This is for anyone who is considering care with Emerald or has just left care-- it is not normal to…read moreleave an intake feeling hopeless, horrible about yourself, and completely flooded with trauma you can't process alone.
It is not normal to have your therapist rush you through the intake because she spent the first half of the session lecturing you about a topic she presumes you to know nothing about (automatically made a lot of assumptions about my disability).
It is not normal to tell your therapist about this life changing rare disorder you were recently diagnosed with (the entire reason I moved to Ohio and have to completely restart all care with new providers) and for her to dismiss it and say many people on her caseload have this condition that she seemingly knows nothing about. I promise you- they don't and even if they did-- their experiences are not my own.
It is not normal for the therapist to talk the majority of the intake (yet no introduction or explanation of services) and tell you you need to explain your trauma in 1 sentence or less, then act annoyed that some trauma can't be concisely explained in 1 sentence.
Most of all, it's not normal for a therapist who barely got to know me, did zero assessments and offered no compassion, to then end the intake by attempting to diagnose me with a personality disorder.
I'm going to be incredibly vulnerable in this review in the hopes of saving someone else from the horrible experience that I had, because truly it is downright dangerous and harmful for therapists to 1. Practice outside of their scope of competence and 2. Flood their clients asking about trauma with zero reassurance or empathy offered 3. Diagnose a personality disorder without getting to know my personality
My therapist, Nichole Evans, claimed that the diagnosis was due to suicidal ideation at age 13 and the fact that I can't form relationships. She did not get background on what was happening at age 13 but said that the only explanation for suicidal ideation is a personality disorder.
No idea where she got the impression that I don't have solid relationships. Prior to my move to Ohio, I had a great group of friends, a really healthy relationship with my therapist and psychiatrist. The reason I don't have relationships in ohio is I JUST moved here. I also had a working diagnosis of cPTSD, OCD, and social anxiety. She didn't explore any of those diagnoses and said she's not actually able to diagnose my personality disorder, just that I have one and in the meantime she'll diagnose major depression. No PHQ9, no actual assessments or questions to determine I'm depressed. The extent of my depression is just sleeping a lot due to pain from fibromyalgia and hypermobile Ehlers Danlos. Besides that, I'm not depressed and actually consider myself to be thriving despite the conditions.
When I told her that I don't agree with the diagnosis, especially given what I know about the disorder, because I don't ever want attention, she said "REALLY? because I'm getting the opposite impression, you're just begging for attention this whole meeting."
When I said, "really?"
She replied, "you're barfing up your life story, it's too much."
For those who can't see the irony or absolute idiocracy in this statement, a therapist telling a client they're barfing up their life story and begging for attention is DANGEROUS. I don't have a personality disorder but what if I did? And took those comments personally and felt hopeless, suicidal, etc.
The diagnosis felt like a threat (claiming she's unable to actually legally make the diagnosis but that she'll get it on my record so it follows me everywhere).
I canceled my following appointments and tried to speak with the office but it's impossible to get through. Furthermore, after emailing that I was upset with my experience, the therapy scheduling called to try to set me up with someone else. No one acknowledged the harm that was done, no one apologized and I had left a message that I'd be available all day to discuss my experience.
Im writing this review hoping to save someone else the horrible, downright offensive experience I had. This is a vulnerable community when we are going to treatment and deserve to be treated with compassion, empathy, respect. I was rushed through my intake so quickly that it was less than an hour and most of that was Nichole lecturing me about the reasons she believes I didn't get disability (fyi, I just moved here and am establishing providers and getting genetic testing completed where I couldn't in my home state. Im fully aware of the process and the steps and did not ask for her input).
If you are considering Emerald, please, go elsewhere. This is *not* normal nor is it ethical or competent care.