29 Of The Worst Ever Things Therapists Said To Patients

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14 hours ago

Recently, Reddit user Normal_Enthusiasm194 posed a question to the popular Ask Reddit page asking, "What is something your therapist did that made you fire them?"
Obviously, that seemed super juicy, so I had to share some of the best answers:
"She told me that my cousin masturbating to pictures of me was normal."
"Sat there and stared at me while I talked without ever offering feedback, reflections, or insights."
"Not mine, but my sister was doing a session over Zoom when the TikTok her therapist was watching offscreen started playing on full volume."
"She told my mom everything I told her. I was 15 at the time."
"Tried really hard to convince me my dad had sexually abused me and I had repressed it. There was no way on earth that was true."
"She talked way too much about herself and her experiences and talked over me when I tried to take back the conversation."
"She brought up things that my friend told her about me in their session."
"My first appointment with a new therapist, there was a knock at the door like 15 minutes in. It was the therapist's supervisor. The therapist said she didn't think there was anything they could do for me, and she was emailing her boss the whole time I was speaking, telling her that I was a danger to myself and needed to go to inpatient care. The therapist WOULD NOT BELIEVE ME that I wasn't suicidal. I ended up having a panic attack and leaving."
"I told him I started feeling suicidal again, to which he responded, 'I don't really think about it or worry when you say that, because you've been suicidal for a while and you're still here.' I almost wanted to write a note and do it just to have his license taken."
"I live in a very nice neighborhood, which is well known for being an affluent area. After finding out where I lived, my therapist went on for about 15 minutes about how awful the east side of Indianapolis is and how he wouldn't live in my neighborhood because it's too close to the 'bad part of town.'"
"Scheduled an appointment for me on a holiday when the office wasn't even open, then tried to penalize me for no-call/no-showing."
"I said I was feeling suicidal and she said, 'So just do it then.' I was flabbergasted."
"I had an eating disorder, I told her peanut butter was a safe food and she said she packed on the pounds when she started eating peanut butter. Messed me up a bit."
"She no-showed me at 5:01 when my appointment was at 5:00. I was waiting in the virtual room for the appointment to start to boot."
"Slept with my (now ex) husband. After making fun of my name. Oh, the paperwork I filed for breach of ethics with THAT situation…"
"I went to a therapist for the first time ever. It was fine..."
"Tried to get me to join her MLM side hustle, was VERY pushy about it. Never went back."
"Confused me for another patient twice, asking about my husband's infidelity. Do you know something I don't???"
"The therapist that I was seeing for a devastating miscarriage kept bringing up how I should leave my husband, who, it must be said, was being distant and unsupportive."
"He told me I should quit taking my bipolar meds and microdose mushrooms instead (this may not be bad advice for someone with depression, but it's terrible and irresponsible advice for someone with bipolar disorder). My psychiatrist was mortified."
"She kept a single goldfish in a shallow bowl of water. I mentioned that it has negative effects on the fish to be kept like that, but she brushed it off. I couldn't go back."
"Well, I only lasted one session with one because she said, 'You've only been physically and emotionally abused? The majority of women I see have also been sexually abused.' Well, I'm sorry I don't have enough trauma for you!"
"I was barely three months postpartum, so I normally rolled up in sweats. I wore 'real clothes' and makeup one day to a session (might've been my fourth or fifth time with her)."
"They connected my issue to me being a person of color when it wasn't connected to that. Forced this issue in sessions."
"I told this guy about some issues I have with girls/women being seen as less than in the culture I came from. A few sessions later he was cheerfully telling me about how great his men's groups are and how he wishes he could only work them."
"After six visits, my therapist continued to call my dead husband by the wrong name, then told me to go home, write my 'troubles' down on a piece of paper, and burn it so I'd feel better."
"Tried to seduce me to have sex with her."
"I was talking about how much I struggled to gain weight (I have literally been under 100 pounds for my entire life and have an eating disorder). He told me I shouldn't gain weight because he thought I looked great and he wished his wife was 'tight' like me. 🤮"
"I responded that I'm clinically underweight and unhealthy and he told me it didn't matter because he thought I looked good."
And finally: ""While I was explaining how I wanted to process the trauma of my C-section, she interjected with, 'Because you took the easy way out?'"
Okay, please dish all your thoughts about these in the comments — some of these were absolutely wild. And if you have your own story to share, go for it!
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