Therapist's Assistance Was Very Unhelpful! It was hurtful.

by Jill J
(Cincinnati, Ohio, USA)

I signed up with a psychologist who had been practicing for over 40 years. He had a PhD in Philosophy which I noticed was hanging on his wall during my third visit. I had never been to a therapist with a PhD in Philosophy. Maybe that should have been my first clue to what was coming.

I asked my therapist how I can handle the stress of visiting my 28 year old multi-challenged son. My son has difficult behaviors which makes our visits stressful and I wasn't looking forward to visiting him. I needed advice on how to manage my stress and make our visits more enjoyable. The therapist told me he couldn't visit his now deceased mother for more than 15 minutes due to her strange behaviors. She had alzheimers and occasionally took off her clothes at times according to the staff. My therapist was embarrassed and ashamed of his mother for this. That didn't help me at all.

I talked about how expensive it would be to place my son in a facility which could help him out of state and out of pocket. He mentioned that his parents both had alzheimers and fortunately they had enough money to go into a good nursing home. They are both deceased now. Now how is that supposed to help me?

He didn't provide any answers, repeated the same answers, and forgot the gender of my disabled son even though I had seen the therapist for months. Shouldn't they remember these things?

He frequently looked like he was going to fall asleep during my sessions.

I fired him and I am currently looking for a better therapist.