Cooley Gaffigan, LCSW

Claims to be a "question-asker" but then uses questions to validate her own assumptions and direct the conversation where she wants it to go. Gives bad facts, then gets defensive when angrily called on it ("you need to tolerate distress better"). Happy to endorse your anger at other people's mistakes, but justifies her own instead of asking for clarification. Says, "Don't trust me, test me" but doesn't live up to it. Jumps to conclusions not backed by research ("accelerated kids often miss important social lessons"), condescends when you risk self-praise ("as you know, IQ isn't everything"), personalizes ignorance ("how could you be so naive?"), and fills in the blanks in your narrative so that the real facts are never heard. Construes what she wants you to do as somehow for your own benefit. Good enough initially that it takes several sessions to figure all this out--and so sweet and well-meaning it's hard to say anything to her face until you've left the office. Infuriating.