Abuse by Mental Health Professionals-Did this happen to you?

amother

Saddlebrown

Thu, Jan 19 2017, 6:04 pm

"Your therapist has your best interest in mind", in response to a poster whose therapist wanted to hospitalize her.

"Clients are too vulnerable to know better", from a poster who is a therapist who was angry that people ask for recommendation and referrals.

These are some of the comments that I have seen on this site. I think its important to know that the mental health field is very broken and there is a lot of abuse and harm being done in the name of "helping" people. I have heard of people being misdiagnosed; trauma survivors being diagnosed as having bpd or schizophrenia and being severely mistreated because of it resulting in them being re-traumatized instead of getting the help they need, some clients simply get misdiagnosed for insurance purposes, some clients get locked up against their will, some clients get kicked out of hospitals despite being suicidal, etc.
Here is an excellent article about abuse by mental health professionals, feel free to share your stories about it as well if you were abused by someone who was supposed to help you.

https://www.buzzfeed.com/rosal.....PK8zg

amother

Denim

Thu, Jan 19 2017, 6:29 pm

I was on anti depressants, and my psychiatrist wanted to talk with my therapist to make sure my treatment plan was on target. She got into a huge argument with him, I have no idea about what.

Next thing I knew, she accused me of having borderline personality disorder, because "People with borderline create fights among other people."

For the next few sessions, she kept analyzing every word I said through the prisms of whether or not I had bpd.

This is after months of no progress whatsoever, because she usually talked about herself all the time. I knew more about her than she knew about me.

Finally I spoke to my psychiatrist, who said that I should get the hell out of there. I switched therapists, and finally started making progress.

amother

White

Thu, Jan 19 2017, 7:04 pm

Sadly, there's nothing surprising to me about this. I was abused by more than one therapist.
Molested by a male therapist.
Abused by another, who spoke to my parents, my spouse and I and kept telling us lies about what the other ppl said. He almost destroyed my marriage. (He also Misdiagnosed me as bpd instead of complex ptsd)
He would tell me to come for an early appointment, but the office door would be locked until he showed up an hour later, and so on.
I had a female therapist who verbally abused my husband when he came to therapy with me.
It's very scary.
Therapists do not always know best, and you are your own best advocate.

amother

Aquamarine

Thu, Jan 19 2017, 7:37 pm

amother wrote:

Where is the hug button?! Nebach! shock

wondergirl

Thu, Jan 19 2017, 7:48 pm

amother wrote:

It just sickens me to hear what you (and the other amothers) went through because you needed help. These people should not be licensed. Its scary to think that they are still doing harm to other clients. Have any of you (amothers) ever reported any of the therapists? If so, did the licensing board do anything about it?

Last edited by wondergirl on Thu, Jan 19 2017, 8:52 pm; edited 1 time in total

amother

Mint

Thu, Jan 19 2017, 9:04 pm

I personally know of a family that issues with 2 of their kids and was told to go for help. I don't know if the person was licensed and boy did they mess up those kids. The kids didn't want to speak to their parents. She made them mistrust their parents. It was a crazy story. She also made them so mistrust themselves that when it came to shiduchim they,told their parents they won't do a shidduch without her. One of them dropped a shidduch because she disagreed with the match. It was a mess. Not sure what's going on today. It was advertised that people should watch out of her and there were rabonim that signed it.

amother

Teal

Fri, Jan 20 2017, 8:00 am

I had a therapist tell me that my 12 year old son had signs of being a s-xual predator. She put us in panic mode with not leaving him alone with our daughters and watching him with hawk eyes. He was a sweet little boy and being young parents this turned our family life upside down. 4 years later we found out that he had been molested and instead of being helped he was accused. We are still trying to heal.

When I asked the therapist later why she jumped to that conclusion she said because he complimented someone in the office long blonde wig and he mentioned that he likes John Grisham books and she didn't feel that was age level appropriate.

I can't fully blame the therapist for steps we took and mistakes we made because as parents we should've looked at my child and said something is not matching up.

amother

Puce

Fri, Jan 20 2017, 8:25 am

I had a frum marriage therapist get defensive about something that I said during therapy. Thereafter, she began to turn my husband against me instead of trying to bring us back together. I realized too late what was happening and he filed for divorce behind my back. My new therapist says that based on the words the marriage therapist used with me, she probably "diagnosed" me with bpd and told it to my husband (they talked behind my back and lied about it but I caught them.) He was finally happy to have a professional "heter" to divorce me because he had finally discovered what was wrong with me all these years. Since the beginning of our marriage he had lengthy written lists of all his complaints about me. I just feel bad for my kids who through no fault of their own are now products of a divorced home, where with good therapy we could have had a decent marriage.

amother

Azure

Fri, Jan 20 2017, 8:30 am

Am I reading right here?? Omg! Hugs to you all!! These therapists need to be reported adapt to help save others.

I'm blessed be to find the right therapist right away. It's over 1 year and I feel so good and alive. We're doing inner work. So good therapists are out there too.

Hugs!

cnc

Fri, Jan 20 2017, 9:14 am

amother wrote:

Cnc you know the story? That story broke my heart. I wish her name would get publicized here and people would know to stay away. Even licensed people can be real bluffs, as proof to this thread

Yes I know the story and her name actually was puclicized here.

And yes, as I've reiterated before licensed people can do damage (the incidents I'm reading here are horrifying) but at least they can be reported and their licenses can be revoked so they can't continue doing terrible damage.

cnc

Fri, Jan 20 2017, 9:16 am

sourstix wrote:

Puce that is horrible. I'm sorry for your pain. Were you officially diagnosed by a reputable psychiatrist? That specializes in bpd?

What does it take for a licensed person to lose it? How can you report them?

Mental illness is difficult to diagnose and misdiagnosis is not unheard of (although misdiagnosis for insurance purposes totally doesn't make sense and if that's the case it needs to be reported ).

You file a complaint with the licensing board of that profession.

amother

Violet

Fri, Jan 20 2017, 9:28 am

Unlicensed marriage counselor told me that my than husband could go out of the room bec all the problems in our marriage were my fault. That was the last time we went and my ex did not want to try anyone else who would possibly side with me (as if it were a war) . It was really a blessing bec my ex was not workable and we would have spent so much extra time trying to make it work. Today I am remarried and things aren't perfect but at least we are working together to get there with a professional marriage counselor!

I also had a therapist not tell me information which could have been very helpful to me bec she was scared I couldn't handle it. You are not GOD and I deserved to know. It messed me up real bad.

I also have OCD about hurting my kids. And I would confess to my therapists bec it was causing me a lot of anxiety but I didn't know it was OCD and they didn't pick up on it and instead made it worse by buying into my anxiety. Three very good therapists! I am seeing another therapist now who has less experience than any of my previous ones and she picked it up pretty quickly (though she did first get panicky and have me see a psych and tell me that if I cooperate she won't call CPS).

I think it is a tricky profession and ppl go when they are not in the best place to be able to assert themselves or realize the therapist is in the wrong. They are really only human.

amother

Aqua

Fri, Jan 20 2017, 9:42 am

I hope you will also accept positive stories on this thread. I experienced a trauma during my teenage years. It wasn't an awful, horrific thing, but nevertheless it was traumatic. Its been many years since then but at different points of my life, specific triggers and people have brought about some maladaptive behavior and anxieties as a result of that initial trauma. I have therefore found myself in therapy off and on for many years, depending on where I am in life. Each and every time, I saw a (different) licensed therapist and ONLY have positive things to say about them. Some were definitely more helpful than others but nobody abused me, took advantage, was incompetent, etc.
I am horrified that people have had such bad experiences but I am happy to report I have never encountered such a thing.