I would like to preface what I’m about to write here with the fact that I can back up at least half of my statements here pretty well with the texts I have on my phone from Cassidy Spone, a licensed therapist and to the best of my knowledge, an employee of Directors Danah Rumble’s – Melissa Pirnos’s Lakeside Counseling Associates, CEO Brian Gragnolati’s Atlantic Health System here in Newton plus Executive Director Margaret Pittaluga’s Center for Evaluation & Counseling in Sparta NJ. While not everything is documented, and there is always going to be room for interpretation in some of this, I at least have a reasonable chunk of the story in writing should it ever lead to a legal challenge.
But please make no mistake about it. For those who routinely monitor this sight looking for something to have a problem with, “I have every right to tell my side of the story!” You don’t have to agree with it. “But you will respect that.”
Now having gotten that out of the way… Since the Start of the COVID lockdown in 2020 I, like many other people, began to feel a bit tired. Not only physically but emotionally, as well. True, my life wasn’t an overflowing barrel of joy before the lockdown, and I knew I would need to start making changes soon if I wanted things to change for the better. But then there was COVID and as many folks know, “Life got put on hold.”
Of course, when the lockdown lifted, then things became all about trying to feel my way through this “New Normal” experience, further delaying the changes in my own life I really did want to make. But… With so many unforeseen changes… You get the idea.
If I thought I was tired on Thursday, April 13, 2023, when I got the first text informing me that Mom, who was on an organ transplant list was in the hospital… Well… It was nothing by way of comparison to the way I felt after getting a bit of news regarding my niece on April 20, 2023, leaving me feeling like my days and nights had a bit of an unreal quality to them, me often feeling quite sick. “Hell, really is here on earth.”
Anyhow, during this period a new neighbor, Cassidy Spohn had indicated verbally that she wouldn’t mind helping me with driving, picking stuff up from the store, and paperwork… Stuff like that. So… I thought about it and decided to take her up on her offer.
In the end, she shortchanged me on the first matter I asked for help with, which was shopping. On the second matter, she more or less blew me off, despite initially offering assistance in response to my question about therapy. All I wanted to know was whether I needed a referral from a primary care physician to get an appointment with a therapist. I believe she knew I was struggling emotionally at that point and had offered to help me compile a list of therapists who accept Medicare. “She offered Me help!”
Since I was only shortchanged a few dollars, I was willing to let that go. But… When she more or less blue me off regarding the list, “I knew I had made a big mistake in trusting this woman with anything.”
True, Cassidy did sit and talk with me when she came by to bring me at least some of my change back from the shopping she did for me, which turned out to be via Instacart rather than the store as originally proposed. I did appreciate her taking the time to talk to me as it gave me the opportunity to try and vent about some of what I was feeling in the moment. She said she’d come back with the rest of the change in a few days, “But blew me off on that, too!”
Looking back on that conversation though, “I should never have asked if we could talk and really wish she had simply said No.” I realize, even now, that I had overshared with the wrong person. When you do a background check on your neighbor and find out you’re dealing with a licensed therapist, you like to think that you are dealing with someone who is reliable and at least somewhat honest. But… My experiences have shown me that Cassidy Spohn cannot be trusted and her offer of help in the first place should never have been believed to be genuine.
It’s not the discovery that I’ve once again tried to give someone the benefit of the doubt who wasn’t worth it when they said they’d be willing to help me that’s upsetting. I’m used to that kind of treatment, which is why I generally don’t reach out to many people in those few instances when I really could use a helping hand. “It’s less disappointing to do things that way.”
What hurts is that someone who The State of New Jersey would deem worthy of a therapist’s license would be as disingenuous and cold as Cassidy Spohn has been. And the sick part is, “She was given every opportunity to say No!”
I had thought about confronting Cassidy Spohn about the matter in person at one point. However, based on some of the things I overheard from below within the walls of my own home, I sensed it would be pointless. Instead, I opted to write a blog post about it, figuring that if she truly cared and had no intention of hurting anyone, she would reach out and try to fix things. Instead, I received the following text when she found the original post, which had been offline for some time, on the evening of May 30, 2023, at 11:48 PM. This entire post you are reading now is a heavily reworked adaptation of that post, which was originally written on April 26, 2023.
Hi Brian. I came across a blog post about me that appears to have been written by you. I want to first emphasize that I have never had any malicious intent in any interaction that I have had with you. I apologize that I wasn’t able to support you when you had difficult things happening in your life. I did my best with the grocery order, and I do apologize for not having gotten you the four dollars back. I don’t carry cash and so it had slipped my mind once again. I also did my best to offer suggestions regarding clinicians in the area. I apologize that it wasn’t as soon as I had first mentioned. I really don’t appreciate my name being posted on the internet in such a negative light, especially by someone who knows very little about me or my nature. I am honestly very uncomfortable and also taken aback.
When I texted Cassidy Spohn back the next day to ask what she was proposing as a solution, “I got crickets!” In fact, I’ve heard nothing from the dear girl ever since as she refuses to acknowledge I exist unless it suits her and her image in front of others. “This is a licensed therapist?”
FYI: I never asked for her support in the difficulties I was having in my life and there was no list of therapists ever passed along to me. All I ever expected from her was that she would follow through on what she said she would do. From where I sit, “Cassidy Spohn did not keep her word!”
I should have cut things off when her offer of running to the store for me turned into, “It’s better for me if we use Instacart.” But I was stupid, feeling like I’d already put my foot in it and really did need some of the items on the list. So, I handed her the cash I’d walked to the bank to get stating that as long as she could get the stuff for roughly the same dollar amount that would work. “She didn’t indicate that it wouldn’t, and I should have known it wouldn’t.”
As far as lists go, the only thing Cassidy Spohn passed along to me was her employers’ phone number (Atlantic Health), which was a dead end in meeting my needs. Besides, she had to have known I already had it. “One phone number isn’t even close to a list let alone proof of effort in the real world!”
At this point, I don’t want Cassidy Spohn as a neighbor but don’t have much of a choice in the matter. I’m not comfortable with Ms. Spohn living beneath me or any of the people she invites into this building. But it is what it is, and she probably would say the same about me. For the record though, as anyone can guess by now, “My trust in the woman is zero!”
Based on my own experience, I hardly believe that Cassidy Spohn is worthy of a license in her chosen profession and at this point don’t believe a majority of her colleagues in Sussex County New Jersey are worthy of federal funding, either. It is an insult to be told your insurance isn’t a problem by the health profession in general, only to discover through their actions that they only really want you around for the money in the end. If you have Original Medicare, it would seem that you’re just another commodity walking into an office, “Despite what laws Congress has passed!”
While its clear that I can’t do anything about my downstairs neighbor’s behavior towards me or the negative experience I’ve had with the Mental Health Profession since May of 2023, “I will have my say some day.” I am committed at this point to seeing to it that the Mental Health Profession here in Sussex County NJ is dismantled and built up again in a fashion that gives it legitimacy to the citizens living in The State of New Jersey.
And that’s my story. Take it or leave it. This is my perception of Cassidy Spohn in particular and what ever you wish to do with the information, whether you believe it to be fact or fiction… “That’s entirely up to you!”
I’m done. What ever happens from here, as I am aware this site is being watched, “I’m too tired to care.”
Despite being blind, I’m a human being too and deserve the same courtesy shown other human beings. Why I wasn’t given that courtesy by a Health Care Professional who didn’t know me from Adam when this mess started is beyond me.
Whatever my shortcomings were and are now, I didn’t deserve the treatment I got from Cassidy Spohn, let alone her colleagues, that led up to things having gone as far as they have. If Cassidy Spohn or colleagues, friends, and family don’t like what’s written here, “I can’t help them.”
I’m not going to lose sleep over this anymore. I’m now simply looking forward to getting a window of opportunity so that a positive influence can be made on a profession in serious need of an overhaul for the sake of everyone involved. In the meantime, “It’s just one day at a time for me.”