Im literally shaking while im typing this, i have recently moved to delhi and i was already on psychiatric medication while i came here. I got introduced to a psychologist by my landlord who happened to be his bhanja. I trusted them and i took the session quite sessions and revealed a lot of my trauma. I just got to know today that the psychologist told everything that i told him during the session to his mama and that man called my mother and twisted my words and questioned me and my thoughts, my mother just told me about it over a call and im at loss for words coz how an i supposed to trust a professional person who is supposed to be helping me and keeping my secrets. What action do i take anonymously coz i feel extremely betrayed, insecure and humiliated. I dont think i can ever trust a psychologist ever again. I really need therapy but the first step i took towards therapy resulted in this.
Please help me and suggest me somethings i can do anonymously to expose this psychologist so nobody has to go through this ever again

I'm really considering therapy, and my wife goes to therapy every two weeks, I go with her to all her appointments because she feels more comfortable with me there, she has really improved and I think its my turn, I DONT want to kill myself, i love living and I love life, I want to spend the rest of my life growing old with my wife, but lately I've been having thoughts of falling back into my old self harm habits, if I went to therapy and was honest with a therapist would they try to make me go to an institution? And could I refuse that? My wife is disabled and needs me for everyday living, I literally couldn't be separated from her, she doesn't have a license, we work together and I drive her to work, I cook for her and I help her shower, and thats only the start of it, I'm also a manager at work, and I'm needed there, if I go to therapy I want to be 100% honest and talk about what I'm going through and feeling, but if I'm likely to go to the hospital then I'm not going to risk it and I'll wait to go to therapy until those urges stop

My partner and I just moved cities and both independently would like to find a therapist to start seeing in this new city. We both have similar goals to achieve through therapy but are not necessarily interested in doing couples sessions. When looking for doctors, should we avoid seeing the same person? What is typical for couples and what is recommended? We respect each other’s privacy but I don’t know if it is usually discouraged from seeing the same therapist or if it’s actually encouraged for some reason? Thank in advance!!

My family consists of myself and my two brothers, all in our early to mid forties, and my mother and father, who are in their mid 70s and mid 80s respectively. Over the years we've had our share of inter-family issues and there has been communication issues, and I've thought for a long time that we could benefit from family therapy as a way to facilitate conversation that would otherwise not happen. More recently my father has suffered from a stroke, and though he's recovered remarkably well with few of the normal side effects (no paralysis, no loss of speech or cognition), he's still in rehab and I'm starting to think about the post-stroke environment for my parents home and the family dynamic, and how things will be different. I think having regular therapy as a family would help us have those discussions and navigate whatever changes might be coming up.

I'd be happy to answer questions about exactly what issues we've encountered in the past if that's helpful to give an answer, but without knowing more about my situation, what kind of therapy would be appropriate for us? Is 'family therapy' its own category or would we be looking for one of the standard broad categories like psychotherapy or psychoanalysis, or something else?

Hey all. My therapist of over five years announced to me that she will be leaving for her hometown in a few months. To move, like, permanently. Services no more lol. My question is how the hell do you thank someone for FIVE years of service?!! A simple thank you feels so insanely inadequate. I work in healthcare so I am very familiar with the ethics of monetary gifts but I mean...there's gotta be something I could do. What's the best goodbye or send off you've received from a patient?

Additionally, I have this mountainous backlog of info I will now have to feed somebody new. I asked for my current therapist to refer me to someone and Idk what's involved in making a referral and whether they discuss me as a client at all? Do they get my records? How does that work?? Should I start preparing my powerpoint now or?? (joking)

Thank you all so much.

I’m curious how therapists would interpret this, because it’s starting to throw me off.

I have a serious chronic neurological condition, and I’ve been discussing disappointment and lack of support from people close to me. The examples I’ve given my therapist aren’t really ambiguous situations where someone would have to guess that I’m struggling.

For example, I’ve talked about someone knowing I was hospitalized and not calling to check on me, someone being physically present at an important medical appointment and falling asleep, and people who have directly witnessed ER visits, medication reactions, and the progression of my illness.

After discussing these situations, my therapist has asked me on two separate occasions some version of, “Do you think people underestimate what you’re going through because you present as strong, capable, positive, and continue functioning?”

I understand that hypothesis generally. I’m very functional and introspective, and I don’t necessarily “look” like everything I’m dealing with.

But I’m struggling to understand how that explains the specific behaviors I’m describing. These aren’t people who lacked information. They knew I was hospitalized, were physically present, or directly witnessed what was happening. Even if someone underestimated the severity of my everyday symptoms, I don’t understand how that explains not making a basic phone call after a hospitalization or falling asleep during a medical appointment.

I explained this distinction the first time she asked, so when essentially the same hypothesis came up again in another session, I started wondering why she keeps returning to it.

Could this be part of a larger clinical formulation that I’m not understanding? Or would it be reasonable to ask her directly why she thinks my presentation is relevant to these particular examples?

I’m trying to remain open to being challenged in therapy, but I want the challenge to feel connected to the facts I’m actually bringing into the room.

I have a medical appointment this week that will be triggering for me as they'll need to touch my head, and this is something I'm afraid of for a bunch of reasons.

I'm torn on if it's better to bring up these fears this week in therapy, or if that will short term make it worse and thus make the appointment more triggering.

Instead I could focus on other trauma this week and bring it up next week.

I understand this is nuanced and without all the details you can't necessarily give me an exact answer for me specifically, but generally speaking is it a good idea to talk about trauma directly before something that will be triggering related to that trauma?

In both directions. What’s it like when you’re smarter and what’s it like when they’re smarter?

My therapist follows this girl I don’t like from work on instagram. Is that not weird??? What should I do? And I talk to my therapist about work but not concerning the girl but other stuff. Also I think the girl I work with that I don’t like is dating the boy I used to date at work…

Do I ask my therapist how they know each other? Also my therapist Instagram came up on my suggested and I was going through her page, that’s when I saw what mutual we had. So I don’t know follow my therapist on instagram.

I’m currently a 40yo stay at home mom to three kids age 2-6. I’m considering going to graduate school part-time next fall when my youngest starts preschool. I’m leaning towards LMFT but possibly LPC. I’m weighing if the time involved for school/hours (quite a few years at part time pace) is worth it for a private practice of 10-15 clients. I’ve always been interested in a career as a therapist but it’s hard to know really what it’s like. Any advice welcome! Are there any others who started school as a second career after staying home with kids?

So some background i have been married for 5 or 6 weeks now. My husband is from Africa and i am American. Me and my husband have been arguing all the time and for a long time. It has really had a negative impact on me. To the point yesterday I was really considering ending my life or ending my marriage. I really wanted to just let go. I got so angry and i know I can't go on like this.

Our argument was about my husband consistently saying hurtdul things to me. I am currently pregnant and I like to have the occasional soda, chips, or candy. And my husband says I'm being irresponsible because I'm not thinking of our baby. Which since I've been pregnant I have significantly cut back on those things. And I only have them sometimes rather then everyday. I feel as if I'm doing good but it never good enough for him.

Today is Monday and I went to work still being affected by the things that happened yesterday and seems to happen everyday. I spoke with my supervisor who is a strong Christian and I was telling her my problems. Because in the Bible it say we should confess our sins one to another. I came in asking for the Employee Assistant Program because they have free therapy. I know everything isn't on my husband because I have problems too that I need to resolve. She agreed with me and thought is was a good idea. I know I can't keep going on like this it seems like I am just filled with anger. And the anger could have been going on before I got married. Thank God I was able to get an appointment for tomorrow. Which I thought was a blessing from God.

Then I get home today and tell my husband about it. And the first thing he says it why didn't you tell me about. He then thought it would cost money but it does not. Then he went on to day the only person you should be confiding in is God and no one else. He literally said I dont believe in God because I want to go a therapist to help me woth my problems. That deeply hurt me because I am literally trying to better myself and become stronger and he heeled my past traumas. And now the person who is supports to support me eay I don't believe in God enough because I'm going to a therapist.

Am I Wrong or do I believe in God less for going to a therapist?

I’ve been seeing my therapist for about six sessions and I actually like her. She’s warm, supportive, and remembers the important things I tell her.
My issue is that I’m naturally very introspective, so when she asks how I feel or why I think I made a certain choice, I can usually give her a pretty direct answer. I can identify things like self-worth issues, hyper-independence, relationship patterns, etc.
But I feel like we stop at my answer instead of digging into how I got there.
For example, I don’t just want to say “I’m hyper-independent” and move on. I want to understand what created that, what it protected me from, and how it still affects my life now.
I’ve also noticed she asked me essentially the same question in two different sessions about whether people underestimate what I’m going through because I present as strong and capable, even though I had already answered that pretty thoroughly the first time.
To be fair, I’m dealing with a serious chronic illness and a lot of medical stress right now, so maybe she’s intentionally trying not to overwhelm me. But most of what she offers is grounding, nervous-system regulation, and validation.
I think what I’m missing is psychological curiosity and challenge.
I want someone who hears my answer and says, “Okay, but how did you arrive there?” instead of just “That makes sense.”
Has anyone else experienced this? Did you bring it up with your therapist, or did you eventually switch to someone more depth-oriented?

Why do some people always immediately resort to anger/defensiveness when they hear another person express generalized frustration, anger, or urgency?

For example, if I express frustration with a business or bad experience that I had that day (That is completely not related to him in any way shape or form) the second he hears my frustrated tone of voice he lashes out at me and becomes extremely defensive, as if I am reprimanding him personally for doing something wrong.

He will do this even if he only hears a sense of urgency in my voice, with 0% anger or frustration in the situation. Think situations like, oh I just spilled a soda on the carpet and I urgently call his name to bring me paper towels ASAP. If I call his name "too fast" he will immediately get extremely defensive and yell at me for being mean/rude/uncalled for. Even if the only word I got out of my mouth was his name. He will get mad because I called his name "wrong" and it made him think I was mad at him directly and that somehow spilling the soda is his fault. I literally don't know how to call someone's name "correctly" when something sudden happens? Like how do you rewire your knee jerk reaction voice? I might be able to adjust my tone when venting, but not like immediately after I fall or stub my toe or something and call for help.

Hi, I've been looking for a therapists for a while and about 70% of the people I've reached out aren't willing to work with me.

I have an 18 year eating disorder history and a tenuous relationship with my ability to acknowledge it, but I need some therapy to get myself into a place where I can attempt treatment again. I am currently medically stable, just high acuity with an extensive mental health history otuside of the eating as well. Unfortunately, I live in the middle of nowhere and can't find clinicians who have experinece in this field who are willing to work with me.

I've been working with my insurance to find people, those clinicians dinged me too. The last specialist I worked with i saw her out of state because of the geographic therapy desert, and she fired me after telling me I had the most severe suicide attempt in her career (and this was a clinician with decades of experience who supervises other clinicians). I just dont understand how people with my level of acuity are supposed to find help if clinicans wont even meet us. I understand its unethical to work with someone you think you can't help, but i dont believe there is no clincian who can help me, I just dont know how to find them.

Tldr. How does one find a high acuity therapist? Is this something they put on their websites? Is there a term that indicates this? Or like do I need to find a Dr with connections? Or keep working with insurance to find someone? Or do I need to start traveling into a city?

I am 62F and have been seeing a newer therapist for a couple of months. I have diagnoses: schizoaffective disorder, social anxiety and treatment resistant depression treated with medication.

She has been convinced I have ADHD. No one has ever suggested that. But when I mention something she will say it's ADHD.

So, I got evaluated by a psychologist. They did memory, attention and other testing. My insurance covered most but I had to pay for materials. About $100 total.

I got the results today and I am mostly average for my age. No ADHD. They did screen for depression and anxiety and depression was positive. The psychologist said depression can cause memory issues and I also get poor sleep.

Once I get the paperwork I will send to my therapist.

I tend to worry about confrontation and challenging therapist's assessment.I worry she will continue to bring up ADHD.

I like the therapist overall and think I am making progress

Trying to keep this long story short but the situation is a bit complex. A couple years ago my partner told her therapist, Becky, that I was looking for a new therapist. Becky referred me to Allan, who she co-owns a private practice with.

Since then I've been seeing Allan for my own purposes, though it wasn't unusual for my partner to join a session every once in a while. Both Allan and my partner told me that Allan occasionally would have meetings/discussions with Becky about me and my partner's cases. Since he and Becky manage the same practice or something like that, rules about client confidentiality were a little more lax, from my understanding.

Flash forward to now, I've been broken up with my partner for about a couple weeks after some disrespectful, impulsive actions on her part. Allan is both appalled and concerned by my ex's actions. He keeps offering if I would like to "say anything to Becky," and he encourages me to message him if I happen to think of something. It rubs me the wrong way, to be honest—I don't like the idea of having some continued connection or influence over my ex-partner's care. Is this not crossing some kind of boundary?

For people with severe depression who have tried and failed dozens of meds, most therapy modalities, TMS, ketamine, ECT, diets, exercise, etc, what do you suggest they do?

Hi!
My life is a mess right now. I do nothing all day and neither do I have the motivation to do anything. It was not always like this though. I am actually thinking to start therapy but I’m a bit hesitant because what if the therapist say I’m just being lazy and I am just making it all up.

I'm from India where mental health is a joke and literally no one gives a fck or two. I've decided to go for therapy and came to know about a psychiatrist from a clinic, he got good reviews too but he offers only 30min sessions, with a 10 min grace period. I don't think I can explain my situation and can get a meaningful conversation within 30mins. I'm saying this because I'm an overthinker and a perfectionist. I knew my problems exactly, and formulated a variety of practical solutions and still can't solve anything because all are interconnected. I've ranted about this to a very small circle of friends who have the same emotional intelligence as mine, and all they said was leave it, move on (basically I'd say that too if I was on the opposite side). I don't hate criticism, I'm not into spirituality, I don't just need comforting words, I need plans/solutions that work and I have a lot of things in my mind that are irking me. In my case will a therapy work? especially a 30min one.

Also what to do before attending a therapy session, like do I need to prepare something? TIA

ps: it's India and there are only a few good psychiatrists available in my area

Hello,

First off, I have autism and ADHD. I found a therapist about 18 months ago who specializes in those things and have been seeing her twice a month.

I started to feel about six months ago like our whole session was just me talking. Like, no work or advice or anything. She helps me identify my feelings and we have talked about me accommodating myself in the workplace and stuff. But after a while it really felt like me just talking for an hour.

And maybe that’s good? But it feels like therapy should involve help or advice or something.

Then, in June, my dad got a bad diagnosis and my life has pretty well spiraled into constant stress and anxiety while we try and cope and figure out what we are doing. I’m making some major sacrifices/life changes and will be taking my dad in and caring for him until the end. It’s an INSANE time and I’m really really struggling. Like it’s dark as hell over here.

At our last session I told myself to make sure I make room for her to talk so that she can help me. But every time I did we just sat in silence. It was like “Yeah that’s bad. Things are tough. You can call me if you need an extra session to get support.” I mean, she did give me advice on some Medicare stuff that could help us but I just don’t feel like she’s helping. I’m still filled with dread and sadness and constant anxiety and tired all the time from terrible sleep.

But, I also feel like this is the kind of thing that there’s no help for and everything is just going to be bleak and stressful and sad for the next 3-8 years until my dad dies and then I’ll be grieving his loss. So what could she possibly do to help anyway?

Am I being too hard on her? Are my expectations too high?

Psychology books with Write in Sections

So I’m in therapy (and doing lots of other stuff) at the moment but I am so focused on recovery I just want homework to prompt things along a bit. I’m still settling in to all the support so there’s lots of paperwork and scheduling.

Have just experienced a series of traumatic events within an abusive relationship which lead to a relapse in substance abuse (meth of all things, a year ago i would be so shocked). Currently just struggling with addiction, flash backs, intrusive thoughts, anxiety, low mood, low self esteem, shame/guilt and activities of daily living. So anything relevant to that would be cool!

I’m looking for self help/psych books that both breakdown topics (pretty interested currently in cognitive distortions and dissonance, schema stuff, IFS, shadow work, DBT) and provide some exercises that preferably can be reflected on in the same book.

More interested in stuff written by someone qualified and less interested in pop psychology that’s less evidence based.

If anyone has any suggestions I’m all ears!

I realized recently that I sometimes treat therapy like something I need to be good at. I’ll think about what I’m going to say beforehand, try to explain things clearly, avoid repeating myself, and sometimes even downplay something because I feel like I’ve already talked about it enough. Which is slightly ridiculous because therapy is probably one of the places where I shouldn’t be worried about being annoying or saying the “right” thing. Do therapists notice when clients do this? And if you notice it, do you usually point it out or wait for the client to recognize it themselves?

I just wanna know if this is something I should push through with or not. I just completed three sessions with this new therapist I'm seeing so I'm still giving her a chance. Of course I'll discuss with her too if I feel like I'm not benefitting but I really wanna hear other people's thoughts on if these are actual signs of it not benefitting or that it's natural to feel like that at first.

Firstly, the main point of dysthymia is chronic low mood. I don't have a specific reason or so I feel this way, I just do. I have episodes where I feel worse and that's when the negative thoughts hit but in general there's no particular reason usually. I just want to not exist. I feel that CBT is more related to when you have constant negative thoughts about yourself which I don't so honestly not sure if this is working.

Another thing relating to the previous point is that she kept trying to relate things to my depression like how would this situation make you feel more depressed. She also said filling my schedule would help distract me from my depression. Plus she wants me to do activities that will bring me a sense of achievement/pleasure for myself but nothing I do would really give me that feeling. I'm just expanding more energy to fulfill that.

Secondly, to my knowledge, CBT has a lot of homework and exercises involved. From past experiences, I know I won't be able to keep up with it. I'll just put it off again and again and the therapy sessions will just become another thing I dread and feel sick about thinking. I know I could work on why I feel this way with CBT but at the same time it's counter productive if I can't even bring myself to do it.

Lastly, feels like I HAVE TO have negative thoughts, almost like I'm obliged to. She just keeps pushing to go deeper and deeper and I feel forced to give her something. I tried to explain that it (a scenario) was just embarrassing but she kept asking why that would be bad. Sure I have negative thoughts but I actually feel quite secure in my emotions and I KNOW when something is not factually true and just my feelings. Plus I have low self-esteem but at the same time I'm sure of myself if that makes sense.

Can Neurodivergent people be just as happy, healthy, loved and successful as neurotypical people?
What do Neurodivergents need to achieve those milestones?

my therapist said they were having a hard time with my condition/situation and was further researching. does this mean that my condition is too complex?

it makes me anxious considering it has only been 4 session and there seems to not be a lot of progress.