Betrayal of trust: a therapist’s deceitful role in our relationship

The only things false about what you are about to read are the names I will use. If you read to the end or far enough, you will understand why I had to change the names. 

I never imagined I would have to write something like this. In fact, if this didn’t happen to me, I would say these things only happen in Lifetime movies, surely not in real life, surely not in SVG and surely not to people who were merely seeking professional help.

Mental health is still not given the level of importance it should in SVG and given the stigma associated with mental ill health, people are often reluctant to seek help for fear of being looked upon as “crazy” or “unfit”.  

When Bertram first contacted a mental health professional who visits SVG from time to time to provide services for couples as well as a particular section of the population, we were looking for help — someone neutral, ethical, and skilled enough to guide us through the issues we were having. We trusted her. We believed in the process. 

At first, it even felt like we’d found the right person. We began therapy together, then individually. I thought it was normal, part of the treatment plan. I assumed she was using her professional training to help us, not to insert herself into the middle of our relationship. I believed, naively, that her boundaries were intact.

But slowly, everything began to change.  The sessions became less about healing and more about shaping a narrative in which she held an unusual level of influence and intimacy. I tried to push away the discomfort. You don’t expect someone whose job is to uphold the highest ethical standards to be the one breaking them. But eventually, the truth forced its way forward — undeniable and devastating:

Our therapist had become intimately involved with Bertram. He admitted this to me after I questioned him. Meanwhile, when I asked her about it, my therapist, by way of voice notes (which I still have) casually dismissed me, saying, “I thought I was helping to make him a better man for you or maybe another woman; I did not know I was making him a better man for myself.” 

The therapist was also divulging information and even screenshots from personal conversations from one party to the other, although everything each of us discussed with her was to be confidential. Upon speaking with Bertram, it also became evident that she was giving information that fit her personal agenda of wanting to become involved romantically with her patient.

Writing those words still feels unreal. Not only because of the personal betrayal, but because of the ethical disaster it represents. Therapists hold a position of enormous power. They are trained — required — to protect their clients, to maintain professional distance, to avoid exploiting vulnerability; to avoid falling for the people they are hired to help.

Yet she crossed that line — willingly.

This is not someone who should be counselling couples — let alone making decisions that could impact the liberty of people who are potentially dangerous to the general population. If a professional cannot even manage the most basic ethical boundaries, they should not be allowed to “help” couples trying to work through issues in their relationship. The thought of her interacting with people who are far more vulnerable, far more unstable, far more easily influenced, terrifies me. If she can become this entangled with a married client, what could she do in environments where clients have even less protection?

Instead of accountability, she carries herself as though she is untouchable. As if her credentials shield her from consequences. As if no one will believe my story because she is the therapist and I am just the client she manipulated. 

That arrogance — that belief that her position grants her immunity — is part of why I have to speak out. This isn’t just a private affair that “happened”. It was a breach of trust, ethics, and power. Bertram made his own choices, but she cultivated the environment that made those choices possible. She used her role not to heal, but to intrude. She violated the very core of her profession.

I refuse to stay silent about this. I refuse to let her continue operating without accountability, counselling couples as if she hasn’t destroyed one, working with highly vulnerable individuals as if her judgment can be trusted. My story deserves to be heard. My experience deserves to be acknowledged. And I will not let her belief that “no one will believe me” become true. 

I have also written to the relevant boards and authorities on this issue and I await their response. However, I feel compelled to warn others about the dangers of those who hide behind fancy titles yet carry apparently dark, sinister motives, or who might be in need of the very help they claim to provide — causing only chaos and pain to those they are supposed to be helping.

This is my truth, and I am standing in it.

Twice Betrayed 

The opinions presented in this content belong to the author and may not necessarily reflect the perspectives or editorial stance of iWitness News. Opinion pieces can be submitted to [email protected].