Survivors of Unethical Therapy

Sarah - I personally would not consider that abuse but people's perception of what abuse is can vary quite a bit. What is important is how you feel about it. I also had an alcohol problem and I would have endured much more to find something that helps remain sober it permanently - it is an extremely serious problem and nothing I have ever experienced comes even close to it in terms of destructiveness and difficulty in resolving it. I see what he did as breach of confidentiality, which is unethical from a T; I know it would make me mad as well and I would definitely voice it. As for the hugs and chatting - I think many people do that in therapy. If it helped you maintain your wellbeing, I don't see anything wrong with it. It is unfortunate though if now his presence makes you uncomfortable in AA and you need to do things to avoid him. If it was me, I would probably go to a different AA group but would prefer to be free in the program that has provided such important help, I personally would put that before anything else.

I know of Ts who offer doing 12-step work with their clients (so, virtually being their sponsor even if they are not an ex-addict per se) and I would think that's fine if the client finds it helpful, but breaking confidentiality is not. Pushing you to go to his seminars is also quite inappropriate IMO. If it was your choice, fine with me (I also went to some of my Ts training classes), but not the pushing. Sounds like the T had some issues with power and felt kinda omnipotent relative to you - he definitely has issues himself.

Hi everyone,

Someone passed this information off to me.

In Canada, medical professionals fall under licensing boards which are meant to hold them accountable to their professional and ethical standards. These are called Colleges.

In particular, the Alberta College of Psychologists is one of these licensing bodies. When a psychologist is guilty of abusing a client, there is a way to file complaints through the college. Their job is to investigate any claims made against professionals and investigate accordingly.

Recently a former President of the Alberta College of Psychologists posted a review on google reviews about the multifaceted failures within the Colleges.

Here is what he said.

"As a past president of the College of Alberta Psychologists, I believe that I am in a fairly good position to evaluate its effectiveness -- in addition, I am commenting from the vantage point of an academic and professional health care provider for over 40 years without ever having received a professional complaint regarding my own performance.

CAP is, undoubtedly, the most ineffective and problematic professional organization that I have ever encountered. They have a well developed bureaucracy, but have done little to advance the profession of psychology and even less to protect the public from those psychologists who are either incompetent or malfarious.

It saddens me to have to make this assessment public, but I have done so with the hope that CAP can rectify its obvious pattern of malfeasance, and start doing what it is intended to do (i.e., guide the professional practise of psychology in an effort to improve patient care)."

Here is a link: (look under the reviews tab and might need to view on a mobile device)

College Of Alberta Psychologists - Google Search

Thanks,
HD7970ghz

Apparently 9 out of 10 survivors of abuse in therapy never file complaints. I wonder why. Anyone got any suggestions?

Probably they know they won't get any justice and will just be besmirched and discredited , blamed and shamed. And they've probably had enough of that already , sadly.

Sending hearts and hugs to everyone of you!

Adding here-
There are emotional, physical and logistic reasons a survivor may not report therapist exploitation. The process to bring a complaint is not straight-forward. Bringing a complaint is lengthy, involved, time-consuming, tricky and burdensome.

Repeating the details, alone, can be daunting. You must tell your story over and over to multiple people...some ‘friendly’, some not. Then you must write your story in your complaint, face questions from professionals on your side as well as the other side.

You must present evidence, if you have any- phone records, texts, bank accounts, photo/videos, prescription bottles, letters, emails, clothing, etc.

In my case long-distance travel was also required.
There were expenditures of fuel, hotels, postage, etc.

The stress of the complaint potentiated the difficulties of recovering from the trauma- coupled by the issues that brought the survivor to therapy in the first place. The complaint actually interrupted my own recovery— As I was dealing with the trauma, new facts would emerge from the complaint requiring my immediate attention, which shifted or shut down recovery work.

There were several MH inpatient stays to keep me safe.

The survivor has no guarantee they will be believed or treated with dignity and respect...even by your own team.

The survivor has no guarantee you will prevail.

The survivor must consider their own private intimate details may be made public.

The survivor must consider the other side will use every trick in the book to thwart completion of the complaint including deliberately dragging out the process hoping to wear out the survivor.

Tricks used in my case-

The other side bald-faced lied trying to defame my character and credibility. The defendant is supposed to tell the truth, but his lawyers can lie all they want. The other side’s lawyers are not under oath. They can say the survivor is a prostitute..or anything...to impinge on the survivor’s character. The lawyers will boldly lie....and laugh about it. Other side’s Lawyer: ‘Oops, judge, my mistake. I guess the survivor might not be a prostitute or a street-person..or a drug addict....’

In regard to my civil case, the other side deliberately filed bankruptcy in his name incorrectly. The judge was required to throw the bankruptcy out. The other side refiled the bankruptcy- incorrectly, again, several times. What this does I was told, bankruptcy stops ‘discovery’..we were not able to pursue answers that we needed to carry the case forward until the judge caught on to what the other side was doing. This tactic may also be true for licensing board cases, I don’t know.

The survivor must remember they may be required to take considerable time away from work and the comfort of family. You may not be emotionally available for them.

At another point, in my case, the other side lied saying I had ‘seizures’ and had my driver’s license stripped away. I went through extensive testing that I paid for to prove I do *not* have seizures so I was ultimately able to have my license reinstated. During the time my license was suspended I was unable to keep appointments with my ethical therapist, interview lawyers, or to drive anywhere.

Some survivors may be too ill to participate.
Some survivors may decide to just try to get on with their lives.

After all that, you still may not prevail with your complaint. The educated therapist may seem more credible than a mental health client.

I doubt one can prepare for all eventualities..but anything can happen.
There is a lot to consider.

According to this website (And I plan to fact check them later) it states:
Interesting. I wonder why therapy is still considered and marketed as a safe place despite these findings. Why doesn't the media cover this more? I certainly didn't hear about this prior to being abused in therapy.

Thanks,
HD7970ghz

Thank you for sharing this Precaryous! I will respond to it asap!

Have a goodnight,
HD7970ghz

Toronto psychoanalyst who abused two patients under guise of conversion therapy denounced as a sexual predator | National Post

Doctor’s licence revoked after she admits to having sex with cancer patient she had diagnosed | National Post

Ottawa doctor who sexually abused patients barred from seeing female clients alone: College | National Post

My T uses her laptop while we are in session. I asked her once what she was doing on it and she said clicking through files because she has ADHD and it helps her focus. Is this an ok thing to be doing? This whole practice is getting kinda wonky I think. Yet it’s supposedly one of the best in the surrounding states so maybe it’s just me.

That would bother me a lot if my T was randomly clicking through files while we were talking. Have you told her how you felt about it?

I asked her if she was playing some type of game like solitaire and she said that would be unethical and possibly illegal. That’s when she told me about the files. I haven’t mentioned it yet that it’s kind of being rude. Last week the week after I asked her she seemed more attentive then she usually does. So maybe me commenting on it made her be a little more focused on our session

I wonder if she looks at her computer because I don’t make eye contact very often.

PATIENT ABUSE | UHS Behind Closed Doors


This is an interesting website. LOTS of links to real court cases, complaints, abuses, etc.


Thanks,
HD7970ghz

Why Medical Schools Are Tolerant of Unethical Behavior

Very interesting journal article about unethical behavior experienced by medical students, as well as insights into why professionals fail to acknowledge and or speak up about it.

Here is an AMAZING quote from the link above.



This sure sounds like what we've been talking about, doesn't it?

Since 2015... I fired about 10 therapist. List of crap I went through: I had therapist sleep during session, call other clients while in therapy, one of them hug me, another one told me to get into all the details about my childhood sexual abuse (male therapist) cheating the time, talking about them all the time, one telling me to snap out of it, don't know what to discuss, don't remember me, and the lateness I can't tolerate. Don't play with me!

Omg. Thank you for sharing this! You are not alone and if you need anything, please ask!


Are you currently out of abusive therapy?

I send my heart to you.


Thanks,
HD7970ghz

A Whole Slew of those Unethical Gutter Trash Professionals are out and about yonder. And I heard just recently - that ANONYMOUS... Yes. Anonymous. Is onto this. Yup. HAHA. Anonymous is now investigating Abuse in the Mental Health Industry. Seriously. HD.

I recently did another internet search on "harmful therapy", just to see what was out there, and found two articles I hadn't seen before:

Here is What Clincians Should Know About Side Effects of Psychotherapy

Can psychotherapy cause harm? - Brighton Therapy Partnership

Seems like, maybe, the topic is being taken a little more seriously than in the past? Still no major study by, for instance, the APA in the US. And both of these articles are from authors outside the US -- one from Australia and one from the UK. Still. . .

I think looking at "harmful effects" of therapy is a more comprehensive focus than just looking for, and trying to prevent, abuse. I'm not sure that I was a "victim" of "abuse" in therapy per se, but for me the whole set up was exploitative and abusive and a scam. . .leading to wasted time, wasted effort, wasted life, etc. That was harmful.

I very much appreciate the perpective of others who have written on this forum as well as elsewhere about this. It provided me a perspective that I could not see myself, blinded by a pollyanna attitude that I was aware of, cognitively, but which didn't help me see how it blinded me to certain aspects of reality in therapy, as well as other things in life. If you haven't been there, I can understand how it may, even must, seem incomprehensible and incredible but -- look at the history of my long life and my long history of therapy and does it really make sense to someone that I would have subjected myself to that by rational, conscious choice?

When people, even otherwise rational, intelligent adults who make decent decisions in other aspects of their lives, can make such horrible ones when it comes to therapy -- it seems clear to me that it's a problem not just with the person, who is coming to therapy because they acknowledge or suspect a problem with themselves even if they aren't entirely sure what it is.

We now know that smoking, which used to be promoted as something healthful and calming, can have very harmful effects. And there are warnings right on the package. We need something like that for therapy.

Studying abuses and stories about these abuses may help some. But IMO the problem is more than just rooting out and stopping abuse, although that's important. People need to be better informed that abuse and harm is possible in therapy. And the professionals need to accept and be better informed, and curious about it, as well.

Fortunately, I'm pretty well able to stay away from those folks these days. Depression, and a sense of failure in life, sucks and there are some days. . .but I've been harmed so much in therapy, and can see and realize it now, I think I'm going to continue to stay away. Even if there is something else that would be good for me to know about myself, I don't think I'm going to take another chance on being vulnerable with any of those folks.

Thanks for the links. I don't know why it so hard for them to study their failures or to admit it happens without blaming the client.

Admittedly my unsubstantiated speculation goes no further than my observation. But I see and read therapists feverishly entrenched in own infallibility, apparently tied to their identities as superiors and shamans.

As I client, I serviced the therapists' delusions of omniscience above my own needs.

Freud and analytic descendants to this day use contemptuous name-calling for their dropouts and failures. I wonder if some of their attitudes seep into wider practice.

I completely agree - they really like having their egos stroked and come to expect or demand it

There are too many bad ones out there.

I'd also like to blow up the DSM.

I agree with you. There are a ton of really horrible therapists out there and they are getting worse.

The system is simply incapable of treating survivors of abuse in therapy.

Period.

I am a survivor of abuse and therapy very effectively treated and helped me, so that absolute is not quite accurate.

I think HD may have meant “survivors of abuse in therapy,” as in people abused within the therapeutic relationship. At least that is how I took it.