Therapy Harm
I seek to cultivate competency* in supporting patients** who have been traumatically harmed by psychotherapy.
Having been harmed in therapy myself, I hope to support survivors in navigating the often catastrophic trauma and strandedness of the post-harm landscape, as well as assist fellow therapists in equipping themselves to face this difficult reality in our field, such that they can do increasingly honest, competent, and supportive therapeutic work with survivors of therapy harm who are in dire need of, and fully deserve, the best care we can give them.
To stay up to date on my therapy harm content and resources, you can find me on Instagram and at the Therapy Harm Resistance Project (THRP). Below are some resources to get you started, as well as information on my consultation offerings.
Resources
Therapy Exploitation Link Line (TELL): "a peer support network that seeks to help victims and survivors of exploitation by psychotherapists and other healthcare providers find the resources they will need to understand what has happened to them, to take action, and to heal." TELL offers extensive writings on the subject of therapy abuse, as well as peer support by email.
Therapy Harm Resistance Project Community Resources Doc: "For too long, therapy harm survivors have been left stranded, without nearly sufficient resourcing for the profound nature of the trauma and crisis we can be left with. Nowadays, while the therapy harm support ecosystem is small, it is fortunately growing. This living document is the Therapy Harm Resistance Project (THRP)’s attempt to collect and disseminate community resources for survivors to consider as they seek support for healing."
Surviving Therapist Abuse: "The intention for this site is twofold: First, to bring awareness and attention to the issue of therapist abuse, exploitation, and professional sexual misconduct by providing a survivor’s perspective; second, to offer resources for those who may need help or support." Here you can find the Treatment Abuse Checklist, a non-exhaustive but helpful list of boundary issues that may present in harmful treatment.
AdvocateWeb: "AdvocateWeb is a nonprofit organization providing information and resources to promote awareness and understanding of the issues involved in the exploitation of persons by trusted helping professionals." This site offers resources primarily for those having been harmed via sexual/romantic exploitation by a provider or authority figure.
How to Recognize Abuse in Therapy and What to Do About It: a non-exhaustive description of problematic elements that may present in harmful treatment.
When Therapy Harms: Five Warning Signs of Abusive Therapy: a description of five categories of conduct by therapists that indicate harmful treatment, and some possible impacts upon patients.
Consultation
While I orient to my work on therapy harm primarily as an activist-scholar, if you feel it would be useful to speak with me directly, I offer consultation to both patients/survivors and providers.*** (Providers, please see my For Therapists page to learn more about my offerings for clinicians.)
To make this type of support more accessible to survivors, I offer many formats for consultation, including video, phone, in person, in writing by email, through exchanged voice memos, via confidential text platform, or through combinations of the above (example: you email me, I send you back a voice memo).
Short-Term Consultation for Survivors
This is 1-3 sessions to process a prior experience of therapy harm, the ongoing impacts of the experience including impacts in subsequent therapies, and to discuss any therapy harm resources that might be useful to know about. You can review my informed consent document here, which is the document you will be asked to sign in order to formally initiate consultation with me. This is a new offering: please email me directly with any questions or to schedule a consultation session.
Ongoing Therapy Harm Consultation
Ongoing Therapy Harm Consultation Spaces are full. I am currently in the process of assessing whether I should/can maintain a waitlist. Should you wish to, I invite you to get in touch with me to let me know of your interest, as this may help me gauge demand for this type of support.
Whatever venue you choose, I offer one (1) hour of complimentary engagement as you feel out whether I might be a trustworthy and useful person for you to talk with. This hour can be all at once, or in multiple parts. Should you wish to proceed after the initial hour (which is not a requirement; sometimes that hour is all that's needed/wanted), we will then discuss how this kind of consultation works and what would create a supportive experience for you. You are welcome to review my informed consent document here, which is the document you will be asked to sign in order to formally initiate consultation with me.
Fees
Consultation is not covered by health insurance. In cases of access need, I do my utmost to offer fee reduction.
Consultation Session Fee (~55min): $185
(session length can be modified as needed, and the fee will be prorated accordingly)
Disclaimers
*
While I seek to cultivate specialization such that I may be useful, I am not an expert on therapy harm. I sincerely hope my experience and efforts can assist. However, I am humbled by the breadth and depth of the problem at hand, and know my knowledge will always be limited. Additionally, I believe that as a psychotherapist myself, I can never responsibly claim expertise on the topic of the harms perpetuated by my own field. I am part of the mental health system, and complicit in its abuses.
Additionally, I hold multiple identities of privilege, including white privilege and class privilege, and that of participating in therapy in my native language and culture. As such, my lived experience of therapy harm does not inform me on those resulting from systemic abuses from which I am shielded by my privilege. I aim to assist with humility for my lacking insider understanding of these and other dynamics of harm.
**
Regarding the use of "client" or "patient" language: while I believe there are good reasons that many prefer the term “client” and I often feel torn on which word to use, I typically choose the term “patient” as for me, this word connotes a greater responsibility on the part of the provider which I strive to embody and internalize. I acknowledge that "patient" problematically invokes the paternalistic medical model within which psychotherapy is situated. Likewise, I worry that "client" does not correctly represent the sometimes extreme power dynamic endemic to the systemic and relational format of therapy.
***
Regarding consultation for patients/survivors: ultimately, my hope is to find sources of funding that would allow me to support survivors at low or no cost. I recognize my services might be out of reach financially for some, and that others might find paying a therapist too triggering, even in a consultation role. The bulk of my income comes from my psychotherapy practice. As a therapist-survivor activist-scholar, my primary focus continues to be creating free resources and content, and sharing all helpful resources and content I find from the therapy harm ecosystem, with no gatekept content based upon capacity to pay.