“I was in college and was done with my toxic relationship. I told my therapist (licensed clinical psychologist, US, male, in his late 50s) that I was planning to break up with my boyfriend. I wanted to gather courage and confirm my decision.
He told me I shouldn’t do that. He said I would be a nobody and lost without him. He told me I didn’t even deserve this guy and should be grateful that anybody would date me.
That’s when I realized that, for the previous six months, my therapist had been feeding me messages about how bad and useless I was, how my parents probably abused me for a reason, and so on, instead of helping me.
This was the moment I woke up to his emotional abuse. It was my first time in therapy, so I had no idea this was wrong.
I dumped my therapist and my boyfriend the same week.”
-Kia