Trigger Warnng:  This episode includes information about therapy abuse and may be triggering for some folks.

I Married my Therapist:  

Ken Schultz is an advocate for mental health reform and a survivor of therapy abuse and exploitation.  He is using his personal experience of harm to raise awareness about unethical therapeutic relationships and their lasting impact. Through his story, Ken aims to inspire change in laws and practices to protect others from similar experiences. 

If we want to examine the power and authority mental health professionals have over their clients – Ken’s story is a prime example.  He saw this therapist for 3 months and in that time frame, he went from someone who had zero attraction to being sexually exploited by her all the while believing how she defined it as ok.  

If we want to examine how the institutions should be assisting us after we have experienced therapy abuse and exploitation, Ken is another prime example.  The therapist he was seeing reported her, then left him to deal with the fallout on his own.  The Texan state licensing board narrowed his complaint down to violating one aspect of the statutes:  the timeline.  His “therapist” dragged out leaving the ‘marriage’ to prevent a complaint based on the allotted time.  But the licensing board ignored another statute that their social workers are not allowed to have sexual contact with a current or former client – of which she clearly had violated and of which had done so within the statute of limitations.   And his church and police believed her statements without any corroboration and victimized him again.  
 
Things must change.  We all need to wake up to harm perpetrated against those who have experienced therapy abuse and exploitation so that we are not inadvertently exacerbating that harm that is already catastrophic in too many cases.  

Music by Shari Ulrich and Shawn Mendes


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