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‘Therapist’ is a broad definition that refers to mental health professionals who specialize in helping patients process difficult emotions and experiences, equip them with coping mechanisms to breeze through life challenges, and reduce symptoms of mental disorders. Such help has improved the lives of many, but let’s not forget that therapists are also people, which means they make mistakes too. Speaking of...someone online asked netizens to share times when a therapist said something so completely unhinged and unprofessional it immediately made them want to switch to another one. Scroll down to find their answers below, and don’t forget to upvote the hardest-to-believe ones.
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#1
I had wounds (sv) and showed them to my therapist, she said that they were not deep and that I should go deeper next time. I have another therapist since then
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#2
When I was talking about how my mom abused me my whole childhood and she said “do you not have empathy?” Basically saying I should have empathy for my mom for abusing me?????
No therapist is perfect, and the therapy journey itself can be uncomfortable (for good reasons!), so knowing when to act on what could be 'red flags' in therapy can sometimes get confusing.
According to a Psychology Today article, some of the warning signs of a bad therapist include talking excessively about themselves, refusing to accept constructive criticism, and avoiding talking about what the process will look like.
"Other warning signs include: being judgmental or critical of the client’s choices or lifestyle, appearing bored or distracted during sessions, treating the client as emotionally or intellectually inferior, or seeming easily overwhelmed or upset by information the client discloses."
#4
I have ocd and i get really bad intrusive thoughts, which give me bad anxiety. She then asked me to tell her the thoughts that i get. So I told her, and she just straight up started to laugh.😀
#5
"you can't be lesbian because you have daddy issues" ok sorry let me switch sides real quick
#6
"You're so boring, that's why you don't have any friends. Just go outside, the depression will cure itself and you will make friends." (for context: I have social anxiety)
Some specific phrases that give away that a therapist is acting unprofessionally are “There’s not much we can do about that” and “You just have to suck it up/do it/snap out of it.”
These phrases imply the minimization of the problem and hinder faith in mental health professionals, which is one of the most important things about treatment. When a therapist is unsure of what can be done for a specific patient's situation, they should see it as a learning curve and seek supervision and withhold commentary, like the phrases mentioned just above.
#7
"You're not autistic, who told you that wasn't right, you need to find God and go to church"
#8
She asked for a hug. She knows I don’t do hugs. She said “but what if I wanted one?”. I told somebody because that’s a BIG violation, when I told her I document everything she got … weird
#9
I told my therapist all how I felt since I didn't feel brave enough to tell my parents since they'd push me away. I was showing clear symptoms of stress and depression. Yet she proceed to tell my parents everything and giving me barely any access to the internet, where my most trusted friends are. She made me get more worse, I don't want to see her ever again. She never even really helped me either and didn't understand me either
#10
Came into session saying I was finally ready to speak about the details of traumatic events. Crying and shaking while I explain… look up to see her falling asleep in her chair.
#11
I’m adopted, and she drew like a life board for me and in the family section she drew me outside of the circle bc it “wasn’t my real family”
#12
She secretly had a session with my husband (not her client) exposing everything I had confided in her about 😍✌️
#13
"if you really want to die then why are you still alive" looking back on it I can see what she was trying to do but to me it just sounded like a dare
#14
my second psychiatrist who did my diagnostics told me she couldnt help me anymore but thinks i have bpd AND THEN told me i could go switzerland for assisted death
#15
basically dismissed my attempts and was OBSESSED with my mom. he saw her once and i guess he fell for her LMAO?? she’s one of the reason i’m like this YET he’d always bring her up 😒
#16
I told her how i lay in bed all day and cant do any of the things that i desire and she said "well sometimes its nice to just lay and do nothing" LIKE WHAT?? I just told her how i want to do so much but can't
#17
"idk how to help u so u don't have to come back" and treated me like a child because Im autistic and couldn't identify what emotion I was feeling
#18
I Said that i struggle with feeling like nobody around me actually likes me and she goes ”yes, i can understand that you would feel that way, u are very far back in life for your age”. She also shamed me for not wanting kids. She thought it was weird meeting women who don’t long to be a mother, and that was an indication for being ”odd” as a person
#19
“your scars aren’t pleasing what will you do in summer to hide them”, babes, nothing, im getting my tan thats what
#20
I was at my psychiatrist's nd they were taking my blood for tests and the nurse asked me if I was feelinv okay and my psychiatrist said 'she's alright, shes used to bleeding, right?'
#21
I told her that it’s hard for me to go outside because I feel like everybody is watching me. She said « don’t worry you’re not that pretty »
#24
“I understand lesbians and gays, but i cannot stand bisexual. In my opinion they don’t exist”.
#25
After I told her about my mom trauma she just said “Your mom probably doesn’t have it easy with you.”
#28
uh idk but when I was 14 & skipped school for over a year because of depression, extreme anxiety & ptsd she just straight up looked at me & said „So you didn’t went to school because you were lazy.“ she was also the one who diagnosed me.. Like I got my diagnoses & two-three sittings later she said that into my face, I was like ?????
#29
I have a lot of horrible stories but this one’s the easiest to share: “You’re too smart to commit s*icide”
#30
“it’s for egoistic people like you that I hate my job” idk Marta, I tried to kms yesterday, maybe spare me a bit
#31
“every time I see you I lowkey get pissed off” I was terrified of opening up and this made me crash out real bad💀
#32
she said "can't you just get over it?" after talking about the same situation for the millionth time😭
#33
"I know you don't want a session with your mother, but-" Yeah guess who's mother was all smiley and good at that session (I didn't even want) and then made me regret life at home
#34
Not too crazy but dropped the ”not all men” bomb when i told her i feel a bit uncomfortable with men for many reasons and past experiences
#35
my therapist said i dont have a reason to be depressed cuz i go to school everyday(i really struggle with it tho) and have loving parents, then my psychiatrist diagnosed me with deep depression
#36
I started crying and I avoided to loot at the therapist face because I was crying and she said "why don't you look at me you know when you talk to people you have to look at them"
#37
I was inpatient at the ed ward and my psychiatrist recommended I watched TO THE BONE to get motivation to recover - it backfired VIOLENTLY and made my situation even worse 😭
#38
That I would be great for medical experiments because my case is so complicated, unique and insane and she would love to see many experiments on me 🥰
#41
“You look a bit pale, you feeling okay?” I was honest and I have an ed so I said yeah haven’t eaten much today. Lol she just said “well then you know what to do!” Smiled and ended the session
#42
A therapist I had was convinced I had DID at the age of 13!! All because I was accused of something I didn’t do and no one believed me including her, so of course it had to be an alter…
#43
i self-harmed and she got visibly and audibly irritated. Started asking me why I was being so childish and acting like a 7 year old. The irony is that I also self-harmed when I was 7 lol. then she gave me a whole sermon and told my responsible guardians who also gave me a sermon. I just wanted help!
#45
“Do you not want too talk too me because im black” bro it was my second time there i was nervous 😭
#47
opened up about sa for the first time and he just said “that happens to most people” and then started asking me if i was a virgin, if i was a dom or sub and what i like in bed (i was 15)
#49
a therapist told me she gave someone tips on how to commit cause she thought that if they were actually gonna do it then they wouldn’t talk about it in therapy, that person committed the next day and mind you she told me this “story” laughing while I was also in a state of crisis, I dropped her immediately
#50
that I was ‘’overweight and just needed to change my lifestyle’’ when I was severely depressed and didn’t want to live 🥰
#51
Was talking about my future a lot so that I could be prepared and she said what makes you think that you'll live up to that age 💀was brutal but eye opening for me
#52
I was stuck in a group therapy, and the psychiatrist had a student with us for the session, and the psychiatrist said mid session to the student "see? they are stuck in the mud"
#54
When my grandad passed away he said he could see him standing behind me when I went to the session. Yeah that’s nice but I’m still in shock
#55
“Are you sure it’s body dysmorphia? You can try dressing nice and taking care of yourself and your appearance, see how it feels.” AFTER I spent like $1000 on hair care, skin care, makeup and gym :)
#56
I was diagnosed with major depression then my old therapist told me I didn’t have it cuz I could smile.
#57
"Well she is your mother, so technically she can do that." after i said my mom told me she was gonna take away my individuality and make me live in a room w/nothing but a mattress
#58
I used to dress with baggy clothes and she told me that she thinks im trans. when i told her im not she said im wrong and i just dont realise it yet. i never came back after that
#59
i was talking abt my eating issues with a therapist and then she asked me my weight and goes “ur not even fat”
#60
When I trauma dumped and she had no words and the next appointment she asked nothing and said I don’t need to come it’s a waste…
#62
Refused to consider any diagnosis for me because I’m “a teenager and that’s how teenagers act”
#64
calling my (now diagnosed) depression "low mood" because it was "disrespectful" to people who actually had depression like what also she shamed me for sh
#66
She said my lips looked dry and I explained to her I had been struggling with sh just on my lips and she said “you should buy some lip balm, they’re so cracked”
#67
not a therapist but I asked my psychiatrist what the disorder she diagnosed me with is and she said "if you'd like to know go study psychiatry"
#69
i told her i did molly and it made me feel love for my parents for the first time in my life and she was like “okay yeah maybe that could be a routine thing!”
#70
Im also dutch and one time this therapist recommended that i should look into assisted death examination/testing, but i just turned 18 and i was in a very irrational state when this happened too
#72
Said I should be “grateful” that “ at least your r*pist was good looking, it could’ve been an old ugly man” 🤪🙄🙃
#73
Mine told me if I feel insecure about how I look then I should think about how many men I’ve slept with as evidence that I’m not ugly
#74
compared anorexia to being trans in a sense that she thought “both should be satisfied with the body they have” and then when i confronted her about it she pretended it didn’t happen💔
#75
I was severely bullied for 4y, my therapist asked me would it matter if the things the bullies said to me would be true💀plus i was very s*icidal bc of it
#76
Mine doubted every prior diagnosis that I had (except autism for some reason) until I literally proved it to her. I’ve been seeing her for years and this was at the beginning. She’s gotten better tho
#77
"You know too much about this stuff. You are developing Munchauser's." All I did was tell her I wanted to be tested for autism and that I was going to the doctors to be diagnosed with POTS + hEDS.
#78
My psychiatrist kicked me bc I told her to not call me « sir, boy, etc » but juste by my first name
#79
I was crying bc my dog was almost ☠️and she said (in a mean way) that my dog was gonna die soon and she liked to see me cry
#81
they said they didn’t know how to help me because it normally happens to kids and proceeded to sit there and talk about how they experienced it instead🫡
#83
"i dont like the fact your talking so bad about your mother she's an human being too. you got those scars just for attention how could you do that?" i was like..what?
#84
Well one day she started talking about sh and I opened up and then she made me show her and she laughed and said “do it deeper next time so you get stitches and people will actually feel bad” um ya
#85
told her i was c4nnibalising myself and all she said was “dont get an infection”. not an ounce of sympathy in her tone or face
#86
My psychiatrist said that I wasn’t asexual and it was just bc I was depressed and then started to talk about how great sex was!!! On the day we met. I never saw her ever again
#87
Told her I was thinking of unaliving myself in august (this was in july) and she said see you back here in October and sent me home 🧑🦲
#90
I talked to her about my gender dysphoria and she said “why do you have a problem with your womanhood?” 🫠
#91
i stopped because she was telling me every time that she doesn't know how to help and that we can meet each month just for updates in my life
#92
Okay so she said “instead of making yourself throw up try the food for the flavor and spit it out”
#94
He kept getting EVERYTHING wrong about my OSDD despite me explaining to him MULTIPLE times what it was and how it worked. (He was forty two with a PHD. Like cmon.)
#95
my first one told me to just look directly INTO the sun and ill be happy. yea, didnt work that well 💀
#96
That my dad looked really nice and i was wrong to say otherwise when i told her he emotionally abused me all my childhood
#100
What she told me after I explained my family history "It's weird that only MEN in your family have committed $uicide that sounds almost sexist" but in swedish lol 💀
#102
‘There must have been something in it for you’ about an abusive relationship where I was strangled
#103
mine did not want to diagnoze me until i would take the pills she gave me in front of her😭
#105
She told me I fit the criteria and I have it but she told me I will not medically diagnose you as I don’t want to label you 💀
#106
one time I went because I had to right and she said “I don’t like you” and I say good for you and then she got up and threw a vase at me then only to find out she wasn’t a therapist she was a patient
#107
I told her I was having homicidal thoughts, she accused me of making it up just to keep seeing her
#108
Asking me to repeat not only things i had JUST SAID, but pretty much everything I had said in previous sessions
#110
"if they think you are weird, accept it", sorry but i can not accept what random people say about me
#111
„I see why you don‘t have that many friends, because your hobbies are not common in your age so they make you an outcast“
#112
I opened up about trauma and she said: yeah that happens sadly much to people. Girl. no if you would have listened I really hope it doesn't 😂
#113
Mine started arguing with me about how her being misgendered (as a cis woman) equals me being misgendered as a trans guy and wouldn't back down 😭 Still with her sadly
#114
“while a woman who lost her son to cancer had a better development than u, u’re stayin same i dont understand” like bfr u should be more professional than my friends
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What do you think ?
Chaos Pandas Unite 10 months ago
A lot of these are obviously unprofessional and dangerous, and then some of them (when part of a larger, balanced intervention) aren’t necessarily terrible. But taken out of context it’s hard to know… like some that may be assessing for perspective taking/ability to have a realistic and wider perspective for example.
L Sarris 10 months ago
They are also self reported memories of what someone said while in emotional distress. Its highly likely the comments were not as presented here, but are a reflection of their fears/ assumptions. Source: Psych RN
Load More Replies...
Chaos Pandas Unite 10 months ago
A lot of these are obviously unprofessional and dangerous, and then some of them (when part of a larger, balanced intervention) aren’t necessarily terrible. But taken out of context it’s hard to know… like some that may be assessing for perspective taking/ability to have a realistic and wider perspective for example.
L Sarris 10 months ago
They are also self reported memories of what someone said while in emotional distress. Its highly likely the comments were not as presented here, but are a reflection of their fears/ assumptions. Source: Psych RN
Load More Replies...
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