Transgender psychologist convicted of harassment

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beneficii
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25 Sep 2015, 9:05 pm

This story is pretty horrifying, where a former patient, a woman, this psychologist was seeing terminated the professional relationship, and the psychologist began to harass her in bizarre and menacing ways, up to and including showing up at her place of work, leaving crayon drawings of Dr. Seuss, among other things:

http://abc13.com/news/psychologist-conv ... ts/997384/

He's serving 6 months in jail for his behavior. The victim is looking to have his license to practice revoked.


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cyberdad
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26 Sep 2015, 10:17 pm

There are of course plenty of psychologists/psychiatrists with mental health issues who cross the line with their clients. I imagine this made the news because the psychologist in question is a member of the LGTB community. As usual members of the media seem to have problems understanding that correlation does not equal causation.



LoveNotHate
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28 Sep 2015, 10:17 pm

Strange.

There is no mention of a medical exam.

Maybe he avoided a diagnosis so the review board could not use it against him.



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29 Sep 2015, 9:58 pm

Not to disparage psychologists, but when my spouse and I were in school we noticed that most of the psych students seemed to be in that major as much because they didn't fit in anywhere else as any other reason. Very few had that air of a nascent respectable therapist. In my personal experience, I've had therapists be emotionally manipulative when they were late, throw notepads at me when I questioned their authority and tell me I was a sinner.

Executive summary: That this one is trans is nothing more than a detail of the story. It's like saying "long haired psychologist convicted of harassment" or some such. Putting it in the headline is something best left to the National Enquirer or other tabloids. That said, I think it's exceedingly rare that a therapist can continue being effective while undergoing their own life transitions of any sort (gender transition, divorce, death of a loved one, etc.).


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LoveNotHate
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30 Sep 2015, 2:39 am

I have had two negative experiences with psychologists.

1. This was a while back, my brain was on the wrong hormones and my functioning was very bad, I spoke to the intake doctor that "I am transgendered'. He asked, "what is that"? I explained, "My brain ... " and he cut me off and shouted, "PEOPLE ARE BORN MALE OR FEMALE". My arm started shaking in response, because I was in such a fragile state.

2. A woman psychologist from the hospital was at an event I was at, and I could overhear her tell someone, "He's taking estrogen". I did not look at them, or show emotion. However, I felt betrayed to have my personal information revealed publicly.

I will never forget these events.



Edenthiel
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30 Sep 2015, 12:53 pm

LoveNotHate wrote:
I have had two negative experiences with psychologists.

1. This was a while back, my brain was on the wrong hormones and my functioning was very bad, I spoke to the intake doctor that "I am transgendered'. He asked, "what is that"? I explained, "My brain ... " and he cut me off and shouted, "PEOPLE ARE BORN MALE OR FEMALE". My arm started shaking in response, because I was in such a fragile state.

2. A woman psychologist from the hospital was at an event I was at, and I could overhear her tell someone, "He's taking estrogen". I did not look at them, or show emotion. However, I felt betrayed to have my personal information revealed publicly.

I will never forget these events.

Ohhhhh. That makes me so sad. Especially early on, it's so incredibly difficult to drop old painful behaviors that existed only to please others, and then to have health care workers of any sort take advantage of that to push their own personal opinions at you is just...irresponsible, cruel and completely unprofessional. And from what I've heard, even later when people are comfortable in their own personas, it's just...wrong. It's like trying to tell patients of a health care system that they got sick because they are the wrong skin color, or born to the wrong family, etc..


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