Evidence for my Point

A couple of days ago, I posted about three strikes I have against me when it comes to finding a therapist who hat will help me through panic attacks.  1. I regret my college degree, 2. My parents stayed married and 3. I endured every type of abuse except sexual abuse growing up. 

Then I decided to try something. I typed up this message making it perfectly clear that I was trying to find a therapist to help me with the panic attacks I started getting when I got my college degree. I wanted to make it perfectly clear that that was my goal for therapy, and therefore weed out individuals who would just argue and not help. I don’t have time, money, or energy to interview people and ask if they have a problem with the fact that that’s how I feel. I pasted this greeting to more than 20 therapists near my zip code. 

So far no one has responded except for this lady, Jessica from a facility called S.T.A.R.S. 

Once she responded, I realize what the acronym was for. “Survivors Triumphing Against Rape and Sexual Assault.”  Oops!!
 

So I responded with this email- I didn’t realize what the acronym stood for and the reason why I added that I’ve been through every other type of abuse except sexual was just in case she was ok with that.  

This was her response. Scroll down for my reaction. I did not respond to her, but I will share my thoughts here. 

“While trauma survivors are the targeted population, I do accept and have ample experience with all mental wellness concerns.”  Read that again. Something that isn’t rape isn’t considered “trauma” to her. It’s just a “mental wellness concern”. If she has a masters degree, she should know that a LOT of things cause trauma, INCLUDING rape or sexual assault, but it’s not the only thing. This is just evidence of what I was saying before. I can tell her about some of the physical and emotional abuse I endured from my mom, for example, but to her it’s not traumatic enough. I do not believe that wording was unintentional. It seems very intentional. And “be blessed” screams, I’m filled with Christ's love!

It’s better to just not respond to her. And yes I know I’m usually good about keeping someone’s identity private, but it wasn’t necessary here. I’m not lying about what she said to me. The proof is in the screenshots. The fact that she was “still willing to see me anyway” is probably just because business is slow. And that’s all therapy is at the end of the day. A business. 

I’m not exposing this to say that people who are more “allowed” to get therapy are “luckier”. They are, but they aren’t. They are because perhaps it does help them. They aren’t because of all the time and money that have to spend on it. We all suffer from the human condition bo matter what we’ve been through in our lives. A psychotherapist should at least understand that.