I'd like to preface this with Urdan is a monster. Ruined our entire summer. Made my teen suicidal. She and her friend Susan Wilde bullied my teen into the ER. Horrible harpies. I had to take a semester off school to clean up the mess this greedy harpy made for my teen. Got her ridiculous degree at a video night school called JFK in Pleasant Hill which is now closing because it's losing its accreditation. To be clear: She's a really bad paid witness nothing more. Completely biased. She does not believe child abuse exists so do not bring your kid there if that's an issue she will side with the abuser and screw your kid. To be clear, she will say she is on YOUR side. Then as soon as she smells weakness, she will take off the book money from your ex, and screw you. No joke. One woman was in chemo when Urdan attacked. She's a crook. My ex works at a casino. So his life is off the books. The perfect client for Ms. Urdan. She will walk your ex through the process of paying her under the table if he doesn't know how! Its not rocket science people! It's called slip her some cash and she spends it on the pot to smoke and no ones the wiser. She's a total pothead. I mean it's legal now, but still! Not for the person who's writing court reports. We need more drug testing for this ridiculous JFK video school grads! So unqualified. So unethical, unpleasant, rude, greedy, and wildly irresponsible. Bullied my teen into the hospital. Meaning my teen went to the hospital to get AWAY from Urdan and her group of harpies who want to "deprogram" or perform FRT "family reunification therapy" on otherwise happy kids. It's criminal, from the dark ages isolation therapy. They use prisoner-of-war tactics on children and teens who report abuse to get them to recant. She's more than just a fraud, which she also is, she is extremely dangerous towards kids. Don't engage her. Just report her. Record everything. Don't delete anything she sends you even though she will ask. Submit to the California Board of Psychology - oh wait that's right she has NO Psychologists license. That Board does not support deprogramming ANYONE especially kids. She'd lose her license if she had one. Watch out for her colleague SUSAN WILDE. She's worse than Urdan. They've known each other for 25 years and went to the same. She's also unqualified to diagnose or have professional opinions on medication of any type. That would take a medical license. She doesn't EVEN HAVE have a psychologist's license and she ABSOLUTELY doesn't have a medical license. Submit your request to have her MFT license removed to the appropriate agency: It's the California Board of Behavioral Sciences - the BBS. There's a phone number too. You can do anonymous reporting with the CA BBS but I'd leave my name if I were you. She retaliates of course! Which is illegal, so report her for that TOO! And, she's going to retaliate anyway. In fact, it is probably unethical for YOU not to report her because you fear retaliation. Because anyone who you fear might retaliate should not be around your child. Does that make sense? Better to get her kicked off your case now. Do not let your lawyer (if you have one) say that's difficult, it's completely doable. LAWYERS are afraid she'll retaliate against their other clients, because she's like a fungal infection, very hard to get rid of. So she stays on cases forever. Leeching the lifeblood out of families! How dare she endanger kids for a quick buck! She plays a numbers game and writes all critics off as disgruntles divorcees. She loves a good trial. It's a payday for her. Isn't that an abuse of our legal system? Considering she calls herself court-appointed? She's a crook. She creates more trials where she's supposed to reduce trials. My tax dollars. She maligns and she lashes out. Like a cornered polecat. Ruined our summer. How many children's summers has she ruined? How much suffering is there in this world due to this woman? Doesn't she ever imagine what it's going to be like when these kids grow up? And they remember her? And how many children will cry themselves to sleep well into their adult years because this banshee was allowed to practice? Enough is enough! She profits off of the pain of children by lying for her own monetary gain. It's so so very wrong. The lowest form of life that feeds on suffering. That's her in a nutshell. Horrible abuse of power and an abuse of her license. The lowest form of a therapist. She is really bad at her job. She calls moms who disagree with her brainwashers, and she calls families that disagree with her cults. She CLEARLY writes her own yelp reviews. How is that allowed? She works in child safety. She's dangerously negligent and irresponsible. Ill-educated and unqualified. The office smells like she smoked pot outside and then walked in and burned incense to hide the smell of it on her. They should drug test people writing reports for the court! Probably vaping pot in the bathroom. read more

I'd like to preface this with...omg is she even real? Reviews are not split. Reviews are all negative EXCEPT for the ones she writes herself or has her partners-in-unethical-conduct write for her! She's stealing Christmas presents from kids for god's sake! Like some archaic unsanitary Grinch! It was like entering the twilight zone. She is out of touch with reality. Physically bumped into me on purpose as I was leaving. Like a shove she could say was accidental. She's archaic, unsanitary & aggressive. And she's so unbelievably unsanitary. This is the EXACT same review I would leave for a restaurant. Unsanitary, bumping into customers accidentally on purpose. I bet she used to work at a restaurant or something. She's not kid-focused! That is the most absurd thing I've EVER read on YELP! No child likes this woman. She's worse than the intolerable old piano or violin teacher your child can't stand (sorry here to the good piano and violin teachers out there of which I know there are many I am trying to make a point). Because she causes strife in the family. Family strife = bad for kids. Kids despise her! And she discounts what kids say endangering them. She's like the Grinch! That's what we call her now! Me, my 3 kids, and my (now) husband. My ex calls her that too and his other kids with his new wife call her that too! The archaic unsanitary Grinch (I had to clean up the language a little for Yelp, we don't actually talk that way at home!) She looks more archaic than your average boomer. Way more relic like. Retire for god's sake. She either has dementia or smokes too much of a recently legalized herbal remedy for glaucoma. Nobody could have glaucoma that bad if you know what I mean! But not in a nice way, in a really really mean way. Her office does smell like a recently legalized herbal remedy! I just read that in a review just now and that is so true! OK - she does not wash her hands. Just before COVID, she followed me to the bathroom (creepy enough right?) then when she got out she DID NOT WASH her hands. So unsanitary. And she made a point to let me know she hadn't. just looked at me and shrugged. Then she sat in her chair wrapped up in a blanket shaking like she was pretending to be sick or something. In March 2020, just before COVID shut us down. She's an anti-masker during COVID too. And an ANTI-Vaxxer. She's just unsanitary. Like COVID denier unsanitary. I mean wash your hands! She lies, she manipulates, she solicits bribes basically. It's exactly like stealing Christmas presents from children! That is the effect it has. And stealing college from kids! Like who can afford higher education for their kids after Urdan is done looting both sides of the family? She was supposed to charge us a VERY large price together. Then she ended up causing a fight between my ex and me specifically so she could charge us more! We weren't born yesterday after all! She caused a fight then said she would need extra money from each of us because the case was more "complex." What? I mean what? But she only told my ex! Like she thinks we don't talk. My ex and I are still friends. When I say that I mean we had a big fight for like a year and I think she thought we disliked each other enough that she could play us against each other. We were never married so not divorced either. Such an unethical parasitic business model with this woman! She tried to get us to pay extra for psych evals too after we accused her of ramping up her prices. Like trying to threaten us BOTH that she'd call CFS or tell our judge if we reported her. Can you believe that? Does she think we just fell off a turnip truck? And for Psych evals, she insists on Susan Wilde who I now read online that they are friends? Can you believe how unethical? Urdan needs a Psych Eval, or how about just straight out to pasture with her, the pasture with bars, do not pass go, no visitors allowed. and BT dubs Urdan, no smoking allowed! My ex and I, we jointly filed to have her removed from the case for fraud! Finally got her kicked off our case! Nightmarish woman! Now we are taking her to small claims court to get our large amount of money back! She's on the hook for fraud and we are suing. We are suing for the maximum amount allowed in small claims court. Google that amount. The money will go to buy our kid's Christmas presents if we ever get it back. That woman is stealing Christmas presents from kids. Like some archaic unsanitary Grinch! I will update as I find out new stuff about her. There is a huge group of families she has unethically attacked. I was contacted by these families who read my review (this is an update), because she unethically attacked them too! I'm reporting her to California State Licensing Board next. Reviews are not split. Reviews are all negative EXCEPT for the ones she writes herself or has her partners-in-unethical-conduct write for her! When COVID opens we are picketing her offices! read more

Wow!!! Just simply WOW!!! First, let me say that Ms Urdan was court appointed for mediation of my family support case and I was extremely wary knowing the typical bias against fathers in this state. Especially after coming to this site and reading the negative reviews. As a concerned father, this seemed like a worst case scenario with someone not qualified to render any kind of assessment for a broken family. I almost declined and rejected her. Now I know better. That would have been a mistake. I don't know what motivated the individuals to cast aspersions on Ms Urdan's integrity and professionalism and essentially provide a character assassination but that wasn't our experience. I don't want to denigrate anyone trying to find order in chaotic situations. We went through a few counselors and mediators over the last few years and she was by far the best we've come across on so many different levels. She was thorough. I, my ex-wife and our three kids went through the sessions. We completed numerous interviews and evaluations. From the start I had the belief that this would be biased in favor of my ex as women in these type of cases tend to get favorable results in this state. I was wrong. It was amazing to watch how Ms Urdan conducted every session in an evenhanded and fair manner. My ex asked questions, voiced her opinions and concerns. I got to voice all of my trepidation and give feedback that was taken into account. My kids were extremely comfortable and their anxieties were waylaid. Everyone was accountable and that was important to the outcome. Ms Urdan made suggestions and provided feedback that was extraordinarily helpful and ultimately went a long way towards my ex and I resolving our differences. I didn't agree with everything and neither did my ex but everything Ms Urdan did was beneficial - especially for the kids. Eventually the judge made his rulings based on her reports and was even complimentary on Ms Urdan's assessments, insights and recommendations. Her professionalism should be the gold standard. Full transparency and no surprises. I don't have any plans to ever go through something like this again but if I did, I would be extremely happy to have Ms Urdan handled the case. She helped us through a tough situation. I can't even imagine why there are ANY negative reviews because that was the absolute best possible scenario for any family with similar issues. The highest regards. read more

Did Alison Urdan talk to you before being assigned to your case? Did she give you false promises to help you and in order to help you, did she convince you that you needed her in some capacity on your case? That's only the beginning of her corrupt actions. Did she tell you she was cheaper than other people? Ethic codes indicate that she cannot solicit her services to you. She also cannot speak to you (nor the other parent) before being assigned. It's considered very BIAS and also against California Rules of Court & Ethic codes. Did she tell you she would do everything to help you? It's all B.S. You will learn that very quickly and you will feel duped when she turns on you. She is in desperate need for money so she goes out looking for clients and causes rifts & complications between the parents so that she can remain on your case & earn more money. She's completely DISORGANIZED & can't keep facts straight. Her reports are replete with lies & exaggerations. This is NOT a person you want any type of services from. If she ask you to delete any evidence of your communication - DONT DO IT! RED FLAG!! Keep everything! Unfortunately she has multiple complaints with BBS for her unethical actions. Urdan begs people she knows to write her good reviews on multiple sites. Don't believe the fake good reviews. Follow your gut. She PROFITS from family strife. She also gaslights the kids. She involves her friend (S. Wilde) to DIAGNOSE nonexistent illnesses in parents & children. Then she tries to use that phony report to take your child from you. Watch out if she refers you to someone else because they are in cohoots with each other to try to bring you down. She's a complete fraud who should be behind bars! I got lucky in my case because I hired experts (Psychologists) in trial to read her reports & rip her apart. But not everyone can afford experts. I was happy that my custody case turned out favourably only because I had the best team to reveal her corruption. The Judge on my case was intelligent enough to see that Urdan was lying about "parent being a danger" to her own child. She completely made this up! It was quite funny and satisfying to witness Urdan getting caught in her lies. I'm so happy my case ended in my favor. Every person I spoke to about her felt she had some serious mental issues of her own. You will be very sorry to have met her. Don't hire for any therapy or custody issues. read more

My experience with Alison Urdan was the exact opposite of the recent positive reviews. When I read the positive reviews, it does not seem like they describe the same person who was involved in our child custody case and did so much harm to our kids. In our case, Alison was hired as a special master to help resolve small conflicts. Before we paid her retainer, we were actually looking forward to getting some help with the co-parenting. We were naive, she seemed like a harmless grandma type and we did not do our research on her. As soon as those checks were cashed though, she turned into something I cannot say on Yelp or Alison will be get them to delete the review, just as she has gotten Yelp to delete or "unrecommend" all the other honest reviews. I could not believe the language she used with us, or the tone. Her emails were filled with sarcasm, usually in ALL CAPS, and little insults. She made veiled threats and even yelled at us in sessions, while supposedly providing therapeutic services. She played us parents off each other and escalated conflicts that were really not a big deal into court hearings and trials, which meant more money for her, more time and stress for us. It all happened so fast that we were caught unawares and then were on the hook for paying her another $5,000 for making things worse. When we refused to pay, she threatened to have us thrown in jail. The whole thing was nuts, really not what you would expect from someone who is a licensed therapist. When I asked the Board of Behavioral Sciences about her, they said they had received many complaints about her over the years and that she was currently under investigation. Too late for us. Of course, the kids also paid the price because the increased conflict made their lives miserable. They quickly came to hate Alison Urdan and refused to speak to her. They will never trust a therapist again. Even my ex came to hate her. It was really quite a nightmare. read more

This "therapist" has no business seeing children. We saw her about a year ago and I am writing this review only now, because we waited to be out fo the court system, since she would no doubt be retaliating. She has no concern for children and her license should be taken away. She presents herself as nice and will tell you all kinds of "personal stories" but as you start your process, she would do everything in her hands to complicate your case to no end, only so she can make more money. Her emails and communication are inflammatory and she is highly motivated by money so wants to do everything in her hands to make you need to bring her to testify in court. She reports falsely and she tells every side conflicting things. She has no idea how to interact with children and shared intimate details with our child. My ex and I were in fact unified in how horrible she was for our child. Do yourself a favor and find a person with real empathy. This is not a person you want involved in any case, because whatever side you're on, she will make it worse, and your child will be the victim of her lack of ethics, professional skills, or human skills. She breached ethical code, confidentiality, and has no empathy. She can false cry one minute and then write an angry email. She is not human. read more

I strongly warn Yelpers to ignore any good reviews of Alison Urdan on this site and the numerous healthcare-provider review sites such as vitals.com, healthgrades.com, and alltherapist.com. Ms. Urdan has a long and well-documented history of offering to trade good reviews for child custody. Whether she uses child custody as a bribe or an extortion, this practice is a felony crime and should not be supported, especially by Yelp. If you want to read genuine, honest reviews of this corrupt therapist, visit Berkeley Parents Network: https://www.berkeleyparentsnetwork.org/questions/reviews-alison-urdan. Alison Urdan works exclusively for the family courts in Alameda and Contra Costa counties, and always for families with domestic violence or custody disputes. In my personal experience, Alison Urdan uses false promises and emotional manipulation to prey on the protective parent, promising them custody if they pay her extra money or write good reviews, then turns on the protective parents and gives the abusive parent custody. At that point, she allies herself with the abusive parent and gets more money and good reviews that way. I have witnessed this over and over again, and my heart bleeds for the children in these cases because they are the ones who suffer the most. read more

*NOTE: Alison Urdan is paying Yelp to remove negative reviews and asking clients to write positive reviews. This is just an FYI, since there isn't anything Yelp users can do about it, other than to ignore the "star" rating and read the "removed" reviews. Now that she under investigation by her licensing board hopefully she will clean up her act. This review was removed as soon as it was posted, and I'm sure it will be removed again within hours: Just when you thought things could not get any worse, Alison Urdan shows up in your family court case and destroys even the small modicum of kindness and civility between you and your ex. Whatever she is hired to do, be prepared for her to scratch her way into every crevice of your life and make you, your ex, and your poor kids miserable. And broke. She tours herself as a "cheap" therapist or parent coordinator but once she gets her claws in she never lets go, meaning the bills keep coming for hundreds and thousands of dollars. There is no possibility of rational discussion or negotiation because she just goes straight to the court with her bills. I have a lot of experience in the fields of law and therapy, but I have never encountered someone as bizarrely unprofessional and intellectually unaware as Alison Urdan. read more

Just like someone else said, she told me people want her license. I think she thinks that means that people won't try. She's a classic bully. 1. Need to dominate and control 2. Victim blaming 3.Quick to anger 4. Low impulse control 5. Intolerant of differences 6. Badgering Do not forget, bullying is intentional. It's never by accident. She should not be allowed to work around children or vulnerable adults. Or anyone really. Someone left a Victim of Urdan email here she probably put it up herself. I'm an engineer so I like discord groups. Instead of all that just actually report her. google report my therapist and license and California and fill out their form. I reported her. Its the only way to stop this abuse of kids for money. Someone has got to do oversight in this area. She will literally say she hates it and makeup stories to sympathize. Reel you in like the classic bully. Anyway, malicious misdiagnosis for money is a crime. So report her! Record everything! You need to report the abuse yourself! Record record record! Then report report report! read more

We had Alison as a recommending mediator for a year. Alison performed excellently in a difficult case in which one of the parents had no interest in any kind of peacemaking or coparenting. Many authorities in the system, quite understandably, seem to only want to get problems off their plate and have a reflex to split the difference. If one party is being difficult or unreasonable, this pattern gives the other a reason to be just as unreasonable, so as to not get "halfway between sane and crazy." Alison does not do this. She keeps her focus on the child, is impossible to fool, and is not afraid to put her foot down even when she knows this will result in an antagonistic relationship. In the end, the other parent refused to renew the mediation agreement because Alison would not accept her behavior or a broken status quo. Alison does not "phone it in." read more

I've stopped working with this therapist since February of this year, and have written her twice requesting her to refund my retainer, as has my attorney in a separate letter. I've even sent her a demand letter for the money that she owes me back, as she is not on our case anymore, and she refuses to respond or refund my money. I'll be seeing her in small claims court shortly. And she typically works with Susan Wilde who has a positive review here for her. They've known each other for over 25 years, and frequently push their clients to bring the other in to working with the family, an inherent conflict of interest. I find it astonishing that Susan Wilde would actually go ahead and do a positive review for somebody that she has a financial incentive for working with. read more

I hired an expert (psychologist) to review her report and he said she violated NUMEROUS APA ethic codes and court rules. He said he was surprised she was still allowed to have a license. Its very important for you to know that if you give Urdan permission to speak to your collaterals, she will plants seeds of doubt to influence them against you. Do not allow her to speak to anyone in your family, your friends or school staff. I have met with her 7 of her "clients" and they all agree that she lies and then aligns with a psych that she knows like Randy, Rhonda & Susan. File a complaint with BBS. She should not be in this business because she does not help families, she makes all of your lives more miserable - Cash for Conflict! read more

My experience with Alison Urdan was extremely negative. Urdan was involuntarily removed as parenting coordinator from my case by an Alameda County judge after concerns arose regarding her conduct, including what I perceived as an inappropriate level of focus on me and significant bias toward the other party. Throughout my experience, I found her approach inconsistent, unprofessional, and deeply concerning. The experience significantly undermined my confidence in both her judgment and her ability to serve as a neutral parenting coordinator. I strongly recommend that anyone considering her services read the critical reviews available across multiple review platforms and conduct their own careful research. read more

Read the reviews about this poor excuse for a therapist. She is unethical, money hungry and works with whichever party is willing to feed her pocket the most. Since having her our case, we have experienced unprecedented conflict, hostility and tension. Meanwhile she's done literally NOTHING in our case to actually help resolve issues that we were there to address. I've met numerous other families who have worked with her and found her to a corrupt, devastating, and incompetent wolf in sheeps clothing. read more

Alison was a pleasure to work with! She possesses an abundance of common sense, which is rare these days. She is tough, but fair, and does not take sides. It is clear that her only allegiance is to the truth, and to the welfare of the child. Alison is a breath of fresh air after working with the court system, a thoroughly reasonable person in an unreasonable system. read more

Alison is an amazing therapist who truly cares about her clients. She helped me through a very difficult custody dispute. It's exceedingly rare to find a therapist like Alison who supports fathers in the family court process. If you're a father going through a custody battle you should consider yourself very fortunate if you have Alison as your therapist. read more

If you need a parenting coordinator who can cut right through the noise and get straight to the truth, hire Alison. She is incredibly sharp, fair, and does not waste time on unnecessary drama. Her focus remains entirely on what is best for the kids, which helps her find real solutions quickly. I highly recommend her! read more

I Definitely recommend Alison! I'm a father and shes been more than helpful in resolving disputes between myself and my ex. She's very experienced in conflict resolution and can help any parents communicate for the sake of their children. read more