My Therapist Stole $126,000, Controlled My Life, and Almost Destroyed Me

A Survivor's Blueprint for Recognizing and Escaping Professional Exploitation

There's a moment when psychological warfare breaks you so completely that death feels like the only escape hatch. I reached that point in 2024 countless times — trapped in a labyrinth of manipulation, blackmail, and financial extortion engineered by the one person who had sworn to heal me: my therapist.

This isn't a story about therapy gone wrong. This is about calculated predation hiding behind a professional license.

The Perfect Setup

For five years, I sat across from E.D., a Limited Licensed Psychologist (LLP), pouring out my deepest traumas, fears, and vulnerabilities. I originally went to see her to get myself sober. I discussed my battles with alcoholism, my career anxieties, my relationship patterns, and childhood traumas. I trusted her completely — that's what you're supposed to do in therapy, right?

What I didn't realize: she was methodically documenting every weakness, every insecurity, every pressure point that could later be exploited.

The spring of 2023 delivered the perfect storm she'd been waiting for and creating. I was wrongfully terminated from my position at a major financial institution, leaving me professionally devastated and financially vulnerable. To make matters worse, my termination triggered a U5 filing with FINRA that threatened my entire future in finance — a career I'd worked relentlessly to build.

"I'm here for you," E.D. said, inviting me to her home under the guise of extra support. "Let me help you navigate this."

Help. That's a fucking interesting word for what came next.

The Workplace Nightmare That Left Me Vulnerable

Before diving into the manipulation that nearly destroyed me, you should know what set the stage. The months leading up to my termination were a masterclass in workplace toxicity.

My manager consistently undermined me despite my being a top performer for two years running. When I disclosed my ADHD diagnosis and requested clearer instructions, he dismissed it entirely: "Yeah well, I probably have it too, I get distracted sometimes too." No accommodations were ever discussed.

Even worse, my assigned coach repeatedly invited me to "grab a beer" despite my explicitly telling him over and over that I was in recovery from alcoholism. When I reported this to my manager finally, he simply dismissed it: "Well that's just how he is."

The final breaking point came when, after filing an HR complaint about this treatment, I was suddenly placed on leave and terminated two days later. The given reason? A vague policy violation that had never been clearly explained to me, despite my explicit requests for clarification.

The timing was no coincidence — I was fired almost immediately after seeking protection from HR. This professional betrayal left me with both financial instability and a potentially career-ending U5 form hanging over my head.

It was in this moment of maximum vulnerability that my therapist saw her opportunity.

The Transition from Healer to Handler

Within weeks of my termination, E.D. proposed transitioning our relationship beyond therapy — a "personal connection" that would give me the "unconventional support" I needed. Professional boundaries? Ethics? Those were inconvenient obstacles to her plan.

Looking back, the red flags were blinding. But when you're drowning and someone offers a hand, you don't inspect it for weapons.

The relationship quickly morphed into something unrecognizable. E.D. began dictating who I could speak to, where I could go, how I should spend my time. I was instructed to cut off contact with former partners, friends, and reduce communication with family. Her reasoning? They were "toxic influences" who couldn't be trusted.

My world systematically narrowed until E.D. was my primary connection, my interpreter of reality. Classic isolation tactics of an abuser, executed with the precision of someone trained in psychological manipulation.

The Manufactured Crisis

September 2023 marked a critical escalation. I began dating R.N., someone completely unconnected to E.D. This seemingly innocent relationship triggered an astonishing reaction from E.D., who suddenly claimed R.N. was "targeting" both of us.

In October 2023, my best friend and mentor — the person who brought me into the financial industry, who believed in me before I believed in myself — died. I was devastated. Lost. Unraveling in ways I didn't even realize yet. He was the last real anchor I had. And when he was gone, I was more vulnerable than I'd ever been in my life.

The allegations from my therapist became increasingly bizarre: R.N. was supposedly buying E.D.'s divorce records, posting photos of E.D.'s child online, making false complaints to licensing boards, and even "created a sex tape with her ex-husband just to torment E.D."

When I expressed doubts about these outlandish claims, E.D. reacted with indignation — how could I question her after all she'd done for me? The gaslighting was relentless. Soon, she expanded her conspiracy theory to include M.M., allegedly R.N.'s accomplice in this harassment campaign.

Then came the crescendo: approximately 70 calls from a blocked number over just a few days. E.D. presented this as irrefutable proof that R.N. was dangerously obsessed and stalking us. Under intense pressure, I severed contact with R.N., cutting off what might have been my escape route from E.D.'s growing control.

The Web of Manipulation Goes Deeper

What makes this case even more disturbing is the apparent web of connections between the key players. My therapist claimed intimate knowledge about R.N. that I had never shared with her — including specific sexual preferences and relationship patterns that would have been impossible for her to know without direct contact.

"She has a breeding kink," E.D. told me matter-of-factly one day, revealing information I had never disclosed to her. "And she was M.M.'s student at the high school where he taught before being fired for inappropriate relationships with students."

These revelations left me questioning everything. How could my therapist possibly know these details? When I asked how and why she'd been in contact with M.M. — a man she claimed was threatening her — E.D. quickly fabricated another layer to her story: it wasn't her who had spoken to him but her supposed "reputation management firm" that she'd hired because of R.N.

Most shocking of all, E.D. even produced a document she claimed was an NDA with R.N.'s signature on it — showing me just the "signature page" as supposed proof that R.N. was legally restricted from discussing certain matters. This manufactured evidence appeared only a month or two after I had begun dating R.N. It was a clear attempt to silence me and prevent me from comparing notes with R.N. — a tactic that would become increasingly important to E.D. as her web of lies grew more complex.

E.D. even claimed that she herself had signed an NDA to protect sensitive information about the case — layering secrecy on top of fear, as if to say, "We are both bound now. You're in this with me, whether you like it or not." But I never saw a full document. Just fragments. Just symbols of control dressed as protection.

Yet when I confronted R.N. about these connections, she consistently denied everything, showing a complete lack of concern for my deteriorating mental state. What I didn't know then — but would later discover through investigation — was that R.N. and M.M. shared a house in New York and had shared an address in Ann Arbor for years. Their connection wasn't casual or distant as R.N. portrayed — it was ongoing, substantial, and deliberately concealed from me.

The chaos was intense and unrelenting from when I met R.N. in September 2023 until February 2024, when I finally cut off contact with her for good and signed E.D.'s contracts. During those months, I was caught between their competing manipulations, each pulling me in different directions until I was completely disoriented. Then from February through August 2024, I was under E.D.'s complete control, paying out enormous sums while isolated from anyone who might help me see the truth.

This wasn't the first time E.D. had pressured me to cut contact with R.N. I had actually done so before, following one of E.D.'s earlier campaigns of fear. The result? R.N. called me approximately 70 times in succession — a barrage of attempted contact that E.D. immediately pointed to as evidence of R.N.'s "dangerous obsession."

What's most revealing is how R.N. behaved during these supposed breaks. She would sob uncontrollably on the phone, professing her love for me and begging me not to walk away. "I love you," she would insist through tears. "Please don't do this." This emotional performance seemed designed to pull me back in whenever I tried to escape — creating the perfect push-pull dynamic that kept me constantly off-balance.

The most chilling performance came when E.D. broke down in tears, begging me to stop seeing R.N. "Please," she sobbed, "I don't want to lose my career and my child." I now recognize this as pure theater — a calculated manipulation designed to trigger my protective instincts and deepen my emotional entrapment.

Perhaps the most disgusting aspect of this entire ordeal: E.D. was deliberately creating the very stress and terror she then positioned herself as my savior from. She manufactured crises, fostered my fight-or-flight responses, and then presented herself as the only one who could protect me. As I'd later come to understand, she didn't just fail to protect me — she created the fire, locked me in the building, and handed me a brochure for her own fire extinguisher. And I bought it. I bought all of it.

She established an entire emotional ecosystem where she was the only source of safety — and the only source of danger. This wasn't therapy. This was counterintelligence.

The central figure in this operation was someone named "Kai" — a supposedly expert digital protection specialist who E.D. claimed was actively monitoring my emails, intercepting threats, and scrubbing dangerous information from the web. She said he had access to my phone, my cloud, even my location data. She claimed he was working "day and night" to keep us safe, and that without him, everything would unravel.

But I never spoke to Kai. I never saw a contract, never received a single message or report. For someone supposedly in charge of my digital life, he had no presence. No receipts. Just another ghost in her fabricated war room.

Between E.D.'s fabricated dangers and R.N.'s manufactured desperation, I was caught in an impossible position. E.D. knew I would never believe they were actively colluding — it seemed too far-fetched, too elaborate. But I couldn't ignore the strange coincidences, the inexplicable knowledge E.D. had about R.N., and the perfectly timed emotional manipulations from both sides.

There wasn't a "side" to pick — there was only a trap, meticulously designed to keep me isolated, confused, and dependent. Every time I tried to pull away from one, the other would escalate their tactics to reel me back in. I was living in extreme chaos, being manipulated by both E.D. and R.N. simultaneously — each with their own agenda, yet somehow working in perfect, destructive harmony.

I received multiple threatening emails from someone named Hayden. The tone was aggressive, the language veiled in legal-sounding intimidation, and the intent unmistakable — to scare me into compliance. E.D. told me Hayden was in the financial industry and would "expose who I really was" to any future employer if I stepped out of line. I was never given a last name. No professional credentials. No contact information. Just another faceless enforcer in her campaign of fear.

The most revealing moment in our relationship came when I traced a threatening letter to M.M.'s family restaurant. When I told R.N. about this discovery, she visibly panicked, immediately asking, "Is something going to happen to his business???" Her concern was not for me or my safety, but for M.M. and his family restaurant. She abruptly ended our relationship, claiming she "didn't know what was going on" but unable to give me a clear answer about why this discovery meant we couldn't see each other anymore.

I blocked her, but days later — after I had already signed E.D.'s contract — R.N. tried contacting me again, leaving a vague voicemail asking me to call her back. When I mentioned this to E.D., she immediately escalated: "If you call her or contact her again, your career and mine are over and the agreement isn't valid. You're no longer protected."

This was E.D.'s genius — she never directly said on paper, "Pay money or else." Instead, she would say, "I can't protect you anymore if you do that." When I wanted to go to the police, she would say it would expose her and she'd lose everything. She truly made me feel pinned down until my FINRA case was over.

What became increasingly clear through my investigation was that the supposed "threats" from R.N. and M.M. were likely engineered by E.D. herself to create the very crisis she claimed to be protecting me from. The private investigator's findings showed that the anonymous texts originated from locations connected to E.D.'s narrative, not from actual harassment by the people she named as threats.

When I finally broke free — when I stopped paying, stopped replying, stopped obeying — the messages stopped too. The threats disappeared. The security concerns evaporated. And that's when I knew: none of it was real. Or if it was, it wasn't what she claimed.

This wasn't just therapy gone wrong. This was a coordinated campaign of psychological warfare designed to isolate, control, and exploit me at my most vulnerable point. And the worst part? I was dealing with all of this while trying to learn a new job in a new industry — constantly in fight-or-flight mode, deliberately kept there by my therapist's machinations.

The Extortion Machine Takes Form

By early 2024, E.D. had constructed an elaborate web of threats, both real and imagined. The most devastating arrived in February — an anonymous text message from a number I didn't recognize, listing my name and professional FINRA identification (CRD number) alongside several others. Days later, a letter arrived at my home addressed to FINRA, falsely alleging that I had engaged in professional misconduct.

The private investigator's report would later reveal this letter had a return address linked to a restaurant owned by M.M.'s family — a suspicious connection given E.D.'s insistence that M.M. was targeting us.

With my FINRA arbitration case pending — my one shot at clearing my professional record — these threats struck my most vulnerable point. E.D. knew exactly what I stood to lose.

"I have a solution," she said, presenting a multi-page contract that would "protect" me from these supposed enemies.

The February 2024 contract was unlike anything I could have imagined. Under extreme duress, I signed away not just my money, but my basic human autonomy. The document contained over 24 separate restrictions and demands, meticulously crafted to strip away every aspect of my independence.

I was prohibited from having any contact with R.N. and several other individuals. I was forbidden from entering any romantic relationship until June 2026 — unless E.D. personally approved. I was required to deactivate all social media accounts and destroy my dating profiles. The contract even dictated how I could communicate — I was forbidden from defending myself if E.D. accused me of anything, and I was not allowed to question her memory of events or ask for proof of her claims.

Perhaps most insidious was the psychological framework E.D. built into the contract: an "Anti-Gaslighting Protocol" that required me to validate her feelings even when I disagreed, never question her version of events, avoid "rewriting history" (as defined solely by her), and maintain empathy at all times — even when under extreme distress myself.

When I hesitated, her threat was explicit: "If you don't shut up, I'm going to write the letter to FINRA myself. I know everything about you."

Under extreme duress, I signed it. What choice did I have? My entire career, my reputation, my future — all hanging by a thread that E.D. was threatening to cut.

The Financial Bloodletting

The financial exploitation was systematic and devastating. Between February and June 2024, I transferred approximately $126,000 to E.D. through a series of payments specifically structured to avoid banking reporting thresholds. The contract stipulated transfers of "no more than $9,000" — just under the $10,000 threshold that would trigger mandatory IRS reporting.

The contract's financial obligations were crushing:

• An immediate payment of over $30,000

• Ongoing monthly payments of $2,500

• A separate $9,601.02 fee for her "amendment legal costs," bizarrely framed as being "for my benefit"

• A requirement to pay $100 monthly into a trust account for her minor child

• A perpetual obligation to give her 5% of my income from any future financial career job, with no upper limit

• The threat of immediate payment of $54,349.67 from my 401(k) within 72 hours if she deemed me in violation of any term

To meet these demands, I liquidated investment accounts, withdrew from my 401(k) (incurring substantial penalties), and drained my savings. Banking records show transfers of $5,000, $7,500, and $15,000 occurring sometimes just days apart, with a total of $89,500 in electronic transfers during a three-month period.

E.D. claimed this money was going to a "reputation management firm" she had hired to protect us from the supposed threats from R.N. and M.M. She mentioned individuals named "Kai," "Cav," and "Hayden" who were supposedly working to shield us. When I asked for proof of these services or contact information for these individuals, E.D. would dodge the question or invent reasons why such information was too dangerous to share.

The investigation would later reveal that E.D.'s checking account showed a balance of just $371 in March 2025 — raising serious questions about where my $126,000 actually went.

The Breaking Point

By July 2024, I was approaching complete psychological collapse. I experienced severe anxiety, sleep disturbances, and physical symptoms of extreme stress. I was isolated from support systems, financially drained, and living in constant fear.

The contract's control over my daily life was suffocating. I had to leave my phone and laptop in my car whenever visiting E.D.'s home. I was subject to monitoring of all electronic devices with or without notice. I had to obtain professional treatment for my mental health by her specified deadline and follow all treatment recommendations without question. If she ever determined my behavior was "problematic," I was required to enter rehab for 30 days.

My mental health deteriorated rapidly under these conditions. I developed paralyzing anxiety attacks. Sleep became nearly impossible — I'd jolt awake in terror, convinced I'd violated some term of the agreement. I lost 40 pounds. I couldn't focus. I began experiencing physical symptoms: trembling hands, racing heartbeat, stomach pains, and headaches that wouldn't subside. The constant hypervigilance — worrying about every word, every action — created a state of perpetual stress that began to break down my body.

The most devastating aspect was the isolation. Cut off from friends, family, and romantic connections, I had no one to validate my reality. With E.D. as my only significant human contact, her version of reality became mine. I began to believe I deserved this treatment — that I was broken, dangerous, and needed to be controlled.

The pivotal moment came on August 9, 2024. After months of anticipation, my FINRA U5 arbitration hearing finally took place — and I won. The arbitrators ruled in my favor, effectively clearing my professional record. The court later issued a judgment on October 30, 2024, confirming the FINRA panel's recommendation to expunge the termination explanation from my record, replacing it with neutral language that wouldn't damage my career prospects.

This victory removed E.D.'s most powerful leverage. With the threat to my career neutralized, I found the courage to begin pushing back.

E.D. sensed the shift immediately. On August 11, 2024, she sent a partial confession by email, admitting to lying about certain things and acknowledging her threatening behavior. By August 17, she claimed to have "deleted all materials" and ended contracts with the supposed "third parties" — an apparent attempt to cover her tracks.

Her final communication on September 1, 2024, from a new email address, returned to threats. She mentioned "representatives" seeking information about my attorneys, referenced our NDAs, and alluded to having cameras and recordings in her home — a thinly veiled threat.

My freedom finally came in August 2024, after my FINRA hearing was over. With that arbitration case successfully resolved in my favor, E.D. suddenly lost her most powerful leverage over me — the threat to my professional future. The victory removed the specter of career destruction that had been hanging over my head for months. Only then was I able to see clearly the web of manipulation that had entrapped me and begin breaking free from her control.

The Evidence Mounts

By early 2025, I had assembled overwhelming evidence of E.D.'s misconduct:

• The coerced contracts from February and June 2024, with their extensive control mechanisms

• Banking records documenting $126,000 in transfers

• Text messages showing manipulation and threats

• Anonymous threatening texts and letters (traced to locations connected to E.D.'s narrative)

• Emails from E.D. including partial admissions of wrongdoing

In March 2025, I filed a formal complaint with the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA) detailing E.D.'s violations, including:

• Exploitation of the therapist-patient relationship

• Breach of confidentiality

• Financial extortion

• Emotional and psychological abuse

• Harassment and intimidation

The private investigator's report confirmed many suspicious aspects of E.D.'s claims. The supposed "reputation management firm" appears to have been fabricated, the threatening communications trace back to locations connected to E.D.'s narrative, and her financial records show no evidence of the funds being used for legitimate services.

Perhaps most damning, contrary to E.D.'s claims that R.N. and others had filed complaints against her license, a FOIA request confirmed no such complaints existed before mine.

The Double Victory: Clearing My Name Professionally

The FINRA arbitration victory was crucial not just for my psychological recovery, but for my professional future. For over a year, I had fought to clear my name from what I knew was a wrongful termination — one that happened suspiciously right after I filed an HR complaint.

The court document from October 30, 2024, tells the story plainly: after hearing all the evidence and testimony, the FINRA panel recommended complete expungement of the termination explanation in my record. The panel recognized that the supposed policy violations were, at best, the result of unclear instruction and, at worst, a pretext for retaliation.

This legal vindication removed a massive weight. For months, E.D. had weaponized my professional vulnerability, threatening to "send everything to FINRA" herself and "end" me if I didn't comply with her demands. She knew my career meant everything to me, and she exploited that relentlessly.

Winning this case didn't just salvage my professional future — it gave me the strength to finally confront the manipulation and abuse I'd been enduring. Without the threat of career destruction hanging over my head, I could finally see clearly what E.D. had been doing all along.

The Recovery Journey

The damage E.D. inflicted was comprehensive — financial ruin, psychological trauma, damaged relationships, and nearly two years of my life stolen. The recovery process has been grueling but necessary.

I've sought legitimate therapy with a properly credentialed professional who understands the unique trauma of therapist abuse. I've begun rebuilding financial stability despite the massive setback. Most importantly, I'm reclaiming my narrative through writing and advocacy.

This isn't just my story. Professional exploitation happens more than we acknowledge, especially to those already vulnerable. Predators with credentials are particularly dangerous because their authority grants them both access and plausible deniability.

I'm sharing this as a warning, but also as proof of survival. My therapist weaponized my vulnerabilities, coerced me into financial servitude, and nearly drove me to the edge — but I'm still standing. I've reclaimed my voice, my power, and my future.

The Aftermath

Even after I cut contact, the harassment continued. On January 1, 2025 — strategically timed when HR departments would be closed — E.D. sent an email to my current employer attempting to get me fired.

After breaking free in August 2024 and hiring private investigators to uncover the truth, I reached out to E.D. to demand the return of my money. Rather than acknowledging the extortion or offering any restitution, she called the police, claiming I was harassing her. This was yet another attempt to weaponize authority against me and flip the narrative, painting herself as the victim rather than the perpetrator.

In early March 2025, I took formal action by filing a complaint with the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA). Despite the overwhelming evidence of ethical violations and professional misconduct, E.D. continues to practice actively as a licensed psychologist while my complaint works its way through the regulatory system. The knowledge that she may be manipulating other vulnerable clients while I await the next steps in this process is deeply disturbing.

After publishing my account of this ordeal (in which I carefully used only initials rather than full names), R.N. suddenly reached out — not with genuine concern, but with a carefully crafted message that read more like legal damage control than human empathy. Her words were deliberately vague, offering apologies for "seeming" to escalate my suffering without accepting any actual responsibility. She denied having a "plan" to ruin my life — a denial of intent, not action.

Most tellingly, she claimed that "to her knowledge," M.M. never knew about me — despite E.D. having already told me she had spoken to Mark, despite R.N. and M.M. sharing addresses for years, and despite R.N. abruptly ending our relationship the moment I traced a threatening letter to M.M.'s family restaurant. Even in this message, she was attempting to protect M.M., taking no actual accountability while positioning herself as a victim caught in circumstances beyond her control.

Throughout her message, R.N. positioned herself as emotionally distressed, deflecting focus from her silence when I was actively unraveling — when my job was under attack, when I told her I was on the verge of relapse, when I was begging for clarity. She never stepped up. Never expressed concern. Never asked what was happening. Now, months later, after her name appears in my public reckoning, she suddenly reaches out.

Her message wasn't an act of care. It was a reaction to exposure. Carefully worded. Legally safe. Emotionally hollow. She never once denied being in contact with E.D. or M.M. She simply avoided it — just like she avoided everything else. And in doing so, she told me exactly what I needed to know: The silence I had been swimming in wasn't accidental. It was calculated.

The investigation continues, the legal process unfolds, but today I choose to break the silence that protected her. Today, I choose truth.

And to E.D., if you're reading this: You gave it everything you had. Every trick. Every threat. Every lie. And I'm still standing. You failed. You lost. Justice will be served.

If you've experienced professional misconduct from a licensed mental health provider, document everything, seek legitimate support, and report to your state's licensing board. You are not alone, and it was not your fault.

— Cody Taymore

More essays, stories, and tools:KillTheSilenceMovement.com

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Have you witnessed or experienced similar boundary violations? Your perspective matters in this ongoing conversation about accountability in mental healthcare.

RESOURCES

Mental Health Support:

• National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI): 1-800-950-NAMI (6264)

• SAMHSA's National Helpline: 1-800-662-HELP (4357)

• Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741

Addiction Recovery:

• Alcoholics Anonymous: aa.org

• SMART Recovery: smartrecovery.org

• National Association for Addiction Professionals: naadac.org

Therapist Misconduct:

• File a complaint with your state licensing board

• APA Ethics Office: apa.org/ethics

• Therapy Exploitation Link Line: therapyabuse.org

If you're in immediate danger, please call 911 or your local emergency number.