hey lovely people
has anyone ever had a therapist suddenly stop sessions or stop returning phone calls?
I didn't know, but actually this is a really unethical thing for a psychotherapist (at least in my state) to do.
I've had it happen once, and it also happened to my ex when we were together. I still think about how it happened to me. It was pretty weird. I was taking psychic development classes at the time, and so I was all about trusting my intuition. My therapist told me she had a death in her family, and I told her that I had a feeling that had happened (because I did, I got a very strong sense that someone in her life was passing). Then she said she'd decided to divide her client files into 2 piles: one pile was people she'd continue to see, the other pile was people who she was referring out. I was in the referring out pile. I asked, since she was still keeping a practice going, if I would be able to ever see her in the future? Maybe she couldn't see me every week, but surely, every now and then if I needed a session? She said, "don't call me." Then she wouldn't send my records or even talk about what we'd covered with my next therapist. After months of not returning her calls, the only thing she would say to my next therapist was "I admired her spirit."
Like I said before, I didn't know at the time how unethical she was. I felt so ashamed and completely blamed myself. I think I even wondered if she somehow thought I was responsible for her loved one's death. Even now, as I think about it, it doesn't really make sense to me. I think about other things she said to me, like once how she said that I was wanting "perfect empathy" (as if this was too much to ask of her), and I really wonder about her. She's an older woman, and she always stressed how much experience she had. At our first meeting, she said I was lucky to have her as a therapist because of all of her experience. I just wonder why she was a therapist, and what she thought she was doing.
My current therapist says that she was cruel to me, maybe because she could be? And that it's a testament to my desire to heal that I continued seeking therapy after that.
Anyways, it was really messed up, I feel protective now of people who are in therapy because man, it's so vulnerable to be in the position of spilling your guts to someone who you respect and who you are trusting to have your best interests at heart. I also hope this message doesn't scare anyone from seeking treatment. There are really good clinicians out there too.
has anyone ever had a therapist suddenly stop sessions or stop returning phone calls?
I didn't know, but actually this is a really unethical thing for a psychotherapist (at least in my state) to do.
I've had it happen once, and it also happened to my ex when we were together. I still think about how it happened to me. It was pretty weird. I was taking psychic development classes at the time, and so I was all about trusting my intuition. My therapist told me she had a death in her family, and I told her that I had a feeling that had happened (because I did, I got a very strong sense that someone in her life was passing). Then she said she'd decided to divide her client files into 2 piles: one pile was people she'd continue to see, the other pile was people who she was referring out. I was in the referring out pile. I asked, since she was still keeping a practice going, if I would be able to ever see her in the future? Maybe she couldn't see me every week, but surely, every now and then if I needed a session? She said, "don't call me." Then she wouldn't send my records or even talk about what we'd covered with my next therapist. After months of not returning her calls, the only thing she would say to my next therapist was "I admired her spirit."
Like I said before, I didn't know at the time how unethical she was. I felt so ashamed and completely blamed myself. I think I even wondered if she somehow thought I was responsible for her loved one's death. Even now, as I think about it, it doesn't really make sense to me. I think about other things she said to me, like once how she said that I was wanting "perfect empathy" (as if this was too much to ask of her), and I really wonder about her. She's an older woman, and she always stressed how much experience she had. At our first meeting, she said I was lucky to have her as a therapist because of all of her experience. I just wonder why she was a therapist, and what she thought she was doing.
My current therapist says that she was cruel to me, maybe because she could be? And that it's a testament to my desire to heal that I continued seeking therapy after that.
Anyways, it was really messed up, I feel protective now of people who are in therapy because man, it's so vulnerable to be in the position of spilling your guts to someone who you respect and who you are trusting to have your best interests at heart. I also hope this message doesn't scare anyone from seeking treatment. There are really good clinicians out there too.