My mom thinks therapy is... like a bar?

My mom used to drink and be terribly abusive. She developed a huge victim complex around counseling because one counselor dropped her for chronically being late and no-showing, and another developed severe health issues that caused him to be forced to drop half his patient load.

My mom and I have been on awful terms for a while, and I finally told her it's either family therapy or we go no contact. She sent me an email where, among other things, she had this to say about counseling:

I told you several, several times I would never, ever again let anyone hurt me like that again. [OP's note: by "hurt me" she means firing her as a client]

So what did you do?

Picked the one thing you know I cannot and will not do.

How would you feel if dad told you sure, [OP's name] honey, sure I’d love to meet with you somewhere! But I’m only willing to meet you in a bar.

While everyone is drunk.

You’d be livid. It would trigger every single alarm bell and bad memory you have.

That’s exactly what you’re doing to me by telling me I either open myself up to knowingly be hurt again by demanding I go to counseling OR ELSE. [OP's note: the OR ELSE refers to me cutting her off for good]

So in her eyes, because she doesn't like counseling, that's equivalent to the trauma of me being around drunk people... okay.

The irony is I actually am okay being around bars and alcohol now that I don't have her hitting me every time she gets drunk. It took years of work in... you guessed it... therapy. 😂 Shows how well she knows her own now-permanently-estranged adult child, I guess! 😂