Latest Episode:
Episode 87 - When Your Therapist Seems Unwell (with Halina Brooke, LAMFT)
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.
Episode 86 - The Board Complaint Process (with Halina Brooke, LAMFT)
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.
Episode 85 - Talking About Race (with Farah Zerehi, AMFT)
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.
Episode 84 - Are Therapists Substitute Parental Figures?
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.
Episode 83 - Drive-Thru DBT (with Dr. Ben Caldwell)
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.
Episode 82 - Predatory Therapists (with Dr. Diane Gehart)
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.
Episode 81 - Codependency in Therapy (with Marissa Esquibel, LMFT)
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?
Episode 80 - The Troubled Teen Industry (with Kenneth R. Rosen)
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.
Episode 79 - The Stigma of Severe Mental Illness
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.
Episode 78 - Very Bad Couples Therapy (with Dr. Bonnie Kennan)
Building a good therapeutic alliance in couples therapy can be tricky with multiple people in the counseling room. This is especially challenging when the therapist is consistently late or not present at all. Today’s guest Maria shares her frustrating experience with an absentee therapist, and Dr. Bonnie Kennan joins us to talk about using feedback-informed treatment to provide very good couples therapy.
Episode 77 - Surviving Rehab
Rehab facilities can be life saving for many people. This is a different kind of story. Jen shares her experience of 2.5 years in inpatient and outpatient treatment centers trying to overcome unhelpful therapy and victim blaming before leaving against medical advice and reclaiming her life. Plus, Carrie and Ben take some time to discuss the philosophy of Very Bad Therapy and interviewing guests.
Episode 76 - VBT in Focus: Potentially Harmful Therapies (with Dr. Alex Williams and Dr. John Sakaluk)
The more you learn about psychotherapy research, the less it all seems to make sense. Dr. Alex Williams and Dr. John Sakaluk are working to change that by researching the research itself. We discuss two of their latest papers on empirically supported treatments and potentially harmful therapies. Which modalities can we be confident about? Which psychological interventions appear to cause harm? What do we know about EMDR and exposure therapy?
Episode 75 - How Not To Handle Fee Increases
The cost of therapy, like most everything else, increases over time. This can lead to some difficult conversations about money and rate changes. How should therapists talk with their clients about fee increases? In today’s episode, Marwa shares her experience of very good therapy that ended very poorly when her therapist used Hunger Games logic to determine her new sliding scale availability.
Episode 74 - Very Bad Sex Therapy (with Danielle Kramer, LIMHP)
Conversations about sex – even in therapy – are often constrained by harmful cultural narratives. In today’s episode, Leah describes her experience of being shamed and blamed by her sex therapist, and Danielle Kramer provides an expert perspective on how therapists can prevent their sexual biases from negatively influencing clients. Plus, Carrie passionately revisits the topic of silence in therapy.
Episode 73 - Silence in Therapy: What's the Story? (with Dr. Gene Combs)
Silence in therapy can feel awkward, helpful, expansive, or even punitive. There is no consensus on its usefulness, but it can certainly contribute to very bad therapy. Ella joins us to share her experience of feeling punished by her therapists’ use of silence, and Dr. Gene Combs provides a narrative perspective on silence, sanctity, and power in the therapeutic relationship.
Episode 72 - All About Psychiatry (with Dr. Patrick Wiita)
It’s not a secret that rapport contributes to outcomes in all types of healthcare. How, then, to make sense of our guest C’s story about a psychiatrist who ranted about Christmas, laughed at her suicide plan, and gave terrible marital advice? Dr. Patrick Wiita joins the show to talk about education, training, and ethics in the field of psychiatry and how to make the most out of every session with your patients.
Episode 71 - Very Bad Family Therapy (with Dr. Eli Karam)
In this week’s episode, Amy shares her childhood experience as a sexual abuse survivor being told by a therapist that her behavior was the problem and needed to be called out by her family. We also speak with Dr. Eli Karam about the importance of thinking systemically, the practice of family therapy, and how to help traumatized children feel supported instead of stigmatized as the identified patient (IP).
Episode 70 - Missed Attunement (with Dave Segal, RCC)
Dave Segal is a nature-based therapist and the executive director of Human-Nature Counselling in Victoria, British Columbia. He discusses his own experience of bad therapy, the importance of attunement and attachment, and how being with nature can bring about healing. Plus, Carrie and Ben give each other empirically supported Thanksgiving compliments.
Episode 69 - Culture, Stigma, and Very Bad Psychiatry
Today’s guest Cherry shares her experience being prescribed benzodiazepines and God instead of receiving the emotional support she was seeking. We explore the impact of culture and stigma on mental health services, the heroism of clients, and what we can learn from the remarkable conclusions of antidepressant outcome studies.
Episode 68 - Misdiagnosing Clients (with Dr. Christine King and Dr. Ben Caldwell)
Dr. Christine King experienced three concussions when she was a child. The symptoms of her brain injury were misunderstood and later assumed to be the result of childhood sexual abuse, sending Christine on a pathologized path that took decades for her to undo. We hear her story and also speak with Dr. Ben Caldwell about how therapists can attune to client symptoms, make good referrals, and avoid misdiagnoses when they lack relevant knowledge beyond their scope of practice.