Caught off guard by therapist's review of previous therapist notes – how could I have handled this better?

NAT

TL; DR: new therapist reviewed notes from previous two therapists and I glossed over the negativity but now I'm second-guessing myself because she seems to believe some some false information from one. Is there a better way I could've handled this?

Full story:

I met a new therapist today. For context, this is my 10th therapist in a 5 year period. I wrote about the first 7 here:

The 8th therapist I found was wonderful, listened yet still challenged me and I feel like I grew a lot. Then the insurance changed and I had to start all over. This is the 3rd therapist with the new insurance. She had reviewed the notes from the previous therapy sessions and asked why there was a two month gap between now and the last appointment

That last appointment was with the woman who I feel like "fired" me. I wrote about that last session here:

I didn't wanna say I was fired and felt disrespected, but I also didn't want to lie, so I said that we had difficulty scheduling appointments close enough together and that the previous therapist recommended we take a break and that I start over with someone else. The new therapist said she didn't see any notes for our last session but that because she could see the sporadic nature of our appointment times she understood how that could make sense

Then she asked me about the man I met with 3 times before starting with the previous therapist and I told her I only met with him while I was waiting for the previous therapist to get back from extended travel

She asked again how those sessions went, and while I hesitated, she proceeded to how I was doing addressing some of the things he had written in his notes. I told her I had a tough time with him because every week it was something new, and he resisted my request to help me actually implement before moving onto a new idea.

Now I'm wondering if I might've glossed over the issues too much because that guy really took me on a roller coaster ride and she kept asking throughout today's session about terms that he threw out such as codependent and some other details he had been mistaken about but the more I insisted he heard me wrong the more he insisted I was in denial

I am worried that his notes have already skewed the new therapist perception of me and I wonder if I should've included more details as to what both of these previous therapists said did. On the other hand, I don't think anyone appreciates it if you start a new relationship by badmouthing their colleagues

Can you recommend a better way to handle it? Or is how I handled it OK?

Posted Jul 25, 2026, 11:29 PM UTC

23
Loading comments…