Dr. Kimberly S Benson LMHC CAP CCTP NBCC

Reviews

• SS

  Sarasota Addiction Specialists

  Jan 3, 2026
  5.0
  Dr. Benson has been an invaluable member to our team. As clinical director she has made our program one that stands out amongst its competition. Our 12 week IOP and 4 week PHP program was specifically designed by Dr. Benson. Her heart, personal and professional experiences have been embedded into out program and forces our participants to do deep therapeutic work with us in an attempt to trace the origins of their addictions in and effort to empower Individuals to leave a healthy, happy sustaining life of recovery.
• RL

  Richard Lee

  Dec 11, 2025
  5.0
  Dr. Benson has helped me immensely for many years now, and I’m grateful for the growth she’s helped me accomplished
• KS

  Krystal Storck

  Dec 11, 2025
  5.0
  I’ve had an incredible experience with this therapist. They create a safe, calm, and non-judgmental space where I feel truly heard and understood. Their guidance has helped me gain clarity, manage stress more effectively, and make meaningful progress in my personal life. Highly recommend to anyone looking for a compassionate and skilled therapist.
• SM

  SpaceMan ManSpace

  Dec 4, 2025
  5.0
  Dr Kim is one of the best therapists I’ve ever seen. Her empathy and ability to help me was on another level!
• JC

  Jenny C

  Dec 3, 2025
  1.0
  My experience with this therapist lasted for years. I believed the intensity of our work meant depth, and I believed the closeness meant care. I genuinely thought she helped save my life. With distance and consultation from multiple licensed clinicians, I now understand something I never expected: I didn’t survive because of therapy—I survived her. Over time, the boundaries in our work blurred so gradually that I couldn’t see it happening. What I interpreted as “deep therapeutic connection” was actually the quiet collapse of the professional frame. What felt like safety eventually became confusion. What felt like support eventually became emotional entanglement. None of it was clear until it was too late. The way our work ended made that undeniable. no final session, no referrals, no transition, no safety plan. It was abrupt and destabilizing, and every clinician I later consulted expressed concern about the way it happened and concern about the entire therapeutic relationship. The ending revealed something I had been unable to see while inside it: the structure had been eroding for a long time. When I shared my experience publicly, the therapist responded in a way I experienced as dismissive, discrediting and threatening. What I once took as devotion to the work I now see more clearly: shifting boundaries, inconsistency, and a blurring of roles that placed far too much emotional weight on me as the client. Therapy is not supposed to feel like you are carrying the relationship, interpreting mixed signals, or trying to stabilize a frame that is no longer intact. Clients are never meant to hold the therapist’s inconsistencies. Clients are never meant to feel responsible for the emotional tone of the work. And clients are never meant to be left in confusion, dependency, or emotional shock after a sudden ending. Therapy should strengthen your autonomy—not your attachment to the therapist. It should deepen your trust in yourself—not your reliance on their approval. It should have clear boundaries—not shifting, unspoken expectations. What happened to me is something I want others to be aware of: intensity is not the same as competence. Closeness is not the same as clinical skill. And the feeling of being “understood like no one else understands you” can sometimes be the product of blurred lines that the client should never be asked to navigate. If you are seeking therapy, I strongly encourage you to choose someone who maintains a stable frame, uses consistent boundaries, and ends treatment in a planned, ethical, clinically sound manner. Emotional safety is not optional in therapy—it is the entire point. I would also suggest checking the disciplinary records on the therapists license that can be found on the Florida board of health website. I survived the aftermath of this experience not because the therapy saved me, but because I finally stepped out of a dynamic that had become unhealthy, unclear, and unsustainable. I still suffer in ways from the experience and will still have to work to recover. That is the truth I wish I had known sooner, and the truth I hope will help someone else make a more informed decision. Took the words right out of my mouth. Later edit- years ago I left a public review about my experience with Kim and she had her lawyer threaten me to take it down and then flooded her reviews with everyone she knows to drown out my voice and now she is doing it again..You will notice she will all of a sudden have many 5 star reviews right now in the next few days because I have spoken up again, do not fall for this, this is her, a therapist, doing what she can to invalidate and silence harm she caused. I REFUSE to be silenced by Kim any longer. She harmed me in an extreme way, never acknowledged or apologized, and wants me to be quiet and wants to save her image, and I will not abandon myself any longer.

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