I have never written a Yelp review of a therapist before, but this time I believe it's important for other people to be able to make an informed decision.
I was a client of Emma's twice a week for almost 4 months. If things in the therapy are going smoothly, she can be kind, caring, and witty. I think she would be an okay therapist for someone who feels mostly stable, has relatively secure attachment patterns, and struggles with issues like moderate anxiety, adjustment to stressors, uncomplicated grief, personal growth related to identity, etc. I would not recommend her for anyone hoping to process early trauma, shame, and deeply rooted attachment wounds.
She told me explicitly that it was okay to email her in between sessions. She responded kindly to emails about insecurities and paranoias, but then when I sent one expressing anger (in a way that I intentionally tried to make solely about my own feelings and not attacking of her as a person), she said I shouldn't email her anymore, and if I were to do so again it would be "aggressive and intrusive." This abrupt change in boundaries triggered past traumas around early childhood sexual abuse, where the abuser said that what we were doing was "okay" and "good," until years later when I started showing signs of anger and confusion, and he said we had to stop, and implied that I had invited/initiated the abuse in the first place.
I do not fault her for me being triggered. The harm was done in her response to the trigger, where Emma did not show any interest or curiosity in hearing about what was activated for me (did not even ask further about what was being triggered), and instead focused the session on justifying herself, talking about her needs, and insisting I show awareness of the impact emailing had on her, all of which I was unable to fully take in or respond to when in such a regressed state. I was further triggered by feeling put in a position where the person in power told me it was my responsibility to adjust and take care of their needs by not crossing the boundaries that they had initially said were okay. I left the session half way through in order to save myself from the vulnerability of sobbing in front of her like a five year old, when she had just shown me that she would not attend to anything deeper than the surface level content and her own justifications for her inconsistent boundaries.
I think she is a good person at heart, with good intentions. But she has some serious growth edges around consistency (both emotional and logistical (e.g. frequently changing session time just minutes before session was supposed to start)), predictability, and boundaries, all of which are crucial to building safety when working with trauma. If you need a therapist who is able to really get down into the muck of it with you, while keeping you both safe, without judging what that muck looks like, Emma might not be the person. read more