This isn’t the kind of video I usually make. I usually opt for something more fun or humorous. But we need to talk about mental health. And when you live in a country with a high suicide rate, it’s not really a laughing matter.
This video is about a terrible experience I had with an American counselor in Tokyo. It still baffles me how this person is allowed to practice to this day, given that his behavior is offensive and questionably legal.
What I wasn’t able to say in the video was how much this person harassed me for missing an appointment that I did not make in the first place. I received daily e-mails asking me to pay for a service I did not ask for, nor did I avail of. He even called my best friend (whom I wrote as an emergency contact) and asked for my whereabouts. If that isn’t creepy, I don’t know what is.
I’m not first one he has threatened to sue for a missed appointment. And if this happens to you, know this: all that crap he says about going to the Tokyo Small Claims Court is a lie. Check the appointment slip he claims to have given you. Does it have a date when it was written? Does it have your full name? Does it say anywhere that it’s an appointment slip? If not, then what he has is garbage. A mere manifestation of his delusions. That won’t account for anything. Believe me, two lawyers were kind enough to check his threats. They just laughed and dismissed them as mere whining.
And don’t even, for a second, think that he will get his way with Japanese people or the Tokyo Small Claims Court because he claims to be “fully bilingual.” His so-called language skills are a joke. I didn’t get to witness them first-hand, but my best friend (a Japanese girl) whom he called to reach me said that his Japanese was odd and that he couldn’t express himself well. Hah!
I’ll end this post on a positive note. Yes, I went through a horrible experience — but it’s precisely because I did that I realized so many people were willing to help me without even thinking twice about it. I am incredibly indebted to these beautiful souls. Again, I send my heartfelt gratitude to you all.
Like I said in the video, bad things will always happen. But what these bad things are matter less than how we shape them into something of value. And that resilience is something no loser of a doctor can ever break.
He told me I should give up on my dreams because I can`t read medical books yet in Japanese. He also slut-shamed me for asking about birth control and told lies about it making me infertile…which I was only getting in order to control my hormonal migraines.
Whether your getting birth control pills for hormonal migraines or actual birth control, he has no right to slut-shame you. It’s your body, your choice.
yes, he is an awful person, completely unprofessional,. I went to see him because I was worried about my son and when I left he told me I was a sociopath and only with extensive treatment (his) would I get better. He told me to leave my 4 yr old (and 2 month old baby) alone at home and take a walk, and leave any discipline to my DH. He was obsessed and demeaning about the fact the my husband is Japanese. This dude has some serious issues HE needs to work through!
Like one person told me, “You’re not crazy, HE is!” I hope you’re doing better now.
You rock! So glad you were able to connect to people who could give you support and insight regarding Dr. Loser B. He needs to be shut down, the number of women he has traumatized and harassed and who have left him more confused and depressed then when they started is amazing. How he can even continue his practice with no shame is boggling. Thanks for making the video!
I am incredibly indebted to the goodwill of others. 🙂
OMG! I honestly am shocked by just how many women have had horrible experiences with this guy. I even wrote to the US Embassy to take him off their “recommended” list. This disgusting excuse for a “therapist” needs to be shut down. GOOD FOR YOU for speaking up!
Thank YOU for writing to the US Embassy!
Oh my GOD! That’s the guy I went to for counseling via Skype! He cut me in the middle of my sentences. The whole session he said make it quick, you don’t have much time, you only have 45 minutes, make it quick… Thank you for making this video! I agreed to see a therapist for the first time because my situation wasn’t getting any better, and I ended up feeling even worse for weeks. Becoming more skeptical towards therapy. and/or counseling. I am glad it’s not the therapy but the therapist!
I think there are others out there who offer much better services. We just happened to stumble upon a bad apple. I’m not really that skeptical towards therapy, I just don’t feel the need for it at this time.
Bad experiences as well with him. My wife and I are both foreigners and were in a bad place in life. Heading for divorce, we agreed together to try counselling. Similar flags were noticed with similar timing. Too late and money paid. We do not live in the area, so we tried a video session.
Within minutes we had diagnoses and life advice from someone clearly not listening. Totally unprofessional, even getting antsy about the time, then just walking away leaving his camera, etc., on.
It was a shock enough to us both that, hell, it may actually have saved us because he was so terrible, and got us communicating better. Or, that’s just my black humor mind.
I had done some counselling with his associate some years ago, and that was fine for what I needed at the time. However, I recommend contacting your local ward offices or hospitals if you need help.
Thanks for sharing. I’m glad you and your wife got to resolve your differences, and that you were able to put a positive spin on a bad experience. Cheers!
Wow. I went to him for roughly 2 months before I had enough. In the first session he chewed me out for not understanding his weird map to his house and being late. I didnt thint that was the kind of thing a doctor would do to their patients! (Especially when they are coming to see you because they have questions about their mental health???) He constantly belittled me, and was obviously such a defensive and quick to temper person. Just like you, he tried to tell me I have ADHD, even though that was not the reason I was in there. (Not to mention DEFINITELY not the case… he pretty much said the exact same lines you said in your video, word for word) I immediately diagnosed with depression and got prescribed pills almost immediately. Each session seemed like a waste of time because he couldnt remember a thing about me, and his “notes” on me were so sloppy that he asked the same questions each time. I felt this was insanely unprofessional. He even suggested that I cheat on my husband/sleep around some. (I got the impression he was suggesting himself as an option) Like you, the CELTA thing came up a lot. He recommended I quit my parttime job and work fulltime at an Eikaiwa just to save up money for it, because thats what HE would do. And for some reason he kept telling me to also look into joining the military, if HE were young then HE would have taken advantage of the GI bill. I felt bullied into follow up sessions even though I wanted to stop seeing him already. Finally I managed to tell him I was cancelling any and all appointments/contact with him, and then he called my phone and emailed obsessively for the next hour, before finally trying to guilt trip me and shame me for not wanting to get treatment. I feel so much better now that I am NOT seeing him – I think he had temporarily made the problems worse!
Oh wow, I guess that’s his modus operandi. What a scammer. Glad you’re not seeing him anymore.
So many alarm bells went off in just the first few minutes talking to this guy. He told me that the reason my husband cheated on me was because my husband had ADHD. And he knew this after talking with my husband for just 5 minutes. Then he told me “He cheated because he was bored.” Avoid this guy like the plague! And THANK YOU for making this video and getting the word out. Since charing your video, lot of friends have come out to say they had similar experiences with him.
I think he gets away with a lot of stuff because people don’t usually talk about mental health openly. I was also surprised how many people in my circle went to him. I didn’t know until I opened up about it.
Also, I’ve been really interested in the subject of infidelity for a while now. I stumbled upon this and thought it was interesting.
Why People Have Affairs
https://youtu.be/d079McwlBRE
I am so sorry this happened to you. I know exactly who you are talking about. I saw him once too. He is awful. I am happy you were able to find another counselor. Thank you for making the video.
Thank you, I’m glad you’re no longer seeing him as well. 🙂
My wife used to Skype with this guy to get a prescription for medication. The guy is a total joke. Within minutes he diagnosed her as bipolar and recommended lots of extreme changes. The entire time we dealt with him he was unpleasant.
Utter twat.
“Utter twat.” → That, is most befitting. Haha! I’m glad you’re no longer dealing with him.
When I lived in Japan, I Skyped with Dr. Loser B for like a year, my hubby wrote above, and it was absolutely horrendous. I hated him. I chose to just ignore everything he was saying because I needed to get a prescription for meds that I was currently on, Prozac being one of them, which isn’t available in Japan. Personally, I thought it was absolutely ridiculous that’s he’s a psychiatrist and yet had to refer to a Japanese doctor (who I contacted through email with his “recommendation”) who would actually give me my prescription.
He belittled me, took what I told him and turned it around it on me as a sign of me having serious Bipolar Disorder like my mother. Because I get nervous talking to people on the phone, I just hate it overall, I laugh to kind of fill the gaping silence, which with him were NEVER-ENDING, and he would CONSTANTLY bring up my laughter saying, “You seem to be in a very manic mood.” and he would suggest me taking all of these really, really heavy anti-psychotics that even my mother, who is seriously bipolar didn’t take. I’ve had my entire life to experience what bipolar disorder is, how it’s treated, what medications people take for different things, and I was already on a medication pack that worked for me. Every time I talked with him, he made me more angry. How could a professional psychiatrist (of which I’ve seen plenty) act like this? How could he just blindly make a diagnosis which takes YEARS to actually be able to determine? How does he sit there l like a Psych 101 student and ask me questions like, “How organised are you?” — what in the ever loving hell does that have to do with mental health? Nothing.
Because I’ve suffered from depression and anxiety for so long I’ve already gone through many drug trials, I remember the meds that made me more suicidal or feel worse, and he still SUGGESTED those drugs to me because I’m “older and probably won’t suffer from the same side effects”…I was 3 years older than my last drug trial and I was like “How does he not know how SIDE EFFECTS work?” I feared for people who saw him and would take his advice and be put on meds they shouldn’t be put on.
I don’t have a degree in anything mental health related, but I felt that i knew FAR more than he did. He clearly suffers from narcissistic personality disorder; he’s a misogynist, a racist, bigoted, and absolutely insufferable.
And to make things worse, I thought I had no other options. I continued to pay him TOO MUCH every month just so I could stay on my medication. I was scared to look for help elsewhere because I didn’t want to be on any other drugs, I thought if I went to a Japanese doctor he wouldn’t help me get the medication that I needed. Truthfully, I felt STUCK with him and I was so happy to never have to speak with him again.
I chose to inflate his ego and act like a nice little “southern girl” for him otherwise he’d shame and belittle me. I hate to think that I made him worse, gave him more of an ego, or even let him think he was even somewhat remotely helping me at all. I told everyone I could to avoid him like the plague, I told them that I was stuck and suffering with him and there wasn’t anything I could do, but they could avoid him in the first place.
Goodness, that sounds really horrible! Thank you for writing this in detail, I believe this will help other people as well.
A lot of people have come forward after this video. While I’m not entirely sure how far I can take this, I haven’t given up on getting him out of business. He’s ruining people’s lives, somebody’s gotta stop him.
But hey, I’m glad you no longer have to deal with him.
Yup, same experience here! There is a huge reddit thread about this piece of scum