Bronwen Clark is the author of Don’t Be Weird: A Memoir of Food and Feelings. She joins us to share experiences of bad therapy from her healing journey that include being kicked out of eating disorder treatment for being too depressed – only to almost be kicked out of mood disorder treatment for being too eating disordered. This is a compelling story of trauma and resilience.

Thank you for listening. To support the show and receive access to regular bonus episodes, check out the Very Bad Therapy Patreon community.

Show Notes:

• Donate to National Eating Disorders Association
• Don’t Be Weird: A Memoir of Food and Feelings
• Associations Between Cultural Identity and Attitudes Toward Routine Progress Monitoring in a Sample of Ethnically Diverse Community Therapists
• Racial Microaggressions Against African American Clients in Cross-Racial Counseling Relationships
• Therapy for Black Girls Podcast – Session 46: Mental Health Needs of Activists
• Very Bad Therapy: Website / Facebook / Tell Us Your Story

Paul Gilmartin is a former stand-up comedian and host of the widely popular Mental Illness Happy Hour podcast. We speak with him about his journey with clinical depression, insights on mental health and psychotherapy from ten years of hearing others’ personal stories, and his own experiences of very bad therapy. Plus, Paul shares his thoughts on self-obsession and the quest for fame.

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. Support the show by becoming a monthly subscriber on Patreon to receive access to bonus episodes or by making a one-time contribution via PayPal.

Show Notes:

• The Mental Illness Happy Hour
• My First Day In Therapy Survey
• Do Psychotherapists Improve With Time and Experience? A Longitudinal Analysis of Outcomes in a Clinical Setting
• Why Finding a Black Therapist Made All the Difference
• White Therapists, Here’s What Your Black Colleagues Want You to Know
• Very Bad Therapy: Website / Facebook / Tell Us Your Story

In today’s episode, our guest J shares two experiences that highlight the difficulties therapists can have in intercultural therapeutic relationships. We also speak with Dr. Pamela Hays about the ADDRESSING model and other strategies therapists can use to mitigate the impact of their cultural biases in session with clients.

Thank you for listening. Support the show by becoming a monthly subscriber on Patreon to receive access to bonus episodes or by making a one-time contribution via PayPal.

Show Notes:

• Donate to Med’EqualiTeam
• Addressing Cultural Complexities in Practice: Assessment, Diagnosis, and Therapy
• Dr. Pamela Hays’ Website
• An Invitation to White Therapists
• Therapy for Black Girls – Session 40: Do I Need a New Therapist?
• The Every Body Book: The LGBTQ+ Inclusive Guide for Kids about Sex, Gender, Bodies, and Families
• Very Bad Therapy: Website / Facebook / Tell Us Your Story

Ben and Carrie discuss their commitment to making this podcast an antiracist space.

Show Notes:

• Webinar – Ask the Experts: Treating Mental Health in the Black Community
• I’m a Black Therapist…& Yes, it matters.
• Stamped from the Beginning – The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America
• Why I Left My White Therapist
• How Therapists Drive Away Minority Clients
• Black People Go To Therapy, Too: Session 2 – Kellen
• Very Bad Therapy: Website / Facebook / Tell Us Your Story

Candace Newmaker was a 10-year-girl who tragically died in the process of rebirthing therapy, a variation of a pseudoscientific treatment of childhood trauma known as attachment therapy. This episode comes with a big trigger warning. If you were in a room where a child was being suffocated, would you do anything to stop her death?

Thank you for listening. Support the show by becoming a monthly subscriber on Patreon to receive access to bonus episodes or by making a one-time contribution via PayPal.

Show Notes:

• Anti-racism resources
• Anti-Racist Reading List from Ibram X. Kendi
• 75 Things White People Can Do for Racial Justice
• 5 Racist Anti-Racism Responses “Good” White Women Give To Viral Posts
• ‘Rebirthing’ Therapist Denies Guilt
• The Tragic Tale Of Candace Newmaker, The Girl Who Died In A “Rebirthing” Treatment
• The therapy that killed
• Candace Newmaker (Wikipedia)
• Attachment therapy (Wikipedia)
• Very Bad Therapy: Website / Facebook / Tell Us Your Story

This week’s guest Adam shares his experience of seeing a therapist for five years without any noticeable benefit. When should clients – or therapists – start to wonder if it’s time to end the therapeutic relationship? As it turns out, there’s a lot of research suggesting that therapists need to do much more than simply wait for their approach to start working…including accepting the likelihood of treatment failure.

Thank you for listening. Support the show by becoming a monthly subscriber on Patreon to receive access to bonus episodes or by making a one-time contribution via PayPal.

Show Notes:

• Bergin and Garfield’s Handbook of Psychotherapy and Behavior Change
• Anticipating and Planning for the Duration of Counseling
• Dose-effect vs. Good Enough Level: A comparison of treatment length and maintenance of treatment gains at follow up using the Outcome Questionnaire-45
• Early Improvement as a Resilience Signal Predicting Later Remission to Antidepressant Treatment in Patients With Major Depressive Disorder: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
• What Clients Find Helpful in Psychotherapy: Developing Principles for Facilitating Moment-to-Moment Change
• Karl Tomm’s Collaborative Approaches to Counselling
• Very Bad Therapy: Website / Facebook / Tell Us Your Story

Deliberate practice is an emerging (and sometimes abstract) concept of psychotherapist development. Tony Rousmaniere and Alex Vaz are working to transform these ideas into concrete practices. This episode is an exploration of the theory, adaptability, and future of deliberate practice.  Plus, Alex leads Carrie in a live demonstration of a deliberate practice exercise with Ben playing the role of a challenging client.

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. Support the show by becoming a monthly subscriber on Patreon to receive access to bonus episodes or by making a one-time contribution via PayPal.

Show Notes:

• Deliberate Practice Institute
• What is Deliberate Practice
• The Essentials of Deliberate Practice (APA Press)
• Very Bad Therapy: Website / Facebook / Tell Us Your Story

Conversations about death, dying, and bereavement can be difficult, but they are often an important part of the therapeutic process. Dr. Michael Morad-McCoy joins us to share his experiences with “not very helpful” clinicians who were unable or unwilling to explore dark areas, and we discuss how therapists can best support their clients in a time of ubiquitous grief and loss.

Thank you for listening. Support the show by becoming a monthly subscriber on Patreon to receive access to bonus episodes or by making a one-time contribution via PayPal.

Show Notes:

• Donate to Doctors Without Borders and Planned Parenthood
• Dr. Michael Morad-McCoy's Website
• Talk to Transformer (Neural Network Text Completer)
• The Gift of Therapy (Irvin Yalom)
• Death, Dying, and Bereavement Resources
• Very Bad Therapy: Website / Facebook / Tell Us Your Story

The American Psychological Association commissioned a task force in 1993 to determine how to scientifically evaluate psychotherapy treatments. A controversy immediately ensued. Carrie digs into the literature on the history and effectiveness of empirically supported treatments to figure out what this suggests about best clinical practices. Note: this is not an ad for CBT.

Pardon the slight background noise in Carrie’s audio; this is resolved after eight minutes.

Thank you for listening. Support the show by becoming a monthly subscriber on Patreon to receive access to bonus episodes or by making a one-time contribution via PayPal.

Show Notes:

• AAMFT Endorses Evidence Based Practice Consensus Statement 
• Defining Empirically Supported Therapies
• History of American Psychological Association Task Force on Promotion and Dissemination of Psychological Procedures
• Psychological Treatments
• Responses to the Task Forces Reports
• Empirically Supported Treatments in Psychotherapy: Towards an Evidence-Based or Evidence-Biased Psychology in Clinical Settings?
• A Vote for Science in Clinical Psychology: The History of Section III of Division 12
• Task Force on Promotion and Dissemination of Psychological Procedures
• Characteristics of Empirically Supported Treatments
• Frontline: Innocence Lost – Little Rascals Abuse Scandal
• Very Bad Therapy: Website / Facebook / Tell Us Your Story

In this week’s episode, Samuel discusses his experiences with conversion therapy in Provo, Utah. This is a beautiful story of resilience, compassion, and thriving. Thanks to our listeners, experts, and most of all the inspiring guests who have shared their stories with us for 50 episodes. It is a privilege for us to be a part of this growing community.

Thank you for listening. Support the show by becoming a monthly subscriber on Patreon to receive access to bonus episodes or by making a one-time contribution via PayPal.

Show Notes

• Donate to The Trevor Project
• Donate to Encircle
• From Voldemort to Vader, Science Says We Prefer Fictional Villains Who Remind Us of Ourselves
• Jeff Robinson's Conversion Therapy Website
• Very Bad Therapy: Website / Facebook / Tell Us Your Story