[Complains about Psychotherapy and their Impact on Patients]

Unprofessional psychotherapy damages its otherwise good standing. For that reason, a public discussion about malpractice and unethical psychotherapist behavior is oftentimes missing even though addressing the topic openly could illustrate its rarity and promote a professional handling of psychotherapeutic misconduct. In the presented study, qualitative content analysis was conducted to analyze malpractice claims that were sent to the Psychotherapeutic Chamber of North Rhine-Westphalia (Germany) in 2011 and 2012. All letters were anonymized and the processing of the claims was completed. In total, 149 relevant malpractice claims and 124 statements about consequences of malpractice behaviors were identified. Most malpractice claims were related to the category "violation of therapeutic basic variables" (40.3%), followed by "violation of general conditions" (16.8%) and "financial abuse" (12.1%). In consequence, 28.2% of the patients described a "deterioration of their symptoms". These results shed light on the variation of existing malpractice claims and their consequences for patients indicating the need for awareness-raising actions for therapists and patients.