I have no trust in this woman. I find her behavior questionable and wouldn't trust anything she has to say - which really doesn't bode well for a therapeutic relationship. Extremely disappointed with her lack of knowledge but found her unwillingness to admit to her inability to address my needs more distressing.
She had promised group therapy and was never able to provide it, although on more than one occasion bragged that not only was she in charge of groups but that she trained and reviewed other clinicians who lead groups. If that was truly the case how could she be unable to find a suitable group over the course of a year?
As an adult male it's difficult to find suitable groups, but her response was extremely unfortunate. She made an off-handed comment about my joining a group she had of young women in their twenties, I as most heterosexual males wouldn't be upset with this prospect. She likely meant it to be absurd, but instead of clarifying the situation she let it drag out, and in effect strung me along for over two months, granted I could have interpreted her lack of addressing the situation as a hint - but are patients expected to interpret a professional's incapacity to address an uncomfortable situation? Really?
I question her emotional intelligence - on one occasion she opened up about her divorce and stated she was willing to work on the marriage but her husband wasn't - it was all him, he was happy with her and wanted to continue the relationship, but he wasn't willing to contribute. First, it wasn't an appropriate topic and I asked her to stop immediately - second it shows a pattern of incapacity to take responsibility for problems. And ironically she now specializes as a marriage counselor.
I question her capacity to deal with uncomfortable topics, I was stunned at her response to a situation that occurred when I was 3 that led to a series of misinterpretations of potential deviant behavior, which never presented itself. In preschool I startled a guinea pig, when I told her this she got emotional - and told me it's ok for her to do that because she's sensitive to the needs of small animals - Umm . . What about my need for her to behave professionally? Her response was upsetting and completely inappropriate for the dynamic that one would expect of any professional. Further when my parents were present I took a picture of her whiteboard with my mother in the picture - Laura screamed "what are you doing!?! I explained I was merely taking a picture of her recommendations and she never apologized for her erratic response. My parents were dumbfounded at her behavior.
I thought we'd established a friendship and I lent her a DVD of the Oscar winning film "the lives of others". She found herself unable to watch it because of an interrogation scene. The movie is uplifting and the main character has an arc which helps him become a compassionate human being. I explained this to her and find it very concerning that she couldn't even deal with a movie's presentation of interrogation. How exactly is she supposed to deal with real traumas?
Further evidence of her lack luster performance and inability to address her inadequacies - I had asked her to assist me with self-confidence or self-respect her response on several occasions was "I don't like those words". When I finally confronted her and demanded an explanation she stated she couldn't write it out on her white board. - - - Instead of stating that her training didn't give her the capacity to address my needs she insinuated something was wrong in how I was expressing myself. Very manipulative behavior. After my father visited and questioned whether the sessions were of value she said "we know better than he does" Really? That's my dad and I trust his judgement implicitly, I question Laura's entirely.
I found a group on my own but unfortunately it wasn't helpful, one of the members insisted on taking up most of the time and refusing to listen to help, she was a help-rejecting complainer, the therapist in charge refused to address this over a course of months. I was truly frustrated - I told Laura - my response was to make a bad joke out of it - the woman wouldn't accept help but I'd like to help her commit suicide. Laura's response was that of disgust. Wow, I'm trying to deal with my frustration, I expressed a thought that I had no intention of acting on, and Laura's disgusted? I thought her office was supposed to be a safe environment to express my thoughts, apparently not. This wasn't said to the woman in question, no one was being hurt (except me). Instead of congratulating me on leaving the group before I said something hurtful she looked at me with disgust and repeatedly said thank you in an extremely unpleasant tone.
When I wrote an email to complain, she told me I had to address any concerns in session - I wasn't about to spend any more time or money on this "treatment". read more
