Diane A. Gariepy, LCSWR Port Jefferson Station Diane Gariepy social worker, Diane Alison Gariepy Diane A. Gariepy LCSWR Abusive Therapist and Commited Fraud with my insurance!! port jefferson station New York

I am not going to give my name here because this situation is terrible and embarrassing to me..I am only coming forward and telling this story to the public in hopes that no one else will fall victim to this horrible woman and people will know what she is hopefully before they visit her, and try to make her their therapist/social worker or whatever she labels herself as now.

Just know I am a middle aged woman who was victimized by this person recently...

I was going through a very hard time emotionally after my recent divorce, and I decided to seek help from a therapist..I inquired with a few people and I was told that most of the time instead of clinical psychologists, people in my situation often will see an Lisenced Clinical Social Worker instead.  I went on a state website to search for someone close to me, and I found Diane A. Gariepy LCSWR practicing in Port Jefferson Station close to my home town. 

At the time I contacted her I would categorize myself as being on the brink of suicidally depressed...I was having trouble eating and sleeping and just functioning at all.  I called Diane and she actually seemed like a nice person over the phone, but I did the get the feeling that her kindness and "warmth" was very rehearsed or maybe "phony" is a better word..It was just a feeling that I got initially, but I described what I was going through and she seemed very adamant that she could help me.  I was in luck she said because she had just "graduated" a few patients she saw from therapy (now I realize they probably quit or were suing her or something) and she could see me right away.  She said because of the level of my depression she considered my case an emergency and she needed to see me right away.

The conversation very quickly turned to and she was very adamant about what type of insurance I had and what the limits were for how many visits of therapy it would cover, and it seemed toward the end that this was entirely what she cared about more than anything.  She actually had me call the insurance company to find out specifics which I did.  I had to call her back to give her what the insurance said, and then it seemed like she got nicer again once she knew my insurance was up to her "standards".  At this point, I already began to notice oscilations in her personality from 'Stern or harsh' (when we were dealing with the insurance situation) -  to seemingly "nice and warm hearted" (once she realized I would be a patient who could pay)..I soon found out which one of these personas was the real one.

I went to see diane at her home/office, which frankly I found very unsanitary and not a place really fit to have company, let alone "patients" visit.  She seemed very nice (again) at first as we sat down and started our first session.  As I began to speak to her and after a while of speaking, I could see very clearly that she was not only completely uninterested in anything I was saying, but also blatantly not paying attention or listening to me as I spoke.  After a little while I stopped speaking, which then seemed to get her attention - because she started in responding with "I'm sorry to hear that, but you should hear what's going on with me right now..." ..

During our first session, she barely let me speak and instead started recounting all of her own lifes recent problems - financial problems, problems with her son and family, problems with her landlord, even problems in her sex life!!  By the end of the session my head was spinning, and in the end after she was done she very warmly set me another appointment and ushered me out with a smile.  I was confused and hurt in many ways, but not ever being in therapy before I didnt know what to expect, so I guessed this could be normal..I was also in no condition emotionally to deal with that or make rational decisions.

To make a long story short as far as the "therapy";  I wound up visiting Diane 5 more times over as many weeks, and each session became more bizzare - her behavior and mannerisms were erratic, and she fluctuated between two extremes of overly nice, to aggitated and down right abusive on the last occasion..The last time I saw her I was in an extremely bad state, and broke down crying and sobbibng during the session...To my shock this woman actually got up off her chair, and instead of consoling me or comforting me - openly began yelling at and chastising me!!  She was angry she said at the weakness I was dispalying, and I needed to toughen myself up!!  My depression according to her was just my weakness overall, and my failure to take responsibility for my condition and life...After a few minutes of listening to her berate me, I actually ran out of her house crying...It was after that I realized that this woman was not only most likely insane herself, but also a very, very evil hurtful person who had no business "treating" anyone...

Obviously I never went back there after that, and at the time I was too distraught to file any complaints or deal with the reality of what happened..As a final blow to me, and the final straw happened a few weeks after my last visit...I had given this person my insurance information of course for treatment, and my particular company had me liable for a high deductible of $50 per therapy session.  My insurance sent me a breakdown in the mail of all of the charges for Diane's "sessions", and on the same day I received a bill from her office as well...To my shock, Diane had billed my insurance for 35 sessions!!  This to the tune of thousands of dollars to them, and when I opened her seperate bill for the deductible co pay - it was for $1750!!  I felt like I was spinning and actually almost fell down...

I called Diane's office several times over the next few days, and she never answered or returned my phone calls...finally after multiple calls she answered one afternoon....I explained the situation in disbelief (after her acting like she didnt know me at first), and she very calmly answered that she had no idea what I was talking about..Whatever was billed and whatevrter I owed was due, and she kept all our session dates and times...When I reminded her that none of this happened, and I was going to report her to my insurance for this and make sure she didnt get paid - she sighed very unaffected and said that she had all the proper paperwork for them to prove I was there...She seemed very bored by this whole thing, and shrugged it off to my "condition" - and that I was obviously so delusional that I had simply forgotten how many times I was there..."Happens all the time in 'these cases'" were her words...

when I told her no matter what I was not paying the co pay to her..she simply laughed at me and said "Then see you in court"...and then hung up the phone on me....Less than a month later I got a letter from a collection agency, threatening to give this $1750 co-pay over to an attorney to sue me...

Since my mistake of dealing with and I have now I feel been scarred beyond words by this whole thing.  My depression is now almost unbearable as I deal with all of this on top of it.

I very sincerely that someone else reads this before considering dealing with this person, or entrusting your care to her...She has defrauded me in every sense, wounded me emotionally and god knows how many other people she has done this to in the past who are afraid to speak out.  Stay as far away as possible from this crazy, criminal social worker in port jefferson station..