James P. Leone, PhD

"Dr. Leone has been such an important figure in my life. My husband and I have been seeing him for couples therapy and his wisdom and guidance have been life-changing. He helped us both navigate very difficult times through the pandemic and held space for each of us to grow on our path of self discovery. I have grown so much personally since working with him. He turned me on to Thích Nhất Hạnh, and in his spirit, has guided us with loving kindness. I have so much respect for the work he is doing to help people through our very human experiences, and support families to achieve more harmony."

"Besides keeping a patient for 10+ years in therapy being a questionable practice due to 'no effect' or 'dependence on therapist', let me explain my other concerns. Firstly, Dr Leone told me in individual therapy “I will be sadistic if you let me.” This is in conflict with APA ethics code 2.06, "Personal Problems and Conflicts - When psychologists become aware of personal problems that may interfere with their performing work related duties adequately, they take appropriate measures, such as obtaining professional consultation or assistance, and determine whether they should limit, suspend, or terminate their work-related duties." If he feels sadistic, he should not be doing therapy. Secondly, I told him the group may not be good for me, and another person told him that he made them feel worse than before they joined the group and he dismissed and degraded us. This is in conflict with APA ethics code 3.04 Avoiding Harm, "Psychologists take reasonable steps to avoid harming their clients..and do not participate in, facilitate, assist, or otherwise engage in torture, defined as any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person, or in any other cruel, inhuman, or degrading behavior that violates 3.04a." He failed to warn of possible harm and change course at all when patients told him the group was making them miserable, and worsen their situation over many months. He would say 'this is not a support group', 'this is work for real change,' ‘now is when it gets really good,’ making you believe it was sort of growing pains or no pain - no gain scenario. I know of 5-10 people who in real life who were unhappy with him after spending more than a few months in the group, so there is more of us than you know of. One time, he said he was 'doing an experiment by placing a person with a type of diagnosis that never makes it in group therapy because he likes to always do personal experiments in his practice just to see'. Fouthly, his discussing patients’ unpaid bills in group may be degrading, and even cruel. Another time, he essentially had people with unpaid bills surrender their right to absolute confidentiality of their billing records, discussing people's unpaid bills in group therapy because it would be good for the person as well as others in their therapy process. Was it therapy, or a nasty attempt to collect on unpaid bills by putting peer pressure on the person with the unpaid bill? We will never know. But if your bill is way overdue, you shouldn't let the person rake up the bill even further is what I think. I used to feel bad for him, but again, that's inappropriate to make patients feel bad for you as a therapist, don't you think? Maybe.. manipulative even?"

"His groups are nothing like what he claims during the free consultation. They're a free-for-all. He encourages patients to articulate their negative feelings about other group members. That's ok if done carefully. But he encourages - instructs is a better word for it - group members to communicate their projections and transference issues onto other, vulnerable, members recklessly and with no regard for the feelings of the other person. Many a time I saw someone cry in his group after being attacked. It happened about twice per group, on average. Sometimes Dr. Leone attacks group members, under the guise of therapy. His words and tone are often abusive. Not subtly abusive, but very obviously abusive. It's nothing I've seen in a therapist. Dr. Leone told me "I will be sadistic if you let me." That was extremely disturbing. His insights were hit and miss, and mostly based on his own, possibly warped, life experiences. He stereotyped people pretty badly. When he misunderstood someone, he would usually persist arrogantly, and insist his insight was right, which would leave them feeling more misunderstood, confused, and angry. He encouraged patients to fight with their friends and relatives as a way to resolve interpersonal issues. He acted like an autocrat. As a general practice, he reads aloud to the group the private emails of those who fall behind in their payments as a way of controlling them. I knew him well, and he struck me as bigoted and chauvinistic. There were a whole lot of problems. He did more damage than good."

"Boasts of being manipulative towards his group members. Reads private email exchanges aloud in group belonging to members who are behind in their dues. Why? Possibly to enforce compliance, punish through humiliation - I really don’t know. Required 2 year written commitments, ideally 10 years - before members joined the group. I truly have no depths low enough within me to express my condemnation of this psychologist and his abusive behavior."