Poisonous Psychotherapy

by Maja Farrell

I found Alice Miller's term "Poisonous Pedagogy" when I was looking for reasons why so many therapies and analyses feel so abusive to clients and eventually break down altogether. I could not understand, reading forums full of patients/clients who were able to apparently "thrive" and "love" their therapist although reporting experiences that, to me, seemed inhibiting at best and abusive at worst. Looking back, I myself had stayed in such 'therapeutic' relationships, and the constant struggle I was experiencing within those relationships was intensified by the internal war against my intuition and gut instinct; the innate knowledge that I was not treated the way I needed to be treated in order to flourish and find my Self. As the years passed and the "unintentional" oppression by therapists/analyst of my needs and Self continued,

The Retaliatory Practitioner - Returning the Unbearable

by Maja Farrell


I would like to encourage other therapists to think about possible unconscious forces that may arise in a very short space of time; e.g. within/after a phone call or e-mail from a client enquiring about therapy, the first session or a first presentation of a client in supervision and the damage that can be caused to the client within this very short period of time in which therapist can become deeply affected by the client's internal world and unable to think and act, re-acts and rejects, leaving the client in even greater distress.

Psychotherapy Abuse: When Is It The Client's Fault?

by Maja Farrell

After having read the PSYOP Transference Love and Harm by Dawn Devereux, published in the Sep 2016 BACP magazine Therapy Today, I felt the need to respond and address the many subtle yet dangerous suggestions dropped by Ms Devereux, in agreement with the Clinic of Boundary Studies.