Review of Seattle Counseling Service for Sexual Minorites

SEATTLE COUNSELING SERVICE FOR SEXUAL MINORITIES

Telephone/TTY: (206) 323-1768
FAX: (206) 323-2184
Email: info@seattlecounseling.orgAddress: 1216 Pine Street, Suite 300
                      Seattle, WA 98101
Office Hours
Monday thru Thursday open 8:00 am to 8:00 pm. (some sessions run later). Friday 8:00 am to 5:00 pm.

http://www.seattlecounseling.org/Services.htm

ALL of my experiences with this agency have ended badly. I went there for the first time many years ago and was installed in group therapy. I actually had a really good therapist, but I needed individual therapy, but was not offered a therapist for this purpose...none was available.  I made some friends in the group, but also, I bonded with the therapist, and then, at a critical point, she announced she was leaving the agency. I had had two previous therapists in private practice who were very good, and each of them ended my therapy due to things that were about them (moving away, etc.) and I was vulnerable to abandonment issues when this group therapist, her name was Rene, announced she was leaving the agency, and could not take any of us on as clients, per agency policy. I decided to give the new group leader a try, but ended up walking out in the middle of the session due to my inability to adjust. 

Thus ended my first attempt at getting help at SCSSM. Some years later, I checked into therapy at SCSSM, and had an intake, and the therapist who did my intake ended up being my therapist. She was dumb as a bag of hammers. I requested a new therapist, and she was a bit better, but it was obvious to me that she was not intelligent enough for me, and got mad at me when I went to group she was running and I was recalcitrant. She had practically forced me to attend, even when I told her repeatedly I didn't want to. The group was made up of very low functioning people which is fine, but wasn't helpful to me. I felt my purpose there was to help the other group members...they could not help me, or even understand me. In addition, I lost respect, in part, for therapist because she was writing on the white board, and misspelled most words. Geez. 

So therapist accused me of being immature and rude. Well, perhaps I was, but I wasn't interested in her little group. Her group sucked and she blamed me for having a bad attitude, because if I had a good attitude I would like the group...but really it was all about her...because she created the group and wanted to feel really great about her ability to forma great group. I did, however, have a great psychiatrist while I was there. She treated me respect and with medications, and I got better, and then, shortly after the breakdown in trust with therapist gone group crazy, I decided that I was done with therapy, and this time, the therapist was insisting I needed to meet with her for closure. I never wanted to see her again. I told my psychiatrist I was done with medications and therapy because I was better, and, on my own, I tapered off my meds, all the while having my therapist hound me that I was making a mistake, even though my psychiatrist understood completely. I was right, and I was better and it was a good thing to go off the meds. I wish my therapist had been my psychiatrist. We discussed things like her dissertation and  education and she understood my intellectual needs. 

Now, my previous post about Erin Brower explains what happened the NEXT time I entered therapy at SCSSM. The only thing I left out was her supervisor, Donnie Goodman. He was/is the clinical supervisor at SCSSM. When Erin confronted me about not wanting to enter the Dialectical Behavioral Therapy program at Harborview,     I believe it was his idea, because when I conveyed my disinterest in the program, she called him into the session, me not knowing him at all, and he told me that since I did not want to do what they wanted me to do, then I was done there, and needed to leave. I guess Erin could not handle chucking me out the door herself, or even apologize or be understanding my choices. She made Donnie-boy come in and do the "tough love" portion of education in poverty mental health. No respect for my wishes. Sudden loss of my psychiatrist. (I will discuss him below). I was blown away. Did this make me want to do the program at Harborview? NO.  

At a point later on, I looked into a therapist at Sound Mental Health, and that was even worse. I was so uncomfortable that I walked out on my intake therapist. She told me if I did not want to discuss any one thing on her intake agenda, I didn't have to, and then proceeded to become irritated when I responded to many of her questions with, "I don't want to answer that." I ended up walking out of the intake. The facility, itself, was filled with filthy, seemingly homeless, drug and alcohol addicted and dysfunctional clients, and no where to sit...which was hard for me, because I am disabled and standing is hard for me. No one would or could help to accommodate me with a damn chair. After this and my previous experience (SCSSM) with community mental health agencies, I simply gave up, and did not enter into therapy (many years later) until Mr. Jarred Lathrop-Weber's offer to assist me, and then dropped me after a month and half. Thank the goddess I never got to the point that I shared anything incredibly private. I told him one thing, which I now regret, and thank the goddess it happened before I felt humiliated. How gross would it have been to lay my heart splayed open, and THEN have him throw me away like so much garbage. 

At this point will review the psychiatrist at SCSSM in another post. Suffice it to say he was fine, uninterested and straight. He threw drugs at me like candy. They poisoned me and I stopped taking them. 

Resources for people in poverty are shameful, and so are the actions of community (LGBTQ) therapists who build their credentials by working at one of these community mental health centers, only to go into private practice and then say (at least by their actions), "Screw all the poor LGBTQ  mental health patients out there."  Sounds like a Dickensian workhouse scenario. Scrooge saw no purpose to help the poor....that's what the workhouses were for. Oliver was dumped into a orphanage because he was "perceived" to be of low birth and poverty, but was "saved" by his rich family in the end. But, what of the Artful Dodger? We are the island of misfit toys. Shame, Shame, Shame. Donnie Goodman? Donnie BADman. SAD and shameful. No rest for the wicked and no help for the misfortunate. 

Tomorrow I go to see my psychiatrist who I have only met once, and I will lie to her about how I really feel, because I don't yet know or trust her. That's all I can say about that right now. She has suggested I go on lithium, because she guessed I might be bi-polar, and then, after my therapist dropped me, she suggested I might change my primary care giver to one of the community based clinics to get therapy there. My primary doctor is someone on whom I rely, who trusts my judgment and knows I am not a drug addict. If I had a new doctor, I would have to detail all of my physical and mental health issues to that person and they may or may not concur with my current treatment and medications which are working properly. I will find out tomorrow if she is worth the time to keep seeing her. I primarily want a psychiatrist so they can facilitate admission to the hospital should I go into crisis and then I won't have to go the emergency room route, which is torture. I will review my emergency room experiences the next time I write. Please comment, I welcome the discourse. And DOWN WITH DONNIE GOODMAN/BADMAN!