“Can talk therapy be harmful?”

It is not harmful if your therapy and therapist is a good fit for you. If you are in therapy and feel it's harming you, making you feel worse, hurting you in any way, please share it with your therapist and/or find a another therapist. I'm sorry about what you're going through and wish you the best.

It can be if you don’t go to someone who is reputable and well trained.

Truly,
Jeanette Cueva, M.D.

Talk therapy is a very broad category that includes a wide range of approaches, some of which might be suitable and helpful for a given individual, others not so much. The key factors affecting that are the skill of the therapist, their competency in treating your specific issues, and how they handle what emerges as the talking moves forward. "Harmful" is also a broad category that includes unwanted effects on close relationships, financial drain, re-traumatization, and even social stigma when your peer group looks down or askance at people who go to therapy, which can affect self-esteem. Sometimes talk therapy can be way more talk than therapy and the harm is in the nature of delay in receiving effective treatment. In my view, once the mutually intended outcome is clear, the therapist should be doing a lot of the talking. In addition, a therapist can have hidden or not-so-hidden biases that can negatively affect the outcome. It's generally a good idea to seek a highly qualified professional, to be clear in your own mind what you are looking to accomplish in therapy, and treat the first several sessions as a probationary period, never forgetting that you are hiring them to help you get something useful done that will make your life go better.
I hope this is helpful.

Here are some links that can be helpful in addressing your thoughts,..
https://thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/volume-21/edition-1/when-therapy-causes-harm#:~:text=In%20fact%2C%20therapy%20can%20be,psychotherapy%20remains%20persistent%20and%20prevalent.
or
https://theconversation.com/talking-therapies-can-harm-too-heres-what-to-look-out-for-27433