Saint Luke Institute

“Recently, a St. Luke's staff member (a priest) with whom I had started a very sympathetic and supportive helping relationship abruptly terminated our relationship. He did not provide any opportunity for discussion of closure. I was stunned and hurt and I expressed this to him. I felt betrayed as I had shared with him details of extreme past trauma. He avoided any ownership or even acknowledgement of the great pain that he caused me. While he may not have been able to change his decision to end our relationship, he demonstrated no compassion, no empathy, no responsibility for how difficult and perplexing this was for me. Nor did he provide any genuine and substantive explanation for his sudden decision other than vague references to obeying the Holy Spirit (using the third person of the Trinity as a defense for a lack of compassion?) He suddenly switched from caring, concerned, connected to abrupt, curt, distancing. I was devastated. St Luke's has a standard response to negative online reviews - consult the office. I did exactly that. I brought this to the attention of a director within St. Luke's stressing that while the decision to terminate was difficult to absorb, the cold way this decision was conveyed, even after I expressed my feelings, was all the more difficult for me as no acknowledgement or allowance was made for my reactions. I also stressed how destabilizing this situation was for anyone with a trauma background: not the decision to end the helping relationship per se (as painful as that was), but the total lack of concern for my subsequent responses. The director defended him. I can not trust an organization that - apparently - supports such profoundly hurtful and unprofessional behavior. St. Luke's is an organization that purports, among other goals, to support people with a trauma background. However, when presented with my extreme trauma, this priest suddenly severed our connection with no compassion, no consistent explanation and with the full support of one of the Institute's directors. Added 1-11-26: You ask that I express my concerns in writing to your office (i.e. take this offline). Yet, I did that already and Father's behavior was defended. Why would I try again to contact your office as my private attempts to address my concerns (with names) were - politely - dismissed? Consequently, I have chosen a public venue. I seek an honest explanation for the sudden severing of a positive relationship, and a compassionate acknowledgement of the painful effect on me. I suspect that the explanation is that this priest (and his supervisors) did not want to cope with extreme trauma, so they hid under the defense of 'obeying the promptings of the Holy Spirit'. These events occurred at the end of 2024. Will the priest and director involved have the courage to step forward and acknowledge my concerns? They know who they are and how to reach me. I suspect that I will receive no private response and no public response at all, or a public attempt to - politely - shut me down, or a public attempt to discredit me. I hope that I am wrong.”

“Mostly focused on marketing a program. No confidentiality for the client. I was placed in a group of five men and no other women and was not informed of this until entering the group. Misstatements and misinterpretations made in written evaluation. No care for the individual. I would not recommend this institute for an evaluation or treatment. Three years ago I had a positive experience with evaluation, but staff has changed especially in administration.”

“Emphasis was placed on the program instead of the person in need. One size does not fit all.”

“Worse place to be send for an evaluation. A place with no respect for privacy, misinformation, intimidation and false assumption/evaluation.”