My Therapist Gave Me PTSD. Yours Might Be Too.
I have the receipts, the bank records, and the court date. She still has her license and new patients.
I went to therapy to heal from trauma.
Instead, my therapist spent five years collecting everything I told her, then used it to extort $126,000 from me.
Not a metaphor. Not exaggerating.
I have the bank records. The text messages. The contracts she made me sign. The private investigator’s report. The formal complaint filed with Michigan’s licensing board. The trial date: September 17, 2026.
This is what nobody tells you about therapy: The person with complete access to your vulnerabilities can become the person who weaponizes them.
What Actually Happened
2019-2023: I was in therapy with Emily A. Davis, a Limited Licensed Psychologist in Michigan. Five years. Weekly sessions. Standard treatment for alcohol addiction and C-PTSD.
She knew everything. My drinking history. My childhood trauma. My relationship patterns. My career fears. Every weakness I had.
That’s therapy. You give someone total access to your psyche. You trust them to help you heal.
April 2023: I was wrongfully terminated from Fidelity Investments.
Days later: My therapist reached out. Not as my therapist anymore. As “support.” Personal relationship. Said she wanted to help me through the crisis.
I didn’t see the red flag. I was drowning. I’d lost my job. I was sober but barely holding on. And here was the one person who knew me completely, offering help.
That’s when it started.
The Extortion
Over the next several months, she extracted $126,000 from me.
How?
Blackmail. “If you don’t shut up and do what I say, I’ll send a letter to FINRA exposing what you told me in therapy. Your career in financial services is over.”
Gaslighting. She created fake threats from people who either didn’t exist or weren’t actually threatening me. Showed me “evidence” on her phone. When I questioned it, told me I was paranoid.
Isolation. Convinced me to cut off friends, family, anyone who might notice what was happening. “They don’t understand you. I’m the only one who does.”
Fake expenses. Claimed she’d paid a “reputation management firm” $200,000 and I owed her half. The firm didn’t exist.
Coerced contracts. Made me sign legal documents in February 2024 and June 2024 requiring structured payments to her.
Financial drain. My bank records show dozens of transfers over three months. Nearly $90,000 in that period alone. My monthly salary was $6,300. I drained my savings. Withdrew from retirement accounts.
She knew exactly which buttons to push because I’d spent five years telling her where they all were.
The Evidence
I’m not asking you to believe me based on my word.
I have:
Bank statements showing every transfer
Text messages with threats
Emails including one where she apologizes after I confronted her (August 11, 2024)
Two contracts she forced me to sign (February 2024, June 2024)
A private investigator’s report documenting her background
A formal complaint filed with Michigan’s Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (March 2025)
The private investigator found: She was fired from her previous employer, Great Lakes Psychology Group, for having a personal relationship with a former client outside the workplace.
She’d done this before.
She just got a job at a new practice and kept seeing patients.
No public record. No warning. Just moved locations and started over.
This Has a Name: Iatrogenic Harm
Iatrogenic harm means damage caused by medical treatment.
In therapy, it’s when the person supposed to help you makes you worse. Or becomes the source of new trauma.
Research recognizes it exists:
Breaches in therapeutic relationship
Confidentiality violations
Dual relationships that harm client wellbeing
Exploitation of patient vulnerability
But nobody talks about intentional therapist-caused trauma because it threatens the industry’s credibility.
Most iatrogenic harm in therapy is accidental—poor technique, incompetence, misapplication of methods.
Mine wasn’t an accident. It was calculated financial extortion using the therapeutic relationship as the weapon.
The Industry Knows This Happens
Research on therapist sexual misconduct (which shares similar exploitation dynamics):
7-12% of mental health practitioners engage in sexual relationships with clients.
Not a few bad apples. More than 1 in 10.
9% of all ethics complaints to state licensing boards involve sexual relationships.
But only 12% of harmed patients ever file formal complaints.
Why?
They blame themselves (the therapist trained them to)
They don’t think they’ll be believed
They fear retaliation
The system protects therapists, not patients
Even therapists who know about colleague misconduct rarely report it. Only 8% do.
The profession protects itself.
Why Licensing Boards Won’t Save You
I filed my complaint with Michigan’s licensing board in March 2025.
Documented everything. Bank records. Emails. Texts. Contracts. PI report.
Now I wait.
The board investigates. Eventually. Maybe.
Licensing boards exist to regulate the profession, not protect you.
Their job is maintaining public trust in therapy as an institution. Not holding individual therapists accountable.
Even when boards act, penalties are often minimal. Fines. Supervision requirements. Temporary suspension.
My therapist got fired from one practice for this exact behavior. She just moved to another practice and kept seeing patients.
That’s the system working exactly as designed.
The Pattern (What I Missed)
This didn’t start with extortion.
It started with boundary erosion.
Phase 1: Information Collection
Five years of therapy. She collected my traumas, fears, vulnerabilities, secrets.
Supposed to be for treatment. Became ammunition.
Phase 2: Boundary Violation
After my job loss, the therapeutic relationship became something else.
Personal contact outside sessions. “Special” support. “I really understand you.”
Phase 3: Dual Relationship
Not therapist-patient anymore. Something else. Friend? Savior?
Power dynamic still there, just hidden.
Phase 4: Exploitation
Once boundaries dissolved, exploitation began.
Financial demands. Emotional manipulation. Using everything from therapy sessions against me.
Phase 5: Isolation
Separated me from anyone who might notice.
“Your family doesn’t understand.” “Your friends are toxic.” “I’m the only one who gets you.”
Phase 6: Control Through Fear
When I started questioning things, the threats came.
“I’ll tell FINRA what you told me in therapy.” “Your career is over.” “You’ll never work in finance again.”
The information I gave her to heal became the weapon she used to control me.
Warning Signs I Ignored
Your therapist might be harmful if:
✗ They contact you outside sessions without clear clinical reason
✗ They encourage cutting off supportive relationships
✗ They share extensive personal details about their own life
✗ You feel worse the longer you’re in therapy
✗ They discourage second opinions or seeing other providers
✗ They position themselves as the only person who can help you
✗ They ask for money outside standard therapy fees
✗ They threaten consequences if you try to end therapy
✗ You can’t articulate clear treatment goals
✗ They use therapy information to manipulate you outside sessions
Every single one happened. I ignored them all.
The Actual Damage
I went to therapy with PTSD from childhood trauma and work stress.
I left with PTSD from the therapy.
Lost $126,000 I didn’t have. Drained savings. Withdrew retirement funds.
Developed hypervigilance around helping professionals. Can’t trust therapists. Can’t trust doctors.
Isolated from everyone who cared about me because she convinced me they were the problem.
Stayed sober through it (5+ years now) but barely.
And for months, I blamed myself.
I thought I was too needy. Too broken. Too difficult.
That’s what she told me. And because she was my therapist—the person who knew me better than anyone—I believed her.
What I’m Doing About It
March 2025: Filed formal complaint with Michigan’s licensing board against Emily A. Davis.
Current status: Pursuing civil lawsuit. Trial date September 17, 2026.
What I want: My money back. Her license revoked. Public record so no one else gets hurt. The people involved held accountable.
What will probably happen: The board might do nothing. The lawsuit might take years. She might keep practicing.
But I’m not staying silent.
Why I’m Telling You This
Because therapist-caused trauma is real and nobody talks about it.
Because 88% of harmed patients never report.
Because the system is designed to protect therapists, not you.
Because you need to know:
Not all therapy is helpful. Some therapy is harmful. And when a therapist exploits you, the profession will protect them while you’re left to deal with the damage alone.
I’m not anti-therapy. I’m anti-therapists who weaponize vulnerability for personal gain.
If your therapist is harming you, it’s not in your head. Document everything. Get out. Report them.
The system won’t protect you. But you don’t have to protect them either.
The Truth About Healing
I went to therapy to heal from trauma.
The therapy became the trauma.
Now I’m healing from the healing.
And the most fucked up part? I had to figure out how to heal myself because I can’t trust therapists anymore.
Five years. $126,000. One destroyed sense of safety.
That’s the real cost of trusting someone who saw my vulnerability as opportunity.
September 17, 2026. That’s when I face her in court.
Not for revenge. For accountability.
Because the only thing worse than what happened to me is knowing she’s still seeing patients.
Still collecting vulnerabilities.
Still waiting for the next crisis to exploit.
I’m Cody Taymore. This happened to me. It could happen to you. Don’t let them silence you.
-Cody Taymore
Kill The Silence
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Sources:
International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation. (2024). Iatrogenic Trauma Definition.
CPTSD Foundation. (2020). Medical and Mental Health Gaslighting and Iatrogenic Injury.
Rosenberg, R. (2023). Iatrogenic Trauma: The Consequences of Ineffective Therapy. Self-Love Recovery Institute.
Celenza, A. (2007). Sexual boundary violations: Therapeutic, supervisory, and academic contexts. As cited in Taylor & Francis.
Wilkinson, T., Smith, D., & Wimberly, R. (2019). Ethical complaints to state licensing boards. Journal of Counseling & Development.
Pope, K. National Study of Therapist-Client Sex. American Psychological Association.
Gartrell, N., et al. (1987). Reporting practices of psychiatrists who knew of sexual misconduct by colleagues. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 57, 287-295.
ResearchGate. (2021). Sanctioned licensing board violations for marriage and family therapists spanning a 10-year period.
Thank you for sharing this. What you described isn’t just a “bad therapy experience.” It’s an abuse of power that literally weaponized your vulnerability against you. The fact that you documented dates, contracts, bank transfers, text messages, and filed a formal complaint with the licensing board shows this isn’t hearsay or exaggeration
You're right. Therapist-caused trauma is real and nobody talks about it. So thank you for speaking up about this with so much honesty and articulating it so well.
I know I should have reported mine for conversion therapy as well as confidentiality and ethical violations. But I didn't think I would be believed or supported.
I believe you. And I hope everything turns out well for you.