC, "didn't say much that was good about our profession." I think my T feels comfortable about his ability to help most clients and after 30+ years, he isn't easily offended. He believes in therapy under the right circumstances, so I don't see any defensiveness.

[missbella]

Some therapists have thanked me for my blog; others were extremely threatened. I received sanctimonious ad hominem attacks when I posted a review of what I considered a condescending ethics book. Issues I've raised about therapy are generally met defensively --and certainly never answered--by online correspondents. My online conversations give me a strong picture of arrogance and incuriousness. But perhaps providers who'd rebuke me online are a self-selected group.

[Chummy2]

Not really. Current one then. I hate therapist. I've had bad experiences with most of my previous T's. I told them 90% of the T's are bad or unhelpful. With that statement they don't agree that much, but they do admit that there are some bad T's out there.