Therapists have a lot of power. This episode is about a therapist who leveraged that power to abuse his clients.   Thank you for listening. To support the show and receive access to regular bonus episodes, check out the Very Bad Therapy Patreon community.   Introduction: 0:00 – 3:40 Part One: 3:40 – 1:03:16 Part Two: 1:03:16 – 1:18:18   Very Bad Therapy: Website / Facebook / Bookshelf / Tell Us Your Story   Show Notes: Donate to SPCA International Episode 82 – Predatory Therapists (with Dr. Diane Gehart) Therapy Exploitation Link Line (TELL) 

Very Bad Therapy

93. The Sociopath in the Therapy Room

Can wearing a cross be considered a type of bad therapy? This episode features a conversation with Johannah Song, LPC about the positive and negative ways therapists of faith can impact treatment by disclosing their religion. Plus, we talk about the right balance between expertise and curiosity, and why seeking consultation from a specialist is like baking a quiche.   Thank you for listening. To support the show and receive access to regular bonus episodes, check out the Very Bad Therapy Patreon community.   Introduction: 0:00 – 9:15 Part One: 9:15 – 55:46 Part Two: 55:46 – 1:29:38   Very Bad Therapy: Website / Facebook / Bookshelf / Tell Us Your Story   Show Notes: Donate to Traffick911 Intellection Consulting Always chatting in 55 minute chunks (Reddit) The Thinking Atheist Podcast 

92. Crossing the Line (with Johannah Song, LPC)

This episode’s interview with Sara is about two therapists – one who was too friendly, and another who wasn’t friendly enough. What should therapists consider before using risky interventions such as guilt, self-disclosure, or icy behavior? We try to answer these questions and more as we go back down the rabbit hole of using service-dominant logic to make therapy more effective.   Thank you for listening. To support the show and receive access to regular bonus episodes, check out the Very Bad Therapy Patreon community.   Introduction: 0:00 – 9:23 Part One: 9:23 – 47:16 Part Two: 47:16 – 1:25:00   Very Bad Therapy: Website / Facebook / Bookshelf / Tell Us Your Story   Show Notes: Donate to NAMI Maryland I found the latest episode of “Very Bad Therapy” to be pretty offensive and absurd and I’m curious to hear other’s thoughts on it. (Reddit) 

91. Guilt, Ghosting, and General Unpleasantness

Who should we talk to next about how to break the decades-long plateau of client outcomes in psychotherapy? Short on ideas, we take it upon ourselves to try and crack the 45-year-old riddle about how to make therapy more effective. Ben has another existential crisis, Carrie converts to the religion of customer service, and we (eventually!) explore why the path to better outcomes might go directly through Starbucks and the hospitality industry. We want to hear your feedback on this one!   VBT in Focus is a series of sporadic episodes in which Carrie and Ben have the privilege of chatting with their favorite thinkers in the field of psychotherapy. Thank you for listening. To support the show and receive access to regular bonus episodes, check out the Very Bad Therapy Patreon community.   Part One: 0:00 – 1:01:28 Part Two: 1:01:28 – 1:50:27   Very Bad Therapy: Website / Facebook / Bookshelf / Tell Us Your Story   Show Notes: Daniel Kahneman / Seth Godin Tyler Black’s Twitter Thread How To Know If You’re An Interrupter Or A ‘Cooperative Overlapper’ Job Demographics Search Tool WEIRD Bias The Person of the Therapist Training Model (Harry Aponte) Clients' and therapists' views of the therapeutic alliance: similarities, differences and relationship to therapy outcome The first sessions of psychotherapy: A qualitative meta-analysis of alliance formation processes. The Art of Creating a Magical Session: Key Elements for Transforming Psychotherapy The Inventory of Preferences (C-NIP): A User’s Guide SERVQUAL Service-Dominant Logic: Premises, Perspectives, Possibilities 

90. VBT in Focus: New Ideas to Fix Old Problems

Jill Johnson-Young is an expert in the areas of dying, death, and grief. She also has the personal experiences that come with having been widowed twice, including stories of the bad grief therapy that followed. In this episode, Jill shares what therapists and clients should know about working with grief and all the reasons why the conventional wisdom about grief therapy is often counterproductive.   Thank you for listening. To support the show and receive access to regular bonus episodes, check out the Very Bad Therapy Patreon community.   Introduction: 0:00 – 10:59 Part One: 10:59 – 1:14:34 Part Two: 1:14:34 – 1:25:50   Very Bad Therapy: Website / Facebook / Bookshelf / Tell Us Your Story   Show Notes: Donate to Make-A-Wish Jill Johnson-Young’s Website The Jessica Simulation: Love and loss in the age of A.I. An Investigation of Self-Assessment Bias in Mental Health Providers The Center for Complicated Grief Private Practice Grief Facebook Group 

89. The Widow and the Miracle Question (with Jill Johnson-Young, LCSW)

What is the role of a couples therapist in deciding whether a couple stays together or separates? In this episode, Sade Kammen shares their experience trying to navigate the impact of racism in their relationship, only to be met with unusual and unhelpful therapeutic interventions. Plus, we familiarize ourselves with the wonderfully curious idea of empirically-supported bullshit.   Thank you for listening. To support the show and receive access to regular bonus episodes, check out the Very Bad Therapy Patreon community.   Introduction: 0:00 – 6:28 Part One: 6:28 – 53:31 Part Two: 53:31 – 1:06:31   Very Bad Therapy: Website / Facebook / Bookshelf / Tell Us Your Story   Show Notes: Donate to NAACP Sade Kammen: TikTok | Instagram | Intergenerational Podcast This Place Is Full of It: Towards an Organizational Bullshit Perception Scale Package pricing comes with risks for therapists Microaggressions: Strong Claims, Inadequate Evidence Microaggressions: Clarification, Evidence, and Impact Microaggressions and “Evidence”: Empirical or Experiential Reality? 

88. Couples Therapy Bullshit (with Sade Kammen)

Halina Brooke rejoins us to share her story of bad therapy and resulting experience with the board complaint process. This episode is a bingo card of what not to do as a therapist: drink alcohol in session, send barrages of shaming texts to a client, weaponize client disclosures against them, cyberstalking, and more. When an interview begins with a legal disclaimer, you know some very bad therapy took place.   Thank you for listening. To support the show and receive access to regular bonus episodes, check out the Very Bad Therapy Patreon community.   Introduction: 0:00 – 6:42 Part One: 6:42 – 1:20:33 Part Two: 1:20:33 – 1:29:50   Very Bad Therapy: Website / Facebook / Bookshelf / Tell Us Your Story   Show Notes: Donate to the ASPCA Halina Brooke’s Website: Recourse Counseling A Randomized Trial of Dialectical Behavior Therapy Versus General Psychiatric Management for Borderline Personality Disorder A Randomized Trial of Dialectical Behavior Therapy in High-Risk Suicidal Veterans Zombie movies prepared you for the pandemic 

87. When Your Therapist Seems Unwell (with Halina Brooke, LAMFT)

When things go very wrong in therapy, clients often have the option of filing a complaint with the therapist’s licensing board. In this episode, Rebecca shares her experience of bad therapy and subsequent frustrations with the board hearings, and Halina Brooke joins us to talk about what clients and therapists need to know about the complaint process.   Thank you for listening. To support the show and receive access to regular bonus episodes, check out the Very Bad Therapy Patreon community.   Introduction: 0:00 – 4:39 Part One: 4:39 – 37:49 Part Two: 37:49 – 1:20:00 Part Three: 1:20:00 – 1:24:51   Very Bad Therapy: Website / Facebook / Bookshelf / Tell Us Your Story   Show Notes: Donate to Phoenix Rescue Mission Halina Brooke’s Website: Recourse Counseling Does Distanced Self-Talk Facilitate Emotion Regulation Across a Range of Emotionally Intense Experiences? Why You Should Talk to Yourself in the Third Person 

86. The Board Complaint Process (with Halina Brooke, LAMFT)

What can therapists do to provide culturally humble services to clients? Being curious is a good start, and not asking for evidence of racial bias should be an easy next step. In this episode, Grace shares her experience as a woman of color having to justify the impact of racism to her white therapist, and Farah Zerehi joins us to discuss the social justice critiques of “expert” approaches to therapy.   Thank you for listening. To support the show and receive access to regular bonus episodes, check out the Very Bad Therapy Patreon community.   Introduction: 0:00 – 3:48 Part One: 3:48 – 43:04 Part Two: 43:04 – 1:28:26 Part Three: 1:28:26 – 1:32:35   Very Bad Therapy: Website / Facebook / Bookshelf / Tell Us Your Story   Show Notes: Donate to The Loveland Foundation Grace Frösén’s Instagram and Comic Strips on Therapy Farah Zerehi’s Twitter Here’s Everything You Need To Know About Therapy (From An Actual Therapist) People Revealed The Toxic Vs. Brilliant Things Therapists Have Said To Them, And Their Stories Are Eye-Opening Commission on Race and Ethic Disparities: The Report Race report: What are the key points? 

85. Talking About Race (with Farah Zerehi, AMFT)

Attachment theory is one of the most credible areas in the field of psychotherapy. It is not, however, an excuse for a therapist to presume to be a substitute parental figure for a client. In this episode, Monika describes working with a therapist who talked about reparenting but undermined therapeutic progress with inconsistent boundaries and unethical behavior. Plus, Carrie takes a deep dive into the research on attachment between therapists and clients.   Thank you for listening. To support the show and receive access to regular bonus episodes, check out the Very Bad Therapy Patreon community.   Introduction: 0:00 – 6:07 Part One: 6:07 – 1:00:42 Part Two: 1:00:42 – 1:37:50   Very Bad Therapy: Website / Facebook / Bookshelf / Tell Us Your Story   Show Notes: Donate to The Mama Bear Effect How I Became Aware of My “Trauma Bond” With My Ex-Therapist Fifty psychological and psychiatric terms to avoid: a list of inaccurate, misleading, misused, ambiguous, and logically confused words and phrases The Implications of Attachment Theory in Counseling and Psychotherapy Attachment Theory and the Psychotherapy Relationship How Attachment Theory Works in the Therapeutic Relationship 

84. Are Therapists Substitute Parental Figures?

In this episode, our guest Maryellen shares her bad experience with a Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) specialist. But was it bad therapy? Was it therapy at all? Dr. Ben Caldwell joins us to share his thoughts on loosely regulated mental health services, and we explore the unfortunately relevant ethics of having sessions with clients while visiting the Dunkin’ Donuts drive-thru and getting tattooed.   Thank you for listening. To support the show and receive access to regular bonus episodes, check out the Very Bad Therapy Patreon community.   Introduction: 0:00 – 5:39 Part One: 5:39 – 45:56 Part Two: 45:56 – 1:27:36 Part Three: 1:27:36 – 1:32:04   Very Bad Therapy: Website / Facebook / Bookshelf / Tell Us Your Story   Show Notes: Donate to Fluffy Butt Rescue Rehab Riviera: An investigation into the Southern California rehab industry SimplePractice Learning Ben Caldwell Labs 

83. Drive-Thru DBT (with Dr. Ben Caldwell)

A small percentage of therapists do bad things – not tiny ruptures in the therapeutic alliance or scheduling errors, but truly exploitative practices. This is a story about the latter. Courtney describes her experience with a therapist who groomed her for inappropriate sexual contact, and we speak with Dr. Diane Gehart about the prevalence and tendencies of predatory therapists.   Thank you for listening. To support the show and receive access to regular bonus episodes, check out the Very Bad Therapy Patreon community.   Introduction: 0:00 – 4:50 Part One: 4:50 – 44:17 Part Two: 44:17 – 1:32:40 Part Three: 1:32:40 – 1:37:42   Very Bad Therapy: Website / Facebook / Bookshelf / Tell Us Your Story   Ben Fineman Counseling (Ben Fineman - Registered Associate MFT #119754 - Supervised by Curt Widhalm, LMFT #47333)   Show Notes: Donate to CHIPS Playschemes When Therapy Goes Wrong: The Examination of an Unregulated Industry Diane Gehart Website Diane Gehart’s YouTube Channel The Sociopath Next Door 6 Stages of Grooming Adults and Teens: Spotting The Red Flags Why is electroshock therapy still a mainstay of psychiatry? 

82. Predatory Therapists (with Dr. Diane Gehart)

Marissa Esquibel, LMFT joins us to talk about codependency – the tendency to let another person’s behavior affect your own while obsessing over trying to control that person’s behavior. What happens when this dynamic shows up in the therapeutic relationship and gets reinforced by well-intentioned caretaking? How can offering a reduced fee undermine therapeutic progress?   Thank you for listening. To support the show and receive access to regular bonus episodes, check out the Very Bad Therapy Patreon community.   Introduction: 0:00 – 6:31 Part One: 6:31 – 1:02:48 Part Two: 1:02:48 – 1:16:05   Very Bad Therapy: Website / Facebook / Bookshelf / Tell Us Your Story   Ben Fineman Counseling (Ben Fineman - Registered Associate MFT #119754 - Supervised by Curt Widhalm, LMFT #47333)   Show Notes: Donate to Southern Poverty Law Center Marissa Esquibel, LMFT: Website / Instagram The Codependummy Podcast: Website / Instagram / Twitter Codependent No More: How to Stop Controlling Others and Start Caring for Yourself 

81. Codependency In Therapy (with Marissa Esquibel, LMFT)

Kenneth R. Rosen is an author and journalist with firsthand experience in what is colloquially called the Troubled Teen Industry. This industry – a dubious version of wilderness therapy – often includes coercion, legal kidnapping, and manipulation. Kenneth joins us to talk about these harmful practices and his new book, Troubled: The Failed Promise of America’s Behavioral Treatment Programs.   Thank you for listening. To support the show and receive access to regular bonus episodes, check out the Very Bad Therapy Patreon community.   Introduction: 0:00 – 14:10 Part One: 14:10 – 1:06:05 Part Two: 1:06:05 – 1:14:31   Very Bad Therapy: Website / Facebook / Bookshelf / Tell Us Your Story   Ben Fineman Counseling (Ben Fineman - Registered Associate MFT #119754 - Supervised by Curt Widhalm, LMFT #47333)   Show Notes: Donate to the Rory Peck Trust Kenneth R. Rosen’s Website Troubled: The Failed Promise of America’s Behavioral Treatment Programs Psychological Science Accelerator The replication crisis devastated psychology. This group is looking to rebuild it. To which world regions does the valence– dominance model of social perception apply? Is it couple therapy, couple’s therapy, or couples therapy? 

80. The Troubled Teen Industry (with Kenneth R. Rosen)

Having a severe and persistent mental illness is difficult – especially when the stigma of certain diagnoses negatively influences treatment. On today’s episode, Ann discusses her up and down experiences in the mental health system and her important perspectives on how therapists talk about their clients. Plus, we explore the landmark research on first impressions that explains how the therapeutic relationship is shaped within the first few seconds of treatment.   Thank you for listening. To support the show and receive access to regular bonus episodes, check out the Very Bad Therapy Patreon community.   Introduction: 0:00 – 6:10 Part One: 6:10 – 46:49 Part Two: 46:49 – 1:21:22   Very Bad Therapy: Website / Facebook / Bookshelf / Tell Us Your Story   Ben Fineman Counseling - (Ben Fineman - Registered Associate MFT #119754 - Supervised by Curt Widhalm, LMFT #47333)   Show Notes: Donate to Your Local Library People Are Sharing “Red Flags” For Bad Therapists And Everyone Should Take Notes Perceptions of the impact of negatively valued characteristics on social interaction Expectancy Confirmation Processes Arising in the Social Interaction Sequence Lesson of a Lifetime (Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes)  

79. The Stigma of Severe Mental Illness

Very Bad Therapy is a closer look at what goes wrong in the counseling room - and how it could go better - as told by the clients who survived.

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Very Bad Therapy

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