I’m a university student and I was sexually assaulted on campus a few months ago. I was feeling very demoralized after the incident (extremely low self-esteem, so much anxiety that I wouldn’t even go out of my apartment on some days), so I went to my school’s Counseling Center. When I went in, my psychologist did almost NOTHING to help me. Instead, she focused on my ethnicity (Asian-American) because she supposedly specializes in “multicultural issues.” She would bring up completely irrelevant points: “You’re Japanese, so I know you’ve been taught to respect your elders.” “Are you from Arcadia?” (a nearby city with a large Asian-American population, where I am NOT from.) “Is your brother a stereotypical nerdy Asian?” (And this wasn’t just side talk – to her, this was part of her way to help.) When I asked her to please not judge me by my race, her response was “I have more knowledge than you.” Then, she gave me a handout on Asian stereotypes. I was sexually assaulted, and you want to talk about Asian stereotypes?! Other than that, she only briefly touched over the assault. Whenever I would bring it up, she would say something like “That’s all in the past. Let’s not talk about it.” But I wanted to talk about!! I wanted to deal with that issue specifically! Then she referred me to a Stress/Social Anxiety group because, according to her, I am shy. She also spent much time trying to fix my “shyness.”
I felt her to be incompetent, rude, and offensive. Because she focused so much on my race and other red herrings, I felt I was given ineffective treatment.
Should I complain about this psychologist to the Counseling Center director? Is it a big enough issue? I would also like to request additional sessions. My school offers a maximum number of sessions, and I have used them all up with this inept therapist. Which is partly my fault – I should have requested a different psychologist immediately.
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