r/TherapistsInTherapy

I’m a provisional psychologist in Australia. I want to be anonymous because I do not wish to take anybody down or give anybody a bad name - I’m just looking for advice/opinions from others in the field about whether this sounds like something worth formally addressing, or whether I should just move on.

I recently left a role as a provisional psychologist where my supervisor was also the business owner. Nothing that occurred was clearly illegal (at least from my understanding), but a lot of it felt ethically questionable and left me feeling quite distressed and psychologically unsafe.

Some examples:
superannuation was not always paid on time
staff were often spoken about negatively or had their competency questioned
the owner’s son was supposedly doing admin work but often appeared absent/asleep in another room
when I resigned due to deteriorating mental health, I initially offered to stay on for 6 weeks, but was pushed out within 2 weeks
I was told not to come in on certain days, but then other staff were apparently told I had “just not shown up”
my keys/access were removed prematurely
throughout the resignation process, the focus felt heavily financial rather than supportive
I also had a supervision repayment clause in my contract. Because I left before the agreed timeframe, around $3800 was taken from my final pay and I still owe about $700. Legally I understand I signed the contract, but ethically it feels uncomfortable given the circumstances and my mental health at the time.
All payslips were sent to my work email, which I have now been locked out of as I am no longer employed. There is an app ‘Xero’ I use to see my payslips, however it appears I am locked out of this also. I like to keep all payslips as documents from all previous employers.
Pay was often sporadic in days it would come into my account. Upon speaking to other employees (with a different bank account) this was their experience also. Payslips were also uploaded/sent randomly, meaning there were weeks where I’d see money in my account but couldn’t actually ensure it was accurate (hours worked, tax taken out etc.)

I’m struggling to work out whether this is:
just a toxic workplace experience that I should learn from and move on from,
something worth discussing with Fair Work/ATO/etc,
potentially relevant to professional ethics standards (AHPRA)

I’m not trying to attack or “take down” anyone — I think I mainly want perspective from others who may have worked under difficult supervisors or in unhealthy private practices.
Has anyone experienced something similar, and if so, did you report it or just cut your losses and move on?

Lately I’ve been feeling like I’m a horrible therapist. I see other clinicians use all these CBT, DBT, IFS modalities like it’s nothing and I’m here, a narrative therapist, just winging it. My supervisor says I’m “above my peers” but I don’t even know what that means. Good at building rapport? Because I know I’m good at that. Helping people? Not so much 😢

Hello,

I've been using Headway as a therapist for years despite how problematic it has been at time. However, the recent policy for "identity verification" and the collection of biometric data through facial scans is an escalation of the tech industry's exploitation of personal data for profit.

I would love to hear from other therapists who are concerned and want to communicate this to the company. I will be sending the following statement to Headway, feel free to send around.

Headway's new policy to collect biometric and identification data on therapy patients is very concerning. It violates patient privacy and threatens the trust between patients and providers. It goes against professional standards and ethics rules for social workers and therapists, and there are clear HIPAA concerns. It is clear that this is an effort to gather data for the profit of the company and not to reduce waste and fraud as Headway is claiming. 

I was planning on expanding my use of Headway for my group practice with the addition of supervisory billing, but I no longer believe that Headway's policies align with the interests of therapists and my patients. 

This change will harm providers, patients, and ultimately Headway. It's unnecessary and I am requesting that Headway terminate the collection of identify verification immediately. 

[supprimé]

Hi all...

I've been accepted on to a diploma course in Psychodynamic counselling. Supervision and counselling client hours included. Just need to pay for the course and personal therapy fees.

However, I have this gut-wrenching feeling of dread at the idea of doing it. I had my psychological assessment with a psychoanalyst as part of the application process. I just bared all in as much detail as was possible in the hour and a half session - the school encouraged full transparency. The report made on me and my experiences felt contrary to the insights already gleaned from my own long-term therapy sessions and extensive inner work. It felt like it was undoing the sense of healing and self-acceptance I'd already established so far. I kind of expected that to happen, but it's made me feel unsure of whether I want to spend 3 years training in a modality that I find quite cerebral and cold.

I was going to opt to do person-centred, but the school I considered doesn't include supervision or any counselling hours to accrue for BACP accreditation. I had already done the certificate in Psychodynamic with the same school I've applied for the diploma with.

I've been a working medium for the past 10 years and just wanted to explore a deeper understanding of myself and others to complement my spiritual practices.

However, being totally honest, I like my freedom and I trust myself enough to let life experience be my teacher rather than a ccourse. At the same time, I'm not ignorant of how transformative it could be. A therapist gave advice and said, just tick the boxes and jump through their hoops and once qualified you can work how you want. They said working from a more spiritual vantage point is quite a niche area and meets a demand that is sought after but often not provided. They also said unfortunately, there is a lot of dysfunction in the training and working world of therapy.

I've sampled and tried and tested so many different careers and it always comes back to helping and guiding others in some shape or form with whatever life experience I have to this point to aid me in doing that.

But I don't want to lose myself in this course. I have a friend who is doing the same course now. The experiential sessions are leaving her feeling crazed and going through ups and downs that leave her in tears. I get this can be part of self-awareness, but I have been involved myself in years and years of deep diving and self-confrontation and you get to this point where you realise it starts to feel damaging to keep questioning yourself...you start to want to just commit to learning to accept, appreciate and trust yourself...warts and all. My friend says she feels gaslit, as though her deepest inner knowing and feeling about herself and her experiences gets questioned and shredded to pieces...she said she feels like vultures are picking at her like a piece of meat.

I know her experience won't necessarily be my experience, but I'm anxious of this course gearing me backwards into a hole instead of forwards towards the light, so to speak.

I have been feeling better about myself than ever at this point, and as the application process progressed towards the offer, I started to feel this feeling of that sense of appreciation for myself becoming threatened.

It can be difficult to discern between resistance and genuine intuition sometimes. However, one thing I have learned, is that when there is something we really want and are truly on board with, you get a full body "hell yes!" feeling about it and go for it even with knowing the potentially tough aspects of whatever it is.

Perhaps this is just my resistance to something. My gut just feels like it's saying you're afraid by not doing this course you won't be qualified enough or financially stable enough or secure enough in a vocation...so it feels scarier to not do it...but doing it feels like I'm doing something my heart is not truly on board with.

My passion is my spiritual work and pursuits, counselling was an option for a complementary side vocation for baseline earning while I developed other elements unfolding in my life...but I'm unsure it provides that security, having researched. I have been out of work for two years now due to studying and working in mediumship. It's very tricky to describe my life unfoldment CV-wise without the fear of seeming like an inexperienced drifter, despite making very conscious decisions.

I just seem to always find myself counselling or teaching others in some way. Every other job I have tried has left me unusually drained. I seem to have energy counselling for others.

As you can tell...in a bit of a mental muddle.

Any thoughts or perspectives could be helpful and are greatly appreciated 🙏🏼

Take care.