I think my therapist is bad

I’m pretty sure I’m going to start looking for a new therapist after my next session. I guess I just need one more opportunity for confirmation.

At first I thought my therapist was going to be good. I was excited to start with him because he made the future seem so hopeful, like we had a plan to work through all of the things I went to him for in the first place.

But over time I’ve experienced a few things with him that are red flags to me…

Firstly, he tells me what to do. He tells me that I need to do certain things when it comes to my son, when it comes to my ex, and when it comes to my well-being. For example, he told me I shouldn’t move out of state because it will mess with my son’s “father figure” his babysitter’s husband who maybe sees him an hour a day.

He told me that I need to go to church to build a community.

When I vent to him about an issue instead of just hearing me out he seems to get frustrated and just throw a “solution” at me. Don’t get me wrong - I know I can overthink and this can be exhausting but I don’t think that this is a solution.

He has also told me, jokingly, that I don’t need to worry about what people think “except for him”. He has also made other jokes such as “you only need me”. This has given me a really bad feeling about him and although I know he’s saying it jokingly it is deeply disturbing to be hearing this from a therapist. I know for a fact they’re not supposed to be saying things like this.