Dr Bob is absolutely wonderful. I had been in the hospital and respite care for ages and afterwards…read moreneeded a solid therapist who could also be adaptable for my needs which included a history of family alcohol abuse and ACOA Adult Children of Alcoholics issues which includes both substance abuse, which can seem obvious, but also the more insidious things like Over Eating to the point of touching on Food Disorders. I played the ACOA Adult Children of Alcoholics Role of The Lost Child (and a little bit of The Mascot, cuteness was always on my side, clowning, not exactly.) Dr. Bob definitely has a gift working with folks who are either/both the Alcohol Addict aka Alcoholic as well as the Family Members and now Adult Family members. If you're struggling with your weight, even to the point of Obesity (for such folks as might be looking at Chapman's Bariatric Weight Loss Surgery program), there is typically an emotional component and JUST dieting or doing WLS alone without also addressing the mental/emotional components with great therapy with someone terrifically experienced like Dr. Bob is only to equip yourself half way.
I'd addressed them before for years and had done a tone of highly useful and effective personal work on these already with the 12 Step Programs and others, and found I now needed deeper work on another layer of the onion.
How I Found Dr. Bob:
My primary medical doctor, who is down the block from him, didn't cite him. His process was to refer me to a Psychiatrist who would then secondarily refer. The first Dr could not even see me. The second, based miles away from me, all the way across Orange County, himself couldn't see me for over 6 months and instead had an offer for me to see a Nurse (I don't remember her credentials title...). I made the appointment. At the time I had a physical exhaustion thing going on (for which I had originally been hospitalized) and couldn't drive myself across the county to the Dr.'s appointment. More than a week prior to the appointment, my OC Access privileges (van ride for the disabled 2 hrs before the appointment) hadn't kicked in yet, so I called to reschedule.
More than a week before! And the receptionist gave me grief over it, that they could have scheduled others for the appointment. Then after she accepted my cancellation, telling her I needed to reschedule do to issues with my disability, she informed me that first time patients who canceled attempting to reschedule, the Dr. had the policy to refuse to take them then. I still need to report them for not accommodating my recognized disability, but I then was back to the drawing board. My primary care Dr. had no one else to whom to refer me, so I was stuck.
However, I had been in and out of the ER at Chapman with the chronic bronchitis which Kindred Santa Ana had sent me home with no prescriptions to assist me, and at Chapman, they'd given me a print out of other services referrals. There was a Psychology category. Bob was in it and his office was less than 1 mile from home. I phoned and texted with him, and he got me into his office for a MUCH needed first session in under 1 week. SO much better than everywhere else where the staff was more concerned with business and nothing for being a HELPING service. Dr. Bob has always combined being very professional with his caring and therapeutic agility.
While we were at it, a couples therapy issue also surfaced and is a recurring theme, and my partner was amendable to JUST ONE session with a therapist because he had formerly had some negative experiences with couples therapists who charged a ton and apparently didn't really listen. Well, Bob listens and it's obvious he does. My partner really liked him and in our session with him and some reflection on his part and then a new negotiation between us, we turned a corner. We still had months to work on it and live it out (the homework of life, right?).
Bob really listens and reflects on what's going on with me (you) without trotting out anything too Psychology school specific (Freud, Jung, Gestalt, etc.). He's very easy to talk with and quite wise with a warm disposition.
He drinks a small coffee as do I during my weekly session with him. So, you know he's also human!
I highly recommend him to individuals and couples. He's terrific.