James P. Leone, PhD

Claire H. 

on Birdeye

a year ago

Verbal, situational and emotional abuse leads to shut down and retaliation. By then telling people to be open and honest, Jim taught clients to accept abuse and bond to the abuser. This is why you lose trust in people after group since the rat made you experience a trust-abuse cycle and then told you to ignore your gut feeling and red flag detector about it because “therapy.” Naturally you felt that trusting people wasn’t safe after that group experience and stayed distant or copied the abuse response that he modelled. He th... read more

Jeff P. 

on Birdeye

a year ago

I would characterize many of Leon's comments as 'caustic'. He would take turns abusing people he knew were bonded to him and would no leave him. He would say things with contempt that were uncalled for like 'So you want the other person to go down the same bad path you did with this type of advice?' or 'Oh, don't be snarky!' He would mock people and use sarcasm. There was a lot of abuse and he kept normalizing it as therapy or him very confident and trying to communicate things to you. But it was inappropriate for a therapis... read more

Hello! 

on Birdeye

a year ago

The standard advice is literally the opposite and Leon did it regularly over and over and not just in the office setting, he told us to tell girls about themselves in order to seduce them: https://www.quora.com/How-do-you-tell-someone-about-themselves-in-a-nice-way-For-example-people-who-talk-too-much-share-too-much-or-do-anything-that-might-cause-the-average-person-to-avoid-them He told me to accuse a girl on on the first date of 'being aggressive' and to put her on the spot and interrogate her as to why - forcing her to d... read more

Hello! 

on Birdeye

a year ago

When we talked about people who could actually be competition for Leon's power over us, he called them jerks and told us to abuse them and not to think about them. This is a predatory man! 

Hello! 

on Birdeye

a year ago

Saying stuff like 'We missed you!' and 'you should say hello and goodbye when you leave and warn when you won't show up because you are learnig about relationships.' umm.. nope. this is all manipulative pressure and is fake and meant to confuse and bond you to the followers idealizing one toxic short old man. same dynamic as his psychopath dating advice! 

Claire H. 

on Birdeye

a year ago

Yep, by taking advice from Leon most likely you learned to interact with others using self destructive cruelty. Which is horrifying! 

Jeff P. 

on Birdeye

a year ago

For a therapy-social skills group, the dynamic was the opposite. When people weren't happy, did not have interesting conversation, were not friendly, inviting, and did not even make an effort to feint it, and did not try to include me in their discussion - this should have been the tell-tale sign that this group leads to nowhere.  Lets say you are a BS artist looking to make a buck out of people. You have little useful proven advice. You can create an impression on people by saying, 'XYZ (pick something commonly accepted) is... read more

Hello! 

on Birdeye

a year ago

Yes, Jim did all the bad unethical things mentioned in this video: https://youtu.be/cL5zftipAY0?si=OKWxnKW_0bS1kbt6 

Claire H. 

on Birdeye

a year ago

This is what his former patients with whom he wasn’t harmless-presenting may need to follow: “Deprogramming from the influence of an abusive therapist like Dr. Leone requires a comprehensive approach focused on self-awareness, healing, and growth. It involves recognizing the damage done, finding ethical and compassionate therapeutic support, and learning healthier ways of relating to oneself and others. Although the process may take time and involve deep emotional work, it is possible for the client to regain control over th... read more