Erika Prigo

I saw this therapist from February through mid-June for trauma treatment, specifically for EMDR, and my experience was a harmful one. She came across to me as cold and distant, and I did not feel she was able to hear what I needed to talk about. My trauma is connected to conditions in my apartment complex. During a session I was told I could not use the word “roach” because it was triggering for her. I spent that session managing her reaction instead of processing my own experience. At the end of what turned out to be our last session, I booked our next appointment as usual. Nothing was said to me then about ending treatment. She then cancelled that appointment. When I asked why, the only reason I was given was that she did not think we were a good fit. After four months of trauma work, that was the entirety of the explanation, and there was no closing session and no discussion of ending. I later requested my treatment records, which I am legally entitled to do. Nothing in the records I received indicates that ending treatment had ever been under consideration, or that this had been raised with me in any form. Those records also contain statements that are not accurate. One states that my treating physician gave me my disability diagnosis. My disability status is a federal determination. A physician provides medical evidence toward that process- a physician does not legally establish disability status. Two further entries I disputed. The first described me as combative and agitated. The context was this: there were unauthorized people entering our building, and building management had instructed residents to tell them firmly to leave or to call the police. I did exactly that. I told one individual to leave the premises or I would call the police. Asserting my legal rights, as my building management had directed, is what appears in my clinical file as combative and agitated. The second entry states that I wanted financial support for family members. I never said this, in any session. The records also describe me as lacking insight without identifying what that assessment was based on, and that description is inconsistent with the session notes themselves. I was given three referrals. I was seeing her exclusively for EMDR. Based on my own research into the three names, two did not offer EMDR and the third only had appointments available at 12 AM. None of them were something I could use. I came into this work with trauma and I left it with more. The way this ended has become its own injury that I am now working through. That is my honest experience, and it is why I would not recommend this provider to anyone looking for trauma-informed EMDR care.