Very Bad Therapy

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?

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

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

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?

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

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

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?

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

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?

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)