Yes, Virginia, sometimes a therapist will show up to a session with all the emotional maturity and social elegance of a hungover college bro fuckboi.
I met one who did.
It would seem that Stacey Bolt, the owner of Calmed Counseling & Consulting in Blacksburg, Virginia, is still rather upset that I gave her counseling practice a negative Google review. I know this because she flagged it for removal so it was visible only to me when I was logged into my Google account.
To the best of my knowledge, I didn’t break any of Google’s guidelines for reviews. I certainly didn’t intend to if I did. The sole intent of all of my reviews is to provide feedback about my experience as a customer, in case my experience might help somebody else.
I rarely leave negative reviews, and when I do I’m picky about how I write them. For example, each of my reviews for Calmed Counseling has focused on my dissatisfaction with Aaron Gleaves, who was my therapist. I didn’t interact with any of the other therapists who work there, with the exception of Stacey, but she wasn’t my therapist, she was Aaron’s supervisor and boss.
FWIW I’m going to say it again here. It’s quite possible and in fact, probable, that the other therapists at Calmed Counseling are very good therapists. I wouldn’t be surprised if they are and I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that some of them have provided their past clients with professional, respectful terminations. I simply haven’t had any experience with them so I can’t tell anyone that I know firsthand that they’re great.
I’d also like to take this opportunity to shout out a big thank you to David Bolt, who handled my insurance claims and was the only one of the three people I interacted with at Calmed who was polite and professional to me the entire time, even at the very end.
Right after I was terminated I was so very devastated and wanted them to just get the damn paperwork done already so I wouldn’t have to be continuously traumatized by each message from my insurance provider about the claims from my last two sessions, and David behaved in an excellent manner to me and he got it done. As someone with a background in customer service, I give him an A+.
Regarding Stacey with my previous review that she wanted removed, well she had posted a direct reply to it. Not only did her reply have nothing to do with my review, it had nothing to do with me at all since I wasn’t a current client. I asked her to remove it and to her credit, she did. Also to her credit, I don’t see where she’s padding her positive reviews with fake ones from people she knows who aren’t real clients. I’ve seen counseling practices do that, and it’s a terrible look. Note to therapists, it’s also obvious to clients when you do that and it makes us wonder what you’re so afraid of, or what you might be trying to hide. Not good. Stacey does not appear to do that and I respect her for that.
I think it’s inappropriate for therapists to respond to client reviews. I don’t feel like client reviews are the proper place for therapists to discuss things with clients or to disagree with them. I have very few exceptions I’d make for that, and I feel that it’s absolutely unethical and disrespectful for them to publicly reply to any negative reviews they receive.
I feel like Stacey is being extremely reactive about my reviews and I feel like it’s harassment and bullying and showing disregard for the potential confidentiality of ex-clients. Once again, I’m thinking about other potential clients being treated this way. It’s not okay.
When Stacey initially reached out to me, she sounded understanding, but it turned out that all she’s going after is what emotionally unregulated and reactive therapists want, which is for the client to agree completely with their version of the narrative as though it’s gospel, and then for the client to go away and shut the hell up.
I’m absolutely not going to do that, and Stacey seems very upset by it. I’m not sure why she’s so upset about the meager amount of power and the small voice I get in this situation, all things considered. She’s literally protected by the APA and by liability insurance and by the state of Virginia which nearly always sides with the business owners over employees and customers because they care more about the fucking money way more than they ever do about people’s rights, health, and safety.
How and why are the privileges Stacey has in this situation not enough for her? If one unhappy review is seriously such a terrible thing for her business and not just her ego, what am I missing?
Aaron Gleaves gave me the impression that there are many people in the Blacksburg area who seek counseling. He also told me outright that there are a lot of therapists in that area too. Aaron’s online profile pages indicate that he’s not currently accepting new clients. When clients see that, we think it means that the therapist has a full caseload. I’m literally thinking all of the therapists at Calmed must have full caseloads due to the area they serve, and if not, it’d be for their own personal reasons and not due to a supply issue.
So how is my review the end of the world? I don’t think it is. Many people don’t read reviews. Many people disregard negative reviews. Many people look at the percentage of bad reviews compared to the good reviews and if there are more good ones than bad, they’re satisfied. Many men will choose Aaron because he’s a dude. Many women will choose Aaron because of his jaw and his hair and because he looks emotionally sensitive. Some people won’t care which therapist they get as long as the therapist shows they care.
And let me remind you that Stacey and Aaron clearly thought they had enough clients back in December 2024 to where they felt like they could throw a punctual, hardworking one like me out in the blink of an eye. That doesn’t show a shortage of clients to me.
Here’s what it looks like. It looks like between Stacey and Aaron they came up with one of the weakest and dumbest terminations imaginable. Honestly, had it not happened to me, I’d never imagine doing a termination in such a shitty way to a longterm client.
It looks like either they agreed on how it would be done or possibly Stacey ordered it and left the execution of it up to Aaron, and he fucked it up all on his own.
It looks like Aaron Gleaves gives zero fucks about how therapy ends for his clients, or maybe just for me in particular because I pushed his buttons and he couldn’t see past it.
It looks like Stacey doesn’t care and she’s convinced that my termination went fine and I’m overreacting. It looks like she only cares about her public appearance and I’m a blight on her otherwise perfect Google record.
It looks like Stacey either doesn’t trust Aaron or doesn’t think he’s enough of a man to actually handle things without her help, or maybe he’s like a golden retriever puppy. They’re gorgeous and sweet and fun and you don’t make them do the heavy lifting.
It looks like Aaron’s current plan is to ignore the fighting women and hope they’ll go away.
It looks like I’m the only one saying Fuck This. Aaron Gleaves behaved like a dick ex-boyfriend and he is absolutely man enough to fucking own it and he could’ve made it right. Will women like Stacey please stop treating men like Aaron like they’re fragile fucking babies. He’s a grown ass man for fuck’s sake. He made adult choices that have consequences. He knew me well enough to know that the way he was doing my termination was half ass bullshit which I’d never be okay with. The grown ass man knew my history and chose to behave like an ex-boyfriend to me. It was hella confusing. I don’t care if Stacey told him to do it like that or if she didn’t specify how. It doesn’t matter to me if she did or didn’t, not nearly as much as it matters to me that Aaron chose to behave so unnecessarily cold to me.
Aaron, seriously, guy. Why’d you have to go and do me like that?
Were you ever even the least bit proud of me?