Therapist won’t let me cancel!

I’m surprised you’ve been seeing her for years, CBT is a short term, skills based intervention. There’s absolutely no need for you to go back. I’d also ask for a refund if sessions spent basically talking about you leaving therapy - if she has feelings about that she should take it to supervision and you shouldn’t be having to pay to effectively negotiate the relationship.

@Moocow1995 I'm a CBT therapist. A properly trained CBT therapist should be accredited by the BABCP and they have a complaints procedure. Unfortunately there are a lot of people calling themselves CBT therapists who are not properly trained and supervised. Generally speaking CBT is not a long-term therapy and there should be a clear case for it decided between the client and the therapist. Central to CBT is that it is open and collaborative. It is not ethical to prolong therapy if it's not in the client's best interests. You absolutely can (and you should) decide what you want to do and tell her. If you want to find another CBT therapist then make sure they are BABCP accredited.

I would just cancel. I had a good therapist but every session without fail she’d use 10 minutes of the session asking me for feedback on how well she did as well as marking her from 0-10…I found it annoying because I ran out of things to say, I also found the constant need for a pat on the back draining…this was my session not hers. She was a good at her job and I understand her need for feedback but needing it every week and eating into my time let her down, so after our block sessions were finished with I found someone else.

You just say you're done and stop turning up surely ? I don't know why you keep going back !

Email to say you not reporting then Block and report her

I don't understand why you're even asking. Just cancel your next appointment and don't accept her calls. Block her if you want.
If you want to give her a reason, just tell her you feel you have reached a point where you don't feel the sessions are beneficial to you any longer.

If there is no contract I would stop straightaway and not give any more money to this therapist. This is not professional behaviour on her part at all.

Tell her you're not going back and block her! Oh and then report her. She is not professional at all. I bet she doesn't have any other clients and relied on you for her money.

?????? Bizarre comment.

I don't know much about the professional bodies that regulate this but I'd imagine there has been someone that maintains that the standard is kept. She is essentially emotionally manipulating you and this needs to be reported. Do not go back to her.

I’m happy to take £75 off you to practise cbt. Money for old rope imho.

Don't be ridiculous.

Send an email to say you won’t be returning for any more sessions due to her profound unprofessional behaviour and wasting your session time. Tell her in your email that if she responds, pursues or adds any more pressure you will give her details to the correct people to report her for harassment. Block all her numbers as soon as you hit send.

If she has any higher ups, report this behaviour as you feel it is using her position of power to financially gain from a person in their care. If she’s doing it to you she likely is others also.

whilst I agree with other posts I would also add , that part of therapy is about empowering you . This is not empowering .

Oh God I think I know who this woman is. If she's the one I think she is, she's not genuinely regulated by anyone (she's invented a fake governing body that's not BACP and she's on the board), so just send a message terminating then go full NC with her and block her everywhere. If it's the same person, I think she's a raging narcissist and she has form for this sort of behaviour. I'm so sorry if you've got entangled with her, she seems so legit on the surface.
If it's not her, she sounds similar so I'd still send a final message then block and not open any responses if she gets around the block (but at least if it's not her she might be a member of BACP and you can definitely report there).

I would also report her. She is being extremely unprofessional. Client sessions are supposed to be in the service of the client, not the therapist, which she is clearly failing to do by spending your time pressuring you to continue/have more sessions. It also ignoring client autononomy - another important principle.

bacp-ethical-framework-for-the-counselling-professions-2018.pdf

You said it at the end of May, it is now January. I cannot believe you went back all these months. What is she going to do exactly? Show up at your home address? I would have put a stop to it long ago. Cancel, stop paying, don't respond to messages or phone calls. Report her to her professional body with the record of times and frequency of communications. Job done.

This kind of unwarranted pressure would just make me decide not to ever go back. She’s behaving unethically, and has more of an eye on her bank balance, than on your well-being, imo.

She sounds VERY unprofessional and seems to be using you as a regular income, even though you probably don't need the therapy now.

Just email her and end the contract, thanking her for her therapy over the years, but you've decided you no longer require therapy.

This isn't ok. I would stop going as of today and send her some really clear feedback on how unprofessional she has been if you can. And/or report her.

She now spends almost my entire session moaning about me having dropped down to fortnightly. I am finding very little value in this now

I would absolutely include that in the email ending it saying ‘so I will no longer be using your services’.

Appalling behaviour!

You have every right to decide you no longer want to attend sessions.

I would cancel with immediate effect and make it clear in the email that you have found her approach towards you wanting to end your sessions both stressful and unprofessional and that you do not want any further contact now. If she ignores that and harasses you further, send one more short message saying if she persists in contacting you, you’ll be forced to report her to her professional body.

She is totally in the wrong here, so don’t let her wear you down.

Therapist here - hi!
This sounds like really unethical behaviour. I would cancel your sessions immediately and perhaps report this to her governing body if she’s a member.
You are under no obligation to attend therapy and can cancel whenever you like. As a therapist, I respect my clients autonomy.

I would report her!

say no more communication needed from her with immediate effect