I seek to cultivate competency* in supporting clients who have been traumatically harmed by psychotherapy. Having been harmed in therapy myself, I hope to support survivors in navigating the often catastrophic trauma and strandedness of the post-harm landscape, as well as assist fellow therapists in facing this difficult reality in our field, in our communities of practice, and in ourselves.
Below you'll find some starter resources, as well as information on my consultation and speaking and training offerings. To stay up to date on the full breadth of my therapy harm content and resources, you can find me on Instagram and at the Therapy Harm Resistance Project (THRP).
Therapy Exploitation Link Line (TELL): "a peer support network that seeks to help victims and survivors of exploitation by psychotherapists and other healthcare providers find the resources they will need to understand what has happened to them, to take action, and to heal." TELL offers extensive writings on the subject of therapy abuse, as well as peer support by email.
Therapy Harm Resistance Project Community Resources Doc: "For too long, therapy harm survivors have been left stranded, without nearly sufficient resourcing for the profound nature of the trauma and crisis we can be left with. Nowadays, while the therapy harm support ecosystem is small, it is fortunately growing. This living document is the Therapy Harm Resistance Project (THRP)’s attempt to collect and disseminate community resources for survivors to consider as they seek support for healing."
Surviving Therapist Abuse: "The intention for this site is twofold: First, to bring awareness and attention to the issue of therapist abuse, exploitation, and professional sexual misconduct by providing a survivor’s perspective; second, to offer resources for those who may need help or support." Here you can find the Treatment Abuse Checklist, a non-exhaustive but helpful list of boundary issues that may present in harmful treatment.
AdvocateWeb: "AdvocateWeb is a nonprofit organization providing information and resources to promote awareness and understanding of the issues involved in the exploitation of persons by trusted helping professionals." This site offers resources primarily for those having been harmed via sexual/romantic exploitation by a provider or authority figure.
How to Recognize Abuse in Therapy and What to Do About It: a non-exhaustive description of problematic elements that may present in harmful treatment.
When Therapy Harms: Five Warning Signs of Abusive Therapy: a description of five categories of conduct by therapists that indicate harmful treatment, and some possible impacts upon patients.
I offer consultation to both clients/survivors and providers. With respect for the many triggers that can present, and to make this type of support more accessible to survivors, I offer lots of possible formats for consultation, including video, phone, in person in my Cambridge office, in writing by email, through exchanged voice memos, via confidential text platform, or through combinations of the above (example: you email me, I send you back a voice memo).
(Clients, please note: You do not have to already know you were harmed in therapy in order to meet with me. It's alright to not know, to feel confused or conflicted, and to come with the intention of figuring it out together.)
This is 1-3 sessions to process a prior experience of therapy harm, the ongoing impacts of the experience including impacts in subsequent therapies, and to discuss any therapy harm resources that might be useful to know about. You can review my informed consent document here, which is the document you will be asked to sign in order to formally initiate consultation with me. Please reach out to me by email with questions or to express interest.
Ongoing Therapy Harm Consultation Spaces are full. I am currently in the process of assessing whether I should/can maintain a waitlist. Should you wish to, I invite you to get in touch with me to let me know of your interest, as this may help me gauge demand for this type of support.
I am most useful on matters pertaining to post-harm therapies: understanding therapy harm and your role as the subsequent therapist, providing attuned care to survivors, and complex countertransference issues in post-harm therapies. Please see my For Therapists page to learn more about my offerings for clinicians.
Consultation is not covered by health insurance. In cases of access need, I do my utmost to offer fee reduction.
Consultation Session Fee (~55min): $185
(session length can be modified as needed, and the fee will be prorated accordingly)
I am deeply committed to getting more therapy harm content into clinical training and in-service continuing education programs. My background in dialogue facilitation and training pedagogy equips me to both present on and enable productive discussion around this vital yet challenging topic.
This is me coming into your classroom or setting, as a therapy harm survivor, and telling my story. I would be speaking as a therapist-survivor: someone harmed in therapy who is also in the field. My aim would be to broaden perspectives, attune clinicians and trainees to the nuances of the therapy harm experience, and show any therapist-survivors in the room that they are not alone and that there is community for them in the field.
This is me coming in with didactic and/or experiential content to teach on the topic of therapy harm and train clinicians to be better equipped to provide attuned care to survivors of therapy harm. My aim would be to introduce concepts and terms, connect clinicians to the growing survivor-led therapy harm ecosystem of resources, and impart tools for self-reflection towards increasing therapist safety to the survivors with whom they work.
Please be in touch with me to share your speaking or training needs.
If you are looking for content on a topic/from an identity I cannot speak to/from, I am happy to assist you in identifying other survivors who offer what you're looking for.
While I seek to cultivate specialization such that I may be useful, I am not an expert on therapy harm. I sincerely hope my experience and efforts can assist. However, I am humbled by the breadth and depth of the problem at hand, and know my knowledge will always be limited. Additionally, I believe that as a psychotherapist myself, I can never responsibly claim expertise on the topic of the harms perpetuated by my own field. I am part of the mental health system, and complicit in its abuses.
Additionally, I hold multiple identities of privilege, including white privilege and class privilege, and that of participating in therapy in my native language and culture. As such, my lived experience of therapy harm does not inform me on those resulting from systemic abuses from which I am shielded by my privilege. I aim to assist with humility for my lacking insider understanding of these and other dynamics of harm.