Dr. R. Scott Palmer, PHD

Even though Dr Palmer steadily used his "Designation as Director of Somatic Experiencing International" throughout the course of our therapeutic alliance to remind me of his authority, when I would challenge him on feeling unsafe with his misattunements, I was and continue to be significantly re-traumatized by having worked with him. It has now been almost half a year since he terminated me, and although I don't like to give negative reviews on people, this provider's lack of skills in working with early life trauma and his solution to terminate me during a crisis without providing transition time to integrate the fragmentation of my nervous system caused by his bypassing SE protocols has caused me SIGNIFICANTLY HARM.

I went to see him specifically for Somatic Experiencing for trauma healing; which i am now training in myself. I am shocked at seeing how much of the SE protocols Dr Palmer bypassed during the course of our alliance. Training in this modality myself, I spoke to my teachers and Senior Faculty of this approach who agreed that bypassing the SE protocols for working with early life trauma would leave an early life trauma survivor flooded, fragmented and re-traumatized, and that this should NOT have happened, and should have been repaired.

When i first expressed concern about feeling unsafe to work with Dr Palmer, hr reassured me by telling me i could help him grow as a therapist, and that he would get plenty of consultation. However, he rarely followed through on what he said, and did not follow through on his word, and terminated me after saying he only got one consultation, right when my nervous system was being flooded and fragmented. 

 Dr Palmer bypassing the SE protocols for working with early life trauma, knowing early life trauma was my core trauma, and his apparent refusal to seek ongoing consultation, as he had promised to do when I first expressed concern, and choosing to terminate me during a crisis as his "solution",  offering no transition time to support integration from the fragmentation of my nervous system, which was resulted from working with him, and providing very little to no follow up care...has all caused me significant harm and set back in every area of my life, due to the deep, core nature of these traumas.

Dr Palmer seemed incapable of receiving pertinent feedback, like my informing him all my core traumas were surfacing at once as a result of working with him. His bypassing the basic protocol of first creating safety for both client and therapist, and working with early life threatening traumas instead, without first ensuring i was resourced, led to a total fragmentation of my nervous system; unable to contain or process everything surfacing at once. Even though an early life trauma expert was readily available to Dr Palmer to seek consultation from during this crisis, he chose not to follow through,  and seemed to want nothing to do with being accountable for his bypassing protocols for early life trauma being a factor in the fragmentation of my nervous system; which left me feeling blamed for the therapeutic alliance breaking down to this degree. His choosing to terminate me during a crisis left me re-traumatized in all the core traumas I went to see him for help with.

Regardless of my countless attempts to ask for what I needed, even suggesting cooperative solutions to serve his growth as a therapist as he himself had suggested, Dr Palmer seemed to want nothing to do with adjusting or repairing the harm he participated in causing, and seemed only interested in relieving himself from the situation, by terminating me as his solution. I felt no care from his as to how this would impact me, nor how his bypassing the SE protocols for early life traumas had on my nervous system.
Even though I felt very concerned and warned him earlier on that I would NOT continue working with him if he were to ever to abruptly terminate me; knowing this would leave me significantly re-traumatized, given all the protocols he bypassed for working with my condition; he betrayed my trust in the therapeutic alliance by terminating me during a crisis instead, refusing to get the ongoing consultation he had promised to get. I felt treated like a science experiment he chose to discard once realizing he was in over his head. I have never felt such little empathy from a human being who has caused me so much harm; which in itself, left me feeling dehumanized, and re-traumatized beyond what I thought was even humanly possible. 

Are you searching for a loving, understanding, accepting, compassionate therapist to take your hand and gently guide you on your path to healing?  Then search no further you have found Scott Palmer.  If you are so lucky enough to have the opportunity to work with Scott then consider yourself very fortunate, indeed.  I know I was.