I don’t care if you hate me and my blog or if you assume this is a post where I make fun of Aaron Gleaves and you’re already pissed about it.
It’s not.
I took a day off today because I haven’t been sleeping and I feel terrible. I need to turn things around and feel good again.
Aaron and I were once a really good team. He was my favorite and I have a lot to choose from. I thought at the time that he liked me pretty well too, but I’ve since had to accept that he never did.
He might’ve faked caring about me, but there are some things he couldn’t fake.
He was a great listener. He made me feel heard, except for after he destroyed me. It’s probably because he made me feel heard all the time that when he stopped it was horribly painful. But the man was excellent at hearing me and hearing what I was trying to say when I sucked at saying it.
He was creative. I’m used to creative musician and writer types, but usually I’m one of the few in the room who looks at a situation and finds a creative, possibly out of the box solution. Aaron has that ability. Collaborating with him was fucking awesome and empowering.
He was passionate. I was so energized by him. He had opinions and ideas and even when I disagreed with him I was intrigued by him.
He was generous. He never made me feel like a burden or waste of his time and attention, except for at the end. Before his plan to destroy me was set in motion, he was the real deal. I never felt like he was in it for the power or the money.
He was curious. He got excited when he learned something or when I learned something or when we followed some line of thinking, not knowing where we might end up.
He made me feel safe. If it hadn’t been for that level of safety I felt, I wouldn’t have stayed too long, because I don’t know why he ended up wanting to get rid of me, but I guess he found me exhausting or annoying or too intense, so I ended up staying too long. But I only did that because I felt safe with him.
I can be a little clueless and since I’ve been on the defensive about Aaron Gleaves since the end of 2024, I can be a bit jumpy too. That’s kind of a thing that happens when a gorgeous evil genius surprise attacks you. Anyway, I was informed that he was made the Director of Clinician Experience at his work, and naturally I interpreted that to mean that he literally got promoted to be the Director of how all the other counselors handle their clients, including him designing the terminations for them. I kind of had a rage breakdown when I thought that. I thought his boss promoted him for doing such a great job of hurting me. Then I was told that it’s more of an administrative role and I thought oh and he still sees clients though, right? But my long winded point is that I can picture Aaron Gleaves directing just about anything, provided he keeps his insecurities in check and also doesn’t let himself be regulated to a helper.
I hate him, but evil genius client terminator is very capable. If he works his magic in your favor than you’ve got a good thing going and back before I hated him I would’ve been sad that you get to have that with him and I never will again.
Leave it to a guy like him to get me to commit to something for a lifetime. He’ll live the perfect life with the perfect career while I try to reclaim the dignity he snatched from me way back when he was a lot of things to me: My awesome therapy guy, my confidante, my friend (shh don’t tell him!) and the Clinical Director of My Spectacular Journey To Better Mental Health.
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