I knew Dr. Irene, first as a patient and later as one of the administrators to her site. At one point, I was invited to her house for dinner with her husband and other admins from the site.

What was amazing was how quickly and sharply she turned against me when I merely defended one former admin.

Dr. Irene said she hacked into the site, but clearly she didn't. It is a long story why I know the admin didn't hack in the site. More important, her reaction to my defending the other admin was to ban me from the site. When I confronted her in email, she first didn't remember me, then she went in the whole victim routine how everyone is against her, never dealing with the facts of whether or not the admin hacked into her site.

This was important to me because the person accused is the nicest person in the world. She was working six hours a day for at least three years on the site. I really believe that Dr. Irene accused her of something wrong and then publicly posted it on the site to reduce the sympathy factor for how she treated this woman.

This has been a pattern for Dr. Irene. She finds people, she praises them, then she dumps them. She did it with the original webmaster. Then she did it again recently.

Dr. Irene did help me with a controlling abusive relationship. I don't think she is a charlatan or a quack as she was well grounded in effective cognitive techniques. She also can be warm, generous, and charming.

Until she is threatened. Then she can cut you off so quick.. which I could respect if she was honest about it.

However, she acts flippy and weird and plays dumb and doesn't remember people she's worked with for six years and acts like a victim when she started it all.

She just goes loopy in a very manipulative way, if that makes any sense.

Quote
The Anticult
Hi D, just on a technical note on how to get back many of your posts from the CatoBox.

You just need to search the Google "cache" and you can get most of them. One time another website went and censored hundreds of posts, and most were able to get back most of them, and copy and save them.
This is how to do it.

Go to Google's home page, then paste this phrase.

site:www.drirene.com

then right after enter a keyword, maybe one's old Username at the site. Example.

site:www.drirene.com CatBox

This was very helpful to me. This allowed me to visit my profile which displayed the visitors right before I was banned. Dr. Irene acted like she didn't know anything about it but she was one of the visitors. A small thing, perhaps. It is just another of her many falsehoods.

I personally don't care so much that I was banned. It was more why I was banned, which was to defend a good person against a public post by the Doctor saying she did something wrong when I know she didn't do anything wrong. (I personally emailed the doctor regarding the issue and was ignored.)

WM,

What you and the other administrators went through was just completely insane. I know the sweet person you speak of and was shocked to hear the allegations. How dare she.

The problem with narcissists (just my armchair psych opinion), is that they can play well within the rules, for instance, she might be a perfectly fine shrink, but her personal relationships suffer, and therefore, you really can't do anything except stay away.

Do you know of anything going on with the official complaints about her? These websites are relatively new territory for legalities/ethics.

Half the clients of my abusive doctor loved him, but he started having trouble with patients who didn't respond well to his therapies and he turned on them. Dee might know that with Landmark, any illness is a racket - an excuse not to be well in order for some personal gain. That was a sign of the patient's weakness and not a sign that he was at fault for missing diagnoses. Neither of these clowns took personal responsibility, which is something they love to preach to others.

I posted again on ratemd.com and this time the message has not, so far, been deleted.

I posted the following:

While she was helpful in my private sessions, I don't believe she behaves professionally on her website, which is part of her practice and her personal life. She gets very close to abused people, then shuts them out, often bad mouthing them to others who remain on her site.

WM,

I checked out Ratemd also and see that their warning about defamation would probably be quite prohibitive for people with legitimate complaints. Separating her practice persona from that of website owner was a good idea. She's already left a record of her bizarre behavior online.

Since several people who frequent her website also have been clients, I'm wondering if that is a new form of dual relationship.

Hope

I just experienced total devaluation and dismissal by DR IRENE on her VERBAL ABUSE forum..........
NOT only did she read my PRIVATE MESSAGES she POSTED a smear campaign of myself and another member...........
there was no option of discussion, or any opportunity to share my side.....SHE decided that I was dangerous and SHE started reading my PRIVATE MESSAGES and shared them with the ADMIN team who then collectively decided to ban me.
I put my heart and soul into helping the women on this site, sometimes posting up to 20 responses a day.......I recently had a SHOUT OUT post from some of the women telling me how much they appreciated my time and effort and wisdom.......
I NEVER did one thing out of line........I was accused of it by the DEAR DOC and when I pointed out to her that her logic was faulty and DID NOT make any sense she obviously saw me as a threat and started reading my PM's and drawing HER VERY BIZARRE and unprofessional conclusions.........when i PM'd her the facts, she responded by telling me that my time would have been better spent asking for her help in learning how to post.........obviously she needs the cash?
THIS WOMAN IS A DANGER to any one who is attempting to recover from an abusive situation......
one of her PET posters is a male who has NOT been abused, knows nothing about abuse and HAS BEEN BANNED no less than twice and has somehow wormed his way back on to the forum...........
YIKES beware any who go to this forum for help recovering.......
the abuse of power is prevalent........and what i noticed is that the Dear OLE DOC is using the site to further her business aspirations.......
MG



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/08/2009 10:09PM by moongoddess.

She has no boundaries.

Is this yet a second "melt-down" on the board or a continuation from the one in April?

yes!
the original meltdown started last October (2008)......seems the Doc either has an issue with October, or she is threatened by strong, competent, intelligent women.......
i vote for the later.......
seems her preference is to have people who will feed her ego, hang on her every word, and never 'grow out' of the forum......
i was a threat to her......that much i get......
i am sad for those left posting on her forum, the forum is 'dead' right now, with no replies to those who need it......
really, really sad.
MG

Some others who were banned were either in training to be counselors or counselors of some type, just not in the US. She does seem to be threatened by this.

Back when I used to post, I hated seeing people shaping their opinions and thoughts to go along with hers or forum rules, or majority religious following. This is what they did in abusive situations and then had to conform to the forum. Not much healing going on there.

I'm glad you're "out".

Perhaps to celebrate the anniversary of the blow-up on the therapist's forum that occurred last year, the admin team posted a description of what happened, "Rebuilding the Catbox" history that has been rewritten, of course. Many of the people involved are no longer at the site, and many newer members were not present when the meltdown occurred, so they're only getting one side. What could possibly have prompted a rehashing of events of a year ago?