In the last episode, Dr. Ofer Zur stated that he estimates at least 50% of board complaints in some way involve the subsequent therapist encouraging a client to initiate a complaint against a prior therapist.

And most of these cases do not involve egregious misconduct or predatory behavior.

Many of these cases result from misunderstandings, clients who are unreliable reporters, gray areas, differences in theoretical orientation that result in disagreement about the use of therapeutic practices, or poorly handled therapeutic ruptures of the sort that all of us have been, or will be guilty of, at some point in our careers.

So of course, I keep asking myself why.

Why is this phenomenon so common in our field? Why are therapists so frequently getting involved in the complaint process against other therapists? And what is it about our field that makes this more likely compared to other professional fields with board complaint processes?

Today, I’m digging into the contributing and converging factors that may explain just what it is about therapists that makes this phenomenon possible.