Feb 14, 2019
I hear stories from individuals who have suffered not only from their psychological problems and emotional pain but in addition have been harmed by narcissistic therapists of all kinds--psychologists, psychiatrists, psychoanalysts, social workers, etc. There are dedicated, brilliant, empathic professionals who help their clients to heal.They help to change the lives of their clients in the most positive ways. Narcissistic therapists are in large supply these days, just as they are in our populations. The current society rewards narcissists handsomely for many of the traits that make them harmful to others: extreme self entitlement, ruthlessness, lack of conscience and ethics, compete lack of empathy, winning at all costs at the psychological peril of those closest to them lack of genuine emotional and psychological intimacy, deceitfulness, chronic incessant lying.
Narcissistic therapists control clients who come to them, often in a state of emergency and desperation. They feel emotionally dependent. They are in crisis. They have tried many ways to heal themselves before they come to see the narcissistic therapist. They are at the mercy of this person with the credentials, the education and the clinical experience that speaks of their qualifications to treat them. It doesn't matter how impressive the credentials and training are if the individual you are seeing is a narcissistic personality disorder.
Pay attention to the signs of a narcissistic psychotherapist:
1. Inability to listen carefully and take in what you are saying and how you are feeling.
2. A lack of empathy - Incapacity to experience what you are feeling from your perspective. Narcissistic psychotherapists are bored with their clients.
3. Inordinate focus on fees and insisting on very large fees that are out of line with the professional services offered.
4. Psychotherapists who project their unconscious venom on to their clients.
5. Psychotherapists who foster unnecessary dependence on clients to make them come to additional sessions that will bring them more money.
6. Psychotherapists who talk about their private lives. You are paying them to talk about themselves. That is completely unprofessional and a red flag that this person is a narcissist.
You are entitled to find and work with a psychotherapist who is worthy of you. You decide after doing your research and interviewing who will work best with you.