Michelle D. Lamma, LCPC

"I have been seeing Miss Lamma since about 2016. I should have known better when she diagnosed me based off of the story that I told her. I told her that my psychology professor told me that I might be bipolar due to a paper that I wrote. This is something that my mother put me up to. She said if I didn’t then she would cut off financial support. Based off of me telling that lie, Miss Lamma diagnosed me as bipolar and she didn’t see any symptoms of bipolar. I had been seeing the University of Maryland for two years. A whole team of doctors and therapist never mentioned me having mood swings or anything, no mention of me having any type of bipolar symptoms. Yet she still took my word and she wrote a severe diagnosis on paper. She said it would protect me in future court cases that my mom keeps opening against me falsely. So after seeing multiple other professionals, they are coming to the conclusion that I am not bipolar. Miss Lamma had me down as bipolar because I have rapid speech. But I grew up around a lot of foreigners. Any time I would tell her things about my childhood that explains my lack of social skills, she would just casually skate over it and listen in as if we are sharing stories. She kept telling me to document mood swings that I wasn’t having. I would schedule appointments with her and she just would flat out not answer, or we will talk for five minutes and she would bill it as a whole session. There’s been times when she’s mocked my ethnicity. Telling me that I don’t look African-American and constantly asking me what my ethnicity is. When I told her she still kept it up. She kept giving me assignments telling me to document my mood swings. I asked her how can I document something that I’m not experiencing? I told her that I suffer from stress and anxiety. She said that she can’t help me with that she can only help me with bipolar disorder. What kind of therapist is that? I think AA people see another AA person in a powerful position. This is what I thought initially. Another black woman wanted to help me. However I was really wrong… Now to my discharge. I have a yearly evaluation on every July. Even after admitting that she’s only diagnosing me because of speech, she’s consistently telling me that I have mood swings and I need help. However therapy is all self reporting, and this is something that she admitted. So how can she tell me that I’m suffering from mood swings if I’m saying I’m not? She keeps mentioning “the book.” I guess she means the DSM. But however it doesn’t seem that she can use her own personal professional opinion to make calls. She’s literally trying to read from the book and make diagnosis that way. I told her that my situation was upsetting me and I began to cry during our session. This woman told me that I was having a crying episode. SMH. What??? Then she kept making faces at the computer screen and she took her teeth out. After I asked her some pretty straight forward questions about my diagnosis, she started screaming. Then she kept said, “I can’t help you. Sorry. I have to discharge you.” I politely said “OK” once and that’s it. Then she repeated it loudly (7 times) while flailing her arms. Once again I said, “I understand and the feeling is mutual.” She didn’t like the fact that I didn’t give her an angry triggered reaction, so she abruptly ended the zoom call. She didn’t even have the common courtesy after all these years to send a discharge letter. All in all when I started going to her I was 25. I’m 31 now and I know a lot more about myself and this woman gave me this diagnosis based off of something I told her and not off of her observations. Overall my experience started off OK in my mind, but the ending was very ghetto. Please go to an actual practice that has multiple therapists and at least one doctor. She is one therapist with a private practice, and no one is checking behind her nor her work. I have reported her to the proper authorities. Hopefully she stops practicing soon."

"All I can say is THE BEST. She is the absolute best."