Barry
This Shrink Stinks! Avoid Stacey Maples
I found Stacey Maples during a Medicare search of the Alma database while looking for a new therapist, as my current therapist does not meet my criteria for intelligence and Stacey appeared to do so. She also has excellent experience and areas of expertise, including CBT, so I was looking forward to interviewing her and trying her out to see if it would be a good fit. We interviewed, the interview went well, and we were looking forward to working with each other. She had me apply through Alma but their interface would not accept Medicare--the third therapist I had tried through their interface who presented a problem with this. (They need to be investigated as well. They have so many therapists who come up under the Medicare filter, but they don't accept Medicare.) So she had me apply directly through her MindBody Wellness website--which was about 30 pages of documents. (Approx. 20 of information to be read and 9 of forms to be filled out.) I went through the rigorous, meticulous, and detailed process of filling out her paperwork, after telling her that I hate paperwork, but I mustered the resolve and fortitude to do it, since it was necessary. (I later commented in an email that it was no small feat to accomplish this, and she scoffed at the notion, saying that all of her patients do it. I had to point out to her that for me it was a gargantuan feat because I'm at a time in my life when I'm completely overwhelmed, overloaded, and swamped, and that it was inappropriate of her to compare me to anyone. I also have a HSP personality type--Highly Sensitive Personality--and my nervous system gets bogged down in anxiety and stress on a good day.) I mailed the 9-page packet of forms to her, and for some reason it took a week-and-a-half to arrive and for her to retrieve it. (She's been dealing with an extreme medical emergency with her mother and has been spending a lot of time at the hospital.) I explained in an email that I had struck though several clauses that I felt uncomfortable signing and initialed the strike-throughs, and asked her to review them and then we could discuss them by phone. It took her days to do so, and then finally she replied by telling me which ones she objected to. I explained my reasons, and finally the only one she wanted to hold out for had to do with co-pays. She suggested we talk by phone, then I didn't hear from her, and I was anxious and eager to begin treatment. Finally, after my reassuring her AGAIN that Medicare pays 100% and I have neither co-pays nor deductibles, and after asking her 2-3 times to initial, sign, and date the strike-throughs and pages and scan and email them back to me for my files, she said she'd draft a new agreement that we could sign. I asked her again to initial, sign, and date the forms I had taken my precious time and energy to fill out so I could have copies, and to draw up a simple agreement addressing the co-pays issue only, since that would simplify things and get the ball rolling, as we had scheduled our first session for this Thursday and I knew we needed the paperwork handled and complete prior to that first session. After ALL THIS RIGAMAROLE over the course of 3-4 weeks, and having to wait for her to make up her mind and work through her objections and concerns, she sent me an email saying that she had re-thunk the matter and decided not to offer me services--leaving me stuck back at Square 1, all because she doesn't like people challenging her authority, and hiding behind a lame excuse having to do with my intractability regarding how I perceive a person's assessment of my behavior (the fact that I considered it a feat to get through her extensive paperwork), my periodic suicidal ideation, and the fact that CBT would not be adequate to help me--all of which is nonsense and smoke. Now I'm back where I started a month ago, when all this time preparing to start with her I could've been looking at other therapists. She has put me in a very awkward and frustrating position, stuck with my dumbass current therapist and needing far more intelligent support in a better therapist, when my efforts have been thwarted. I can gladly provide the lengthy email chains to corroborate my statement.