A worried parent recently wrote to us, sharing a difficult situation with her young son and his therapist. The parent explains a troubling experience during therapy sessions and is now looking for advice and support.

The situation was very upsetting for the parent. Ethan, a 7-year-old boy, had been seeing Dr. K, his therapist, for about six months. The therapy was meant to help him with anxiety after he was bullied at school. Dr. K was highly recommended, and at first, everything seemed to be going well.

However, something happened during one of Ethan’s usual therapy sessions that caused serious worry. Normally, Ethan was happy and excited to talk about his sessions when he was picked up.

Even worse, Dr. K had told Ethan not to tell his parent about what happened, saying it was their secret. She also criticized him, calling him stupid and saying he wasn’t trying hard enough, which made Ethan feel very hurt.

The parent quickly decided to stop Ethan’s sessions with Dr. K, but now had to figure out what to do next—whether to report the therapist’s behavior and how to make sure other kids weren’t treated the same way.