The first red flag was that in our "initial" consultative session - which was not going to be the price of a full session - she asked to charge me the full session amount because we had "gone over" on time, even though I had no access to the clock (she's the one who watches the clock behind my head) and had no way of knowing that we went over.
Second, though I always showed up exactly on time or early, she always went over on time with other clients and my sessions would start 10 to 15 minutes late. Although she claimed that she gave me a "full session" each time, the last session was definitely only 45 minutes (I made sure to make note of that).
Third, she canceled a session with me due to "a family emergency".
Fourth, she tried selling me a CD for $20 of music to help me sleep, even though I told her I had no trouble sleeping.
The final session I had to cancel because of a work conflict. From our very first session, we had the understanding that I had a difficult work schedule and we would work around it. There was no way to reschedule because I was moving out of the city the next week (she understood that I was with her only temporarily, while I was still in town). She took my cancellation and never notified me that she would still charge me for a full session - had she let me know this, I would have done something to keep our session. She very nicely ended our relationship and still took a full session's worth from my credit card.
Very disappointed to learn that therapists lean on "policy" when it's in their financial favor, but expect their client to be flexible.
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