I'm very sorry you have to go through this. There's an online resource that will offer you human connection of others who've gone through it, reading and information.
http://www.therapyabuse.org/

Some bloggers writing about harmful therapy:
http://www.survivingtherapistabuse.com/
(sexual abuse)
http://disequilibrium1.wordpress.com/
(My blog about harmful therapy. TRIGGER ALERT: This is a blog for therapy skeptics.)
http://trytherapyfree.wordpress.com/2013/05/
(A blog exploring the harm of the power imbalance in therapy.

Wishing you the best.

mizzbelle
thank you for these links. It is encouraging to see someone reach back to me but sad that you went through similar experiences. I have checked out your blog and am really sorry that you had such bad experiences with therapy too.

therapy is an illusion, especially the psychoanalytic approach is in many cases used by 'professionals' to hide behind. Now I am not saying that there arent good enough therapists out there but in the words of an analyst I talked to (who I reached out to while my therapy was breaking down) there are only a handful of good enough therapists in the UK." I didnt argue.

The person centered counsellor seems to bring more of himself into the relationship but is missing the tools and therefore frame that will give him hold when the work gets deeper and more turbulent.

The psychoanalytic counsellor has the tools but here we must not forget the reason why one chose to become a psychoanalytic counsellor and not a person centered one for example. The psychoanalytic training is very "boundaried", strict, some may say cold (or like you said in your blog, blank screen) by the way, Freud - who was very concerned with becomig famous and making a name for himself, chose to sit behind the patient and avaoid eye contact because he didnt want to be looked at by his pateints for hours on end, not because of its therapeutic benefits.

IF the therapist has worked on his own narcissistic injuries he may be good enough to help a client. But you can see the narcissism in many therapists by being unable to see that not only therapy leads to deep psychological work. Most therapists I have encountered are still very much taken over by their narcissism and act out all sorts on the clients. This includes the "well meaning " therapist also.... one way training institues messure the therapist's development in their work is how long they can "hold clients" meaning, how long they can work together. This initself is ridiculous as a very codependent therapist is very good at "holding clients", it is something that they have learned in childhood, to be needed, to create a situation where the other needs him. This therapist will have no problem "holding clients" especially those who are also very codependent.

You may want to read Alice Miller and poisonous pedagogic. Alice Miller was a psychoanalyst who left psychoanalysis and wrote about the punitive mentality of many psychoanalysts, handed down to them by their trainers, just like the child is left with its parents belief systems.

It is shocking how many people are hurt "for their own good"

Attachment Girl, can I please kindly ask you not to reply to my/this thread any more as I am as vulnerable and fragile as other members on here and need a safe place to discuss my concerns and experiences without feeling rebuked.

I would therefore like to ask you to respect my right to reach out and discuss this very painful subject with other people who choose to read and reply to me.

On the other hand, if the admin of this website (this may be you, I am not sure) also has the opinion that I should not be discussing my experience here, I will move on.

It saddens me deeply Attachment Girl, that you feel you need to protect others from my words, kind of a kick-in-the-teeth-while-already-down feeling and not something I am strong enough to take at the moment. Thank you for hearing and respecting my need for safety.

UC,
My apologies, it was certainly not my intention to kick you in the teeth or add to your pain. I tried to be careful in how I said what I did, but fell short. I have deleted my post and will not respond any further. My best wishes for your healing journey.

AG

PS I am not an admin, I was only speaking in my capacity as another member. Just wanted to be clear on that.

Draggers, Though I haven't added entries to my blog, you'll see there's an extensive three-year discussion with links to many articles and other blogs. There's also a blogroll on the main page.

However, I wrote a "What Can Go Wrong" article here. Though I'm a lay person, I ran it by several professionals before it was web-published:
http://www.mentalhelp.net/poc/...19&d=1&w=482&e=43065

Many people accuse or imply that people like me who "fail" at therapy must be bad clients and belligerent, defiant, irresponsible human beings. Gee, my therapist already said that about me.

mizbelle, thank you for the link.

By the way, "therapy" has helped me too. I have become stronger. It was a matter of swim or go under, so I learned to swim.

I feel like my experience of therapy and my outlook on it is not welcome here, as it is perhaps not "articulated thoughtfully enough". Perhaps I missed putting "trigger" at the beginning of the post or some non sense like this. Non sense = makes no sense to me.
This post had over 900 views if I remember correctly (that in itself is very interesting for me) and I think people are big and ugly enough to look after themselves when it comes to reading posts on a forum.

Unfortunately, the world and the web, is not just made out of clients (living human beings) who write submissively and or anxiously about their therapeutic encounter, a character pathology that seems to be more acceptable on online forums, I have found. There are people who are very angry about how they have been treated by the-rapists and their "therapy", and very rightly so, yet it is a therapy forum where people like me should not seek understanding as clients must keep their therapists idealised in order to "do the work" as Melanie Klein suggested, it is only in a state of idealisation that the ego can strengthen.

Good Bye fellow travellers

I think your posts were helpful. I've had good and bad experiences of therapy. I think there are more inadequate therapists out there than we might like to think and a few that are plan dangerous. However, there are some who are good, helpful company in the experience of unraveling ourselves and re-knitting a more fitting sense of self. As painful as it might be to admit, I am not all that I need. And, whilst friends etc can be wonderful, sometimes you need a safe place to go metaphorically throw-up all that inner garbage... which you couldn't safely do elsewhere.

Bad therapy though is painful indeed. It is the wounding of a wound. Abusive 'therapy'is evil dressed up as good - and repeats a pattern for too many.

Wishing you well unmotheredchild - and wishing you would stay.

SB

(((UC)))

I am sorry that you have had not one but two awful therapy experiences. It is easy for me to see how that could happen. There are A LOT of bad therapists out there. (No disrespect intended to the good ones. Even my therapist agress that there are a lot of bad therapists out there.)

Perhaps you aren't ready yet to go public because any invalidation seems to still be painful. Your truth is your truth and no one can take that away from you. I'm afraid that speaking out before you are ready may be somewhat of an enactment and will cause you further trauma.

Sometimes trying to get people to listen to something they are not ready for can be painful but you have an important message. I hope you can believe in yourself and your experience. It's important to be able to do that and not lash out at others who may not be where you are or may have had a different experience. Otherwise, your message might get lost.


From,

A supporter

UC -

I, too, know well the effects of therapy gone bad. And I, too, have had two different therapists who were incredibly hurtful (words are inadequate to describe). Still, I don't believe that is always true and I would never advise anyone to stay away from therapy. That's an individual choice. I have continued with therapy and have been very fortunate to have recently found a competent therapist.

You sound incredibly angry, UC, and I won't deny your right to feel that about the therapists who hurt you. But it also feels like you're hostile towards the forum. We are not a group of "big and ugly" clients. We are not just clients who "write submissively and or anxiously about their therapeutic encounter, a character pathology that seems to be more acceptable on online forums." You don't come right out and say "you forum people are..." But the innuendo is clear.

I am sorry for the pain you have experienced. And yes, I know it can truly be life threatening. I also support your courage to blog about the experience. I guess I just think you could be a little nicer to the folks who would certainly support you in your recovery from these toxic situations. We are not a herd of sheep.

-RT

"sometimes you need a safe place to go metaphorically throw-up all that inner garbage... which you couldn't safely do elsewhere.

Bad therapy though is painful indeed. It is the wounding of a wound. Abusive 'therapy'is evil dressed up as good - and repeats a pattern for too many."

I agree. This safe place is of great importance and something that I worked towards with each therapist for years until I felt safe enough to let despair be known (after all, I am not paying hard earned cash every week to work through something I could quite easily work through with friends). Of course, they all collapsed because they were not good enough for that sort of work. So when I hear people say "I have found a therapist who is good... I am saying; "I believe you. Good enough at this moment in time; time will always tell us more." This last bit of the sentence is obviously a fact that could disturb the much needed psychic equilibrium.

"Perhaps you aren't ready yet to go public because any invalidation seems to still be painful. I'm afraid that speaking out before you are ready may be somewhat of an enactment and will cause you further trauma."

It seems very thoughtful of you to express concern Liese, although your statements can be read as quite patronising given the fact that I have not invited you to "analyse" my internal world, hence all your interpretations of me not being "ready yet" or of creating "enactment" are not only experienced as intrusive but they also feel quite annihilating as the interpretations seem to be more about your own needs rather than my own. I do not need you to wonder about whether I am "ready yet" or about any possible enactments. I am sure you are aware of Alice Miller's "For your own good". Alice talks about the impingements by the grown up onto the child in the name of support, help and advice. I feel something similar is being done by you Liese. In your effort to be perceived as supportive you have dismissed my needs.
Or are you suggesting that I do not know what I need but you do?

"Even my therapist agress that there are a lot of bad therapists out there"

The "badness" is always more bearable when it is "out there"... that is why it does not surprise me that many therapists (human beings) dont like to think of themselves as "bad". Perhaps it would be of use to explore what "bad" means and what follows "bad". I think there is a huge difference between bad and evil.

Indeed, bad therapy is painful, abusive therapy can be deadly.

Do you think the therapists cared (about me or my child and husband) when they played out their unconscious needs for power and control over me?
Do you think they cared about me and my family when they abused me and afterwards blamed me for the abuse? Do you think think they would have been there to comfort my husband after his wife had died? Would they have become my child's mother and soothed him? Would they feck. these therapists are still working, not only that, but they enhanced their profile through the "work" they have done with me. Lie after lie after lie. While I had to find a way to cope, not for my own sake but for the sake of my husband and child. Abusive therapy can be deadly, take a look at the BACP name and shame list. There is one therapist who actually killed her client, committed suicide.
Angry? Angry? Angry does not touch half of the hatred I feel for those monsters who not only almost killed me but who also would have devastated my family's life f o r e v e r. forever is a long time, especially when you are a small child like my son.

red tomato, thank you for your refreshing post.

"But it also feels like you're hostile towards the forum. We are not a group of "big and ugly" clients. We are not just clients who "write submissively and or anxiously about their therapeutic encounter, a character pathology that seems to be more acceptable on online forums." You don't come right out and say "you forum people are..." But the innuendo is clear.

I am sorry for the pain you have experienced. And yes, I know it can truly be life threatening. I also support your courage to blog about the experience. I guess I just think you could be a little nicer to the folks who would certainly support you in your recovery from these toxic situations. We are not a herd of sheep."

I can confirm your feelings of hostility are correct. I feel very hostile towards many. Very hostile and very, very hopeless and despairing. 9 years ago I started therapy coming from a place of (fragile) trust. Today, I have no trust towards human beings. I have been destroyed, I was able to stay alive physically but I have been destroyed psychically and each day is a recovery day in which my beloved husband and son and pets help me to regain/rebuild what was so viciously taken from me.

It has also been my experience that anxious and submissive behaviour is more acceptable compare to angry and hostile behaviour.

And of course I am hostile towards you all, why shouldn't I be? I have no time for people who tell me I am lashing out and then wrap it up in a hug. I have no time for passive aggressiveness any more. I have stood at the edge of oblivion just that second too long and now... I do not excuse my behaviour any more, I tell you how I feel. And you can tell me how you feel. And maybe if it is meant to be we find a way of creating something. If not that's ok too. I respect you for telling me how you feel.

In the words of Oscar "It is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious."

And on that note,

"good" bye

You "have no more time for people who tell me I am lashing out and then wrap it up in a hug." Sometimes that's what we do around here. We have conversations, we discuss. We tell truths. We look for support. The fact that one posts here invites that. So I hardly think it's fair for you to dismiss Liese's comments as uninvited.

Anger is an emotion like any other. Its asset is that it provides energy to right wrongs. Its danger is that it can lead to hate and despair. My hope for you is that you have (or find) the strength to use your anger, not destructively (for anger can be toxic), but constructively. Use it to bring a greater good to yourself and your family. Use it to share your experience to lend caution to those embarking on therapy, but more importantly, to let others who have been abused in therapy know they are not alone, and they are not bad because of what was done to them. Personally, I carried shame for over two decades because of what happened with my first therapist. And because of the shame, I didn't speak of what happened. I would have welcomed some validation of my experience. (Thank you tech-gods for the Internet.)

I hope you find your peace and that bringing it home will be a warm comfort to your family.

Well, "good" bye then.
-RT

(((UC)))

I have not read Alice Miller but have heard a lot of good things about her. I can, however, see how what I said was patronizing. The thing is, I really identified with your anger towards the therapeutic community.

Several years ago, I asked my insurance company to give me more visits to see my therapist. I lost and appealed. Ultimately, the insurance company hired this big wig neuropsychologist to weigh in on my case. Not only did he say that I should NOT get any more visits, he said that my therapy should be terminated almost immediately. He said that I had been in therapy for 4 years and, at that point, should have gotten all that psychotherapy had to offer. I should be given 4 termination visits, he said, and then referred out into the community to support groups.

Had my therapist followed his recommendation, the God's honest truth is that I would have wound up in a homeless shelter and my children would have been there with me. My therapist didn't listen and the good news is I am doing much better now than I was then.

I've often dreamed of becoming wildly successful and then exposing that a**hole but also know how injured I feel in the face of invalidation. It's something I've struggled with my whole life. I do think people who do expose themselves in such a way are heroic but it's not something I can do.

So, in short, I get where you are coming from. I get your anger. I like your message. I think it's important. People ARE uncomfortable with anger. Lots of people just don't want to deal with it regardless of whether it affects their lives or not. But many changes in our society and others have been made precisely because someone was angry enough to expose the injustices that have been done to them. So please know I was sincere in my support and just ignore the other part of my *advice*. It might be the way I handle things but I am a wimp. You have to do what's right for you.

Best,

I think there a lot more bad or mediocre therapists out there than clients like to believe. I also think it often seems like some clients go out of their way to protect therapists and blame themselves or other clients for therapy not helping.
If therapists would be more clear about their abilities and what therapy can and cannot do, as well as honest about how they are mostly just stabbing around in the dark and sometimes they manage to be useful, and that no therapist actually knows if they will be able to help a client or not - that would go a long way in taking the blame off of the client when it does not work.

I do think the client is often unfairly blamed and told it is them not wanting to change or not doing the work when often a client does not even know what that phrase means. Therapy is a crap shoot. Sometimes it can help some people. Sometimes it harms people deeply.
For some, the gamble pays off - but certainly not for all.

UC, I saw on your blog that you said you are a therapist yourself--are you still practicing? If so, do you feel like your clients are right to trust you?

Just wondering.

[just a note here to AG. i think your points were valid and didn't need to be taken down. (second post, didn't see the first) UC invited them. just sayin' -RT}

[Thanks RT, but upon reflection I felt it was just playing into a re-enactment to give her back anger. But I appreciate the note!

It's also not fair to analyze someone else's motivations and unconscious drives as if you know better than they themselves do, even when they're doing it to you. I can't really know her motivations any more than she can truly know mine. I'm comfortable with mine. ~ AG]

Take it back RT, I think after reading Dragger's latest post I'm ok with unfair. The deleted post is below:

quote:

And of course I am hostile towards you all, why shouldn't I be? I have no time for people who tell me I am lashing out and then wrap it up in a hug. I have no time for passive aggressiveness any more. I have stood at the edge of oblivion just that second too long and now... I do not excuse my behaviour any more, I tell you how I feel. And you can tell me how you feel. And maybe if it is meant to be we find a way of creating something. If not that's ok too. I respect you for telling me how you feel.

I am angry with how you are behaving and what you are saying about people here. Not every act of kindness is passive-aggressiveness. I do find your hostility and rage to be very off putting as it feels like you are not looking for a safe place to express this anger and be heard, you are looking for somewhere to dump it. And you do so manipulatively by attacking the people around you to evoke that rage in them while loudly declaring your freedom from subterfuge.

You are entitled to your rage over what happened; you are not entitled to mistreat other people because you have been mistreated. Your hostility and rage are not welcome to me because they're being sprayed over everyone around you. You cannot leave fast enough for me. That's how I feel. Godspeed.

Hostility is boring.

Trolling for blog hits - no 900 individuals have not viewed this, the forum counts many multiple views per person/IP.

I am trying to understand your perspective on life and humanity UC, and failing miserably. I even read your latest blog to try and gain some insight; but only felt deep sadness that you feel obliged to lump so many people in such a negative category.

Quote from your blog:

quote:

if you read this you are connected to the possible hurt that will come from being in a relationship with a therapist who is not interested in you any more than a nurse is interested in seeing her patient, s/he feels pity with the patient, she also needs the money and is glad the patient is there, but truth be told, she could do without him. Not because s/he is naturally nasty and wants to torture you, but because s/he is too messed up t’o be of any help to you

I am not a therapist,but I am a nurse and I feel angry and deeply offended that you might consider my profession in such a harsh light. My patients do not pay me, but I am interested in the care of each and every one of them and I know I am not alone in that. I also have a therapist who has taught me so much, stood by me and who has never shown anything but utmost professionalism and care.

I did not want to add to this thread, but I felt so hurt by your generalisations that I felt compelled to

starfishy

I do not use mds and have not interacted with their staff or rns in any useful manner to me. I have had no interaction where I thought they particularly cared or not. On the other hand I don't believe it matters if an md or rn or therapist cares. I don't lok to them to care and would prefer they do not. They all get paid by the client indirectly if not directly.

I don't actually get what everyone is so upset with the op about. Perhaps because I find it quite off putting when I think the client is so readily blamed for not "doing the work" or being ready to change or whatever.

I think there tend to be zealots on both sides of the therapy fence.

I agree too Stoppers that there tend to be zealots on both side of the fence. I think what is getting people upset, is the attacking nature of her posts. I think her message is lost because of this. The regular posters here disagree from time to time, but we still learn from each other. Our disagreements do not contain hostility for each other. In fact, our disagreements lean towards learning and growing all while respecting each other.

I'm working on not getting too triggered by this thread. The OP seems to drop in infrequently and her blog has large gaps in time, so all of this just makes me wonder what is really going on.

I am just not really sure what the OP wants from us: compassion, understanding, yes. But on a forum about therapy, it was to be expected that people would not agree on the "therapy is evil" point, so... I don't really see how to give the "right" reaction to her anger.

Unmotheredchild, I am sorry you were hurt. By specific therapists. It does not give you the right or legitimacy to judge all patients, people helped by therapy or therapists. It 'only' means that your feelings and anger are legitimate. Please, respect mine as well.

Well. I'm a bit put off by this thread.

I'm rather unimpressed with your inability to communicate with the others on the forum that have an opposing view, UC. You request a space here that is safe and nonjudgemental - although that is not what you provide other members when they reply; unless of course the reply is is in alignment with your belief system. I find some of /your/ responses passive aggressive.

As with anything - of course there is good therapy and there is bad therapy. Good docs, bad docs. Good nurses, bad nurses and blahblahblah. But to attack the entire profession with claims that it can kill, that it's detrimental to all, that it's all based on the therapists ego strength or whatever, the clients have character pathologies and yada yada - really?? Therapists are not a cult.

If therapy works for someone - great. If not and they choose to move on - that's great too.

I am willing and able to support someone where they're at. Although I will not support a member when I perceive them as attacking and criticizing and condemning other forum members.

I'm just wondering how UC would have reacted if we all agreed with her/him? Would she/he have been happy? Then what? Would he/she want to start some kind of war with the establishment? Where does the healing come into play?

And why go to a site run by a psychotherapist for people in therapy looking for support to complain about bad therapists and expect total support and validation? It just doesn't add up.

What a weird thread.

I was badly treated by a therapist last year but I don't feel the need to take it out on a bunch of innocent strangers on the internet.

Nowt so queer as folk.

I am so extremely triggered by this on so many levels. I wrote out a big long post about my feelings and then I decided 'what's the point?' I don't think a two-way discussion was ever the goal here.

it coulda been the start of a good thread, but it sure did waiver.

quote:

I have no time for passive aggressiveness any more.

any more? that would be funny if i didn't think you were being serious. in other words, one might do well with a little self-reflection.
unlike so many others who were trying to reach out to you like caring human beings tend to do, there is no encouragement or hugs attached here. i am truly sorry for whatever pain you went through. but, i will not be reading your blog due to your behavior here. and i hope you find the healing you need in whatever way works for you. ciao.

I know I don't need to defend therapy to this group (or ever), but I want to add this, UC, if you are continuing to read this:

A few days ago, my married, young adult son thanked me. This is a young man with an extensive trauma history, including having been abused by a close relative and experiencing the death of his pregnant fiancée a few years ago. He told me, "Mom, my friends who are married struggle in their marriages. They ask me how me and "Erica" manage to make it look so easy. We never fight, though we disagree--we are never mean, we never call names or act punitive or vindictive. And Mom--it's because of what you taught me that I know how to be a good husband."

I taught him boundaries.

I did not learn them growing up.

I learned them in therapy.

exactly.

I don't ever really post here - but do read regularly. I felt compelled to reply to this thread. I too do not understand the antagonistic way that UC goes about asking for support, if indeed that is what is being looked for. My concern is that this is not the first or only forum that UC uses. She has been banned from one other forum that I'm aware of, and from what I remember, it was not only due to her hatred/hostility towards therapy/therapists. It was the same attitude but directed at other support seekers - some of whom left the forum because they found her abusive/triggering. Even after being banned, she turned up at least once more using a different username, at first seeking support before the hostility crept back in again.
I believe that UC is in a lot of pain, and quite understandably from what I remember of her postings about her childhood. But I do not see how this helps. It seems like a kind of self-sabotaging thing where she is getting others to reinforce her belief that everyone is against her. Which I can understand, as I have had tendencies in the past to think in a similar way. But this is so extreme. What worries me most of all, is that UC is herself a therapist or is about to become one (was training at the time on the other forum).
Lots more I could say but won't. Not in a particularly good place myself but after reading here so long, wanted to show my support for the posters on this forum. None of us are perfect, none of us have all the answers, but people here respond to offer support and maybe another way of looking at things. I just do not understand why you feel the need to come to a place like this, hurt people and then come back to laugh in their faces and try to shame them about the fact that they felt triggered by you. Or constantly flout forum rules, and get aggressive when given a warning - and more than one I may add! You have issues UC, just like all of us. While I do feel for you, I have the feeling that that would be thrown back in my face. But I don't feel it's fair to come to a forum and behave in this manner. I know that there are other forums/sites you can visit if your only intention is to slate therapy and practitioners. Why come here? How does it serve you?

Faithless

Thank you for the information and for choosing to share it with us.

Ah, the ugly side of human nature is showing itself. Unfortunately me giving back "ugliness" to the projector/s is experienced as abusive and of course "triggering".

The group has found a common scape goat and this bonds against the feelings of anxiety in the face of possible loss of attachment figure (in this case the therapist).

When I started the discussion I was in a very desperate place but non of you were interested in what it was like for me, you were more interested in shielding the forum members from being "triggered" - that fabulous word again. As if I was the perpetrator who was going to penetrate peoples much needed idealisation and or denial. My first post was full of pain yet I was able to acknowledge that therapy can help but also kill. But because you needed to shield yourself against your own pain (possible loss of attachment figure) and my pain was an ugly reminder of what was/is feared so deeply, I was attacked and called abusive. I was not abusive, I also did not attack. You attacked me and I naturally became defensive and then hostile (which I have no problem owning) Instead of coming from a place of curiosity for my situation and pain you came from a place of fear, this is OK, but I will not own your projections stemming from your fear. You seem unable to deal with me giving back what you wanted me to carry for you and now the arena has filled (they have come from far away even so it seems!) to add to, witness and prolong the lynching of quite a vulnerable person who, as you well know, struggles with recovering from suicide.

Everything else following this selfish initial dismissal of my pain was built on this foundation. So please do not be surprised to see me become hostile towards your attacks upon me and my defending against those attacks.

It is not me who is attacking, within a group, a single member who has asked many times for her boundaries to be respected. Yet it seems even those who get "triggered" by this thread still keep coming back, even the one who usually says hardly anything has come out of the wood work to have a go to give her interpretation of past events she still feels so very resentful about but never had the guts to ask me about personally- of course, now that the group is in full swing, it feels much safer to come forward and let off some rage.

My words have indeed triggered something and perhaps now is the time to own what you are feeling and take it to therapy or disown and talk about the "big bad wolf" that is out there on "the forums" who cant play by the rules, gets herself banned and laughs at people (interesting interpretation, yet again, wrong).

Like I said before, it is always easier to see the badness and ugliness in others, but let me tell you, I have just held a mirror to your face and the person staring back at you is incredibly ugly and nasty by nature.

to protect myself against your continuing attacks I will not read any more posts here as it is quite difficult for me having to go through this; thank you to the one who has replied to me on my blog offering understanding and compassion, it meant a lot.

*yawn*

I think it would be best to lock the thread: it is indeed purely hurtful for everyone to keep exchanging "angry words" (even if they can be justified, legitimate, right now they don't create insight, only more anger and potential hurt?

I'm sorry you are retiring after sharing so much of your struggles to the point that we 'so well know' and after your fight, within your 25 posts.... for your boundaries to be respected over and over and over again. I knew you like a sister. Sorry you have to go and best of luck to you.

I think it is not bad to point out that some of us don't like therapists or therapy or md.s or even the idea of people who think of themselves as being in a healing profession or helpers or whatever. People come to sites like this to find out about therapy and info on the bad or downsides of it, I think, are also useful.
Having said that, I don't think attacking people who believe they have been helped by therapy is a good plan. If someone has been helped = then great and I don't get why anyone would try to tell them they are wrong. How would another person ever know?

Is there an ADMIN out there who could please close this thread? PLEASE.

The toxicity here has triggered quite a few to the point of withdrawal, and I just can't believe that allowing this to continue will serve well most of us here.

-RT

I've been watching this thread and I SO hoped it could remain a civil and thoughtful discussion with both sides respecting the other side. Of course, I realized that this was not likely due to the nature of the topic.

I apologize to those who are triggered and have suffered because of this discussion.

I, personally, was abused (not sexually) and abandoned by my oldT so I know first hand the damage that it causes. I, too, developed PTSD on TOP of my already existing C-PTSD. I, too, had a young child who needed me and basically survived without a functioning mother for at least a year.

BUT... it was a T who saved my life and I will be eternally grateful to him for what he has done for me and how he has always been there for me for the past 3.5 years.

That said... I am now locking this thread. I hope this will end this discussion or I will have to take this to Shrinklady recommending that memberships be suspended.

I am very saddened to have to take this action.

TN