I had a good first year with Marenka before things went harmfully haywire. One year into our…read moretherapeutic relationship, I experienced an agonizing breakup that intensified my emotional reactivity. During this and another crisis, Marenka responded to me in ways that were unprofessional and immensely damaging to my wellbeing.
In response to my hyper-verbal grieving, Marenka attempted to slow me down by "coming in hot" and "getting experimental" (her words). She dismissed my repeated requests to revisit insights I'd begun processing in a previous session, telling me she didn't believe I really wanted to discuss it due to my ADHD-fueled processing style (jumping from one concern to the next). Though I assured her I was serious about it (this being the third time I'd brought it up), she continued to refuse. When I responded angrily to this dismissal, she asked me if I had spoken to my ex in the same way. This sent me out of her office. We eventually recovered from this rupture, and Marenka encouraged me to continue providing feedback about my experience of our sessions and therapeutic relationship.
A few months later, I was in a work-related quagmire that stirred up some nasty toxic stress for me. I was experiencing a sharp uptick in CPTSD symptoms and needed acute support. I asked for Marenka's help figuring out how to navigate triggering communications with my coworkers, and I shared that I'd begun experiencing suicidal ideations again. Marenka never asked questions about my ideations and said, while shrugging, that she wondered who could help me with the work comms.
Marenka's harmful response to my ADHD overstimulation and difficulties regulating my attention and emotions became even more aggressive during this time. While I rapidly cycled through chaotic verbal processing about my work stress, Marenka became irritated and yelled at me: "what is so hard about slowing down?!" I felt as though my ADHD got in her way, which is a shitty way to feel when I go to therapy to, in part, figure out how to manage my ADHD symptoms. During another session around this time, I tried to share an insight with Marenka that I thought was important. She cut me off mid-illustration to let me know, exasperatedly, that I didn't need to rehash "the whole thing."
Marenka became defensive and dismissive when I shared my concerns about these issues. Rather than respond to my feedback, she announced that we should terminate therapy altogether. When I asked her to respond to my feedback, she said she would only do so if I proved to her that I cared for her well-being. In addition to centering herself in her work as a therapist, Marenka seems unaware of the power imbalance between therapists and their patients/clients.
She also does not take seriously the social contexts that condition mental illness and wellness. Throughout our sessions, she consistently disavowed the socio-political container in which relationships occur, insisting, time and time again, that my male partner's shirking of domestic labor was not a gendered issue. Finally, despite my requests (from jump) to work though racialized trauma that contributes to my chronic pain and emotional dysregulation, Marenka alleged, at the end of our time together, that she was unaware of this dimension of my experience and of my desire to center it in therapy.
I would NOT recommend Marenka to BIPOC or ND folks.