Emotional abuse therapist question

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No but in future it’s fine to ask the therapist that.

OP If I ask though, maybe he has enough evidence to suspect and therefore reports?

No, op. And in states where they talk about witnessing abuse they mean physical abuse almost certainly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I told my therapist I think my spouse is emotionally abusives towards me, yells and calls me names. Can that be considered for mandatory reporting if our young child has heard him do that because it could be argued that the child is impacted? No yelling or names at said child just at me but my therapist raised his eyebrows so wanted to confirm. I don’t think this warrants a call with CPS because I thought the whole purpose of therapy is I can get help for these issues for me as long as they are not directed at my child? But now I am panicking.

In VA, a child witnessing a parent physically abuse another parent is considered reportable to CPS. A child witnessing emotional abuse is not. However, document all instances of emotional abuse in case you have to separate and or divorce one day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I told my therapist I think my spouse is emotionally abusives towards me, yells and calls me names. Can that be considered for mandatory reporting if our young child has heard him do that because it could be argued that the child is impacted? No yelling or names at said child just at me but my therapist raised his eyebrows so wanted to confirm. I don’t think this warrants a call with CPS because I thought the whole purpose of therapy is I can get help for these issues for me as long as they are not directed at my child? But now I am panicking.

In VA, a child witnessing a parent physically abuse another parent is considered reportable to CPS. A child witnessing emotional abuse is not. However, document all instances of emotional abuse in case you have to separate and or divorce one day.

"However, document all instances of emotional abuse in case you have to separate and or divorce one day." And how does that help? My spouse has been both emotionally abusive and physically intimidating to me (throwing things, refusing to give me my property, punching a wall by my face) and every lawyer has complete discounted it.

[Anonymous]

Emotional abuse is abhorrent and wrong on every level but being spoken to harshly is not a crime and a therapist will not report anyone for that.

[Anonymous]

OP I'm a mandatory reporter and absolutely no way I would report this and I know no colleague that would. It does not fall under the types of things we are supposed to report. Any sane mandatory reporter who has sadly had to make those calls, knows that this would absolutely not rise to the level that CPS would investigate. Physical domestic violence is already gray and has to be very serious for CPS to respond. And even if you had some over the top therapist that calls for everything, CPS would just say they are not taking the report.

But I highly highly doubt that is your therapist and it really is ok to have a conversation about this with them. You can say you started to feel anxious after your conversation last week. It is important to have trust with your therapist, so please talk to them so you can feel reassured. Most good therapists wouldn't just call behind your back anyway, and they can hopefully explain that to you. They would instead say, these things are concerning for me and you may benefit from more support (and explain why they are mandated to report), do you want to call together, make the call yourself or have me call? Again, this would be in a case for example if you said your spouse had punched your child with a closed fist and it left a mark. I called once for a child being punched in the face and they barely investigated because there wasn't proof of a mark, just to share with you the level we're talking here. Rarely have i made a call behind a families back, I try to work with the family as best I can so they are not surprised AND we keep everyone safe/I do my duty.

[Anonymous]

I also want to be clear that though this in no way is even close to something a mandated reporter would report, it absolutely doesn't take away from how difficult, abusive, and traumatizing it is to experience. Please know that I am not dismissing that reality. It is just not the type of abuse that CPS is set up to investigate. CPS is a reactive body that investigates when there is evidence or very clear reports of neglect or physical abuse, putting children or people with disabilities in physical danger.

[Anonymous]

lol didn't see this was from August 1.... not very helpful to op! Why did this get bumped? Sorry!

[Anonymous]

I think what is spoken between a therapist and a patient must remain confidential by law.

Only caveat is if patient mentions they want to hurt themself or someone else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think what is spoken between a therapist and a patient must remain confidential by law.

Only caveat is if patient mentions they want to hurt themself or someone else.

But therapists can be subpoened.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think what is spoken between a therapist and a patient must remain confidential by law.

Only caveat is if patient mentions they want to hurt themself or someone else.

But therapists can be subpoened.

They cannot be made to disclose anything other than the above.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I told my therapist I think my spouse is emotionally abusives towards me, yells and calls me names. Can that be considered for mandatory reporting if our young child has heard him do that because it could be argued that the child is impacted? No yelling or names at said child just at me but my therapist raised his eyebrows so wanted to confirm. I don’t think this warrants a call with CPS because I thought the whole purpose of therapy is I can get help for these issues for me as long as they are not directed at my child? But now I am panicking.

In VA, a child witnessing a parent physically abuse another parent is considered reportable to CPS. A child witnessing emotional abuse is not. However, document all instances of emotional abuse in case you have to separate and or divorce one day.

"However, document all instances of emotional abuse in case you have to separate and or divorce one day." And how does that help? My spouse has been both emotionally abusive and physically intimidating to me (throwing things, refusing to give me my property, punching a wall by my face) and every lawyer has complete discounted it.

This. It’s not worth documenting spousal abuse bc courts DNGAF whatsoever.