Why are therapists the most awful people in the world?

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Why? I've seen maybe a dozen at this point in my life and every time it has been harrowing and I ended up sobbing and screaming in frustration and disgust and utter despair.

And what else is there?

Psychiatrists are even worse. I'd say much much worse.

I gave up on therapists long ago, and group therapy in particular.

"Shut Up, Grow Up, and Get Over It" has been my favorite form of self-therapy ever since.

(Your results may vary.)

I definitely don't have the option of self therapy. I am in in so much emotional pain I am on my knees. I'm utterly broken and can't take anymore.

You are indeed in a tough place.

You are presumably going to therapy to talk about difficult emotions. A certain amount of emotional pain is usually necessary. I hope your therapists are not being sadistic, and it seems unlikely you'd have so many truly bad ones in a row, it's just an upsetting process that people go through because they hope it will be beneficial in the long run.

I suppose maybe what you want is more of a counsellor than a therapist - someone who will help you deal with specific, present issues like grief in a supportive manner, rather than delving deep into childhood trauma. Does that sound right?

Nope. That is completely ass backwards.

This is the excuse that therapists give for being complete pieces of s**t, which, when it happens, and it always does, is, not surprisingly, upsetting for the patient, who is already distraught and doesn't need to be treated like s**t by a sanctimonious condescending whatever. The emotions don't come into it at all. It's the therapist being an as*hole, period.

The main way in which they are an as*hole is by not listening, which ironically is pretty much their whole job, or at least its core. They just make assumptions about how everybody is, and then even if you tell them that there's been a misunderstanding and that they are going off on completely the wrong track, they just dismiss that, either ignoring it altogether or just not believing it. So that the entirety of every therapy session consists of trying to disabuse the therapist of their erroneous assumptions and entreating them to actually listen to what the patient's problems are. This becomes increasingly more and more frustrating until they say something that is just beyond what I can tolerate, and then I have to walk out.

There is zero dealing with difficult emotions. It never even gets to that. And that includes a therapist I saw for 18 months.

I’m sorry you’ve had such negative experiences with therapists. Some of us have had very positive experiences with them.

I’ve not had any awful ones. Well, I didn’t particularly care for one of them, but I wouldn’t say she was awful.

I find that impossible to believe. I have never met a therapist who was not an awful, awful human being.

The one I had been seeing for a year, from May to May of this year, during the most harrowing year of my life, just up and dumped me. Then I tried this latest one whom I've seen six times, and I left her office yesterday actually screaming. I had to call my sister and cry on the phone to her for an hour. Which ironically is the reason I had the therapist, so I wouldn't have to cry as much to my sister.

You’ve only known 12 of them. There are a lot of therapists in the world. I’m puzzled why you think my experience would be impossible.

Do they make themselves available to you in between sessions in case you are in distress

I have known more than 12 of them. My experience is that they are 100% awful. What are the chances that I somehow only came across awful ones? Virtually none. Your experience is impossible given my experience. I'm not invalidating your experience, it just exists in a world that is not my world.

This is very terrible for me and I truly don't know what to do or where to turn. I cannot cope on my own but the professionals who are supposed to help only cause such terrible distress that it's much worse than just staying away from them.

So they can s**t on me more? Not just during sessions but also between sessions?

OK

Sounds like you've had a really rough time with it. I must admit that I can't relate to what you have experienced, but I can understand why you'd be angry and disappointed if you have been treated that way.

There is not enough information to answer the question in the title of your post