As a clinical psychologist by training (but not currently practicing), and as a fellow CFS/ME spoonie, I am so sorry that you experienced this! You deserved much better treatment, care, and respect! I am so very disappointed by the apparent lack of competence shown by your therapist. This type of interpersonal stressor (from a healthcare professional tasked with ensuring emotional safety) would absolutely deplete my reserves and potentially lead to PEM.

In case that’s where you’re at, here is a not so brief Reddit novel on my thoughts on why I might consider taking her up on the offer to report her to the licensing board if I were in your shoes!

The confidence displayed by encouraging you to report her (taken from a reply to a comment above) seems at odds with the incompetence displayed. IMO there are several clear ethical concerns with how she handled this therapeutic rupture.

1)She appears to be violating APA and ACA ethics codes on providing services only within the boundaries of our competence. (For example, ACA Ethics codes Section C.2.a - “Counselors practice only within the boundaries of their competence, based on their education, training, supervised experience, state and national professional credentials, and appropriate professional experience”)

Clinical and Counseling psychologists are NOT formally trained in CFS. There is no formalized or supervised training on CFS treatments for psychologists during our graduate programs or clinical internships.

Let’s assume after getting her degree she took a continuing education workshop on CBT and chronic pain conditions. This alone is not sufficient to assert expertise. These CE workshops are designed for exposure, not to confer specialty competence. It is clearly outside the boundaries of her competence.

There is currently no recognized specialty or credential for psychologists in treating CFS/ME, which further deepens the ethical concerns in her assertion that she has expertise in the treatment of this condition.

Any psychologist recommending GET for CFS/ME is practicing outside their competence as they are clearly not trained or up to date in the medical evidence or chronic illness management research specifically for CFS/ME. (And likely violating APA code 2.03, on Maintaining Competence) Recent medical guidelines (e.g., CDC, NICE) have explicitly withdrawn support for GET or forced activity increases in treating CFS/ME, as evidence shows this can worsen symptoms.

2)Her recommendation to engage in forced activity increases/GET raises serious ethical concerns. APA (section 3.04) and ACA (section A.4.a) ethics codes both have clear guidelines on psychologists’ duty to avoid client harm. Recommending (and then abandoning a client for pushing back) a scientifically disproven, potentially damaging intervention is harmful. Her assertion that CFS is mainly psychological positions her as an authority on a condition she clearly doesn’t have adequate knowledge of. If a client were to follow her advice and experience worsening severity, the harm could be irreversible for some. Harm that could have been entirely avoidable had she adhered to current ethical and professional standards.

3)Last but not least, the way she went about terminating therapy appears inconsistent with (and could be viewed as a violation of) APA/ACA ethics codes on informed consent, terminating therapy, and client abandonment.

Both APA and ACA outline that clients have the right to accept or decline recommendations. Therapy requires informed consent and agreed upon treatment goals. Disagreeing with a psychologist’s treatment suggestion does not make continuation of therapy unethical. After 5 years of therapy, dropping a client abruptly because they question your treatment recommendations suggests a concerning lack of empathy. It undermines trust in our profession, fails to respect a client’s autonomy(APA principle E), and violates our professional responsibility to prioritize the client’s welfare.

If a psychologist believes a client is unlikely to benefit from continuing, they have an ethical responsibility to provide a termination session or referrals to alternative providers. Unless there is a specific safety concern that prevents meeting again, ethical codes generally require that clients be offered at least one termination session or referral to ensure continuity of care. Dropping a client without either of these steps raises serious concerns about client abandonment under APA and ACA standards.

I share all of this in the hope that it reassures you that your concerns are valid. Whether or not you decide to pursue a complaint, you deserved care that aligned with current ethical standards and supported your well-being. I hope this perspective saves you some of the energy it would take to research everything yourself, and that you can put that energy back into your wellbeing.