I would give Dr. Kerner, and his staff, 100 stars if I could. Dr. Kerner worked with my family in…read morea very challenging and complicated custody case. Custody disputes are often long, emotionally draining, weighty, scary, wrought with uncertainly and conflict, and likely one of the most challenging experiences any parent will endure with regards to their child(ren). During such a crisis, people need compassion, caring, understanding, and to know that professionals handling the custody evaluation have it together, can be counted on, and will ultimately make decisions in the best interest of the child(ren). Custody disputes are bad enough, adding the stress of incompetent evaluators could be absolute crazy-making. That is why I strongly recommend Dr. Michael Kerner should you need a custody evaluator. Administratively, his office is run professionally, they respond to communications promptly and with care, they work well with attorneys as well as parents, they are on time with appointments, follow-up with contacts, help coordinate home/school visits, keep you informed about where in the process you are, and most importantly, try their best to complete each evaluation in 60 days. My attorney has clients waiting almost a YEAR for the completion of a basic evaluation! I can not imagine the added stress that would cause in an already strained situation! Dr. Kerner's reports are very thorough, well researched and written, complete, and leave no stone unturned. His recommendations for visitation is fair, unbiased, and always what is truly in the best interest of the child(ren) in question. Dr. Kerner and his staff made going through this stressful experience as manageable as possible. I always felt listened to, trusted Dr. Kerner's observations, and was impressed with his interactions with my young child. Dr. Kerner is an astute man, with significant practical experience and a CV that would impress anyone. More than his work accomplishments, his gentle and approachable nature make him easy to talk to. He was well received by all of those in my family who had the opportunity to speak with him. Dr. Kerner, with his 25+ years of experience in custody work, truly knows what to look for in terms of family relationships. He understands what familial behaviors are most damaging to children and he can identify red-flags in such a way that a less experiences evaluator might miss. Dr. Kerner saw patterns and identified issues without having to be told about them, as his extensive experience gave him so much insight. In all custody situations, there will be one party that will be pleased with an outcome, and one party that will be less than pleased. I was impressed with the compassion that Dr. Kerner showed to me and to my child's father throughout this process. He made no assumptions about us and allowed us to tell him what was going on, from our own experiences. He made a recommendation to the court based on what he saw and learned, not on what I wanted or my former partner wanted, but what was best for our child. Dr. Kerner was asked to testify in court for our case and he was prompt, professional, and articulate when taking the stand. The judge appreciated his extensive background and expertise and truly listened to his reasoning for coming to his recommendation. His concrete knowledge of current case law allows him to understand how his recommendations will be read and interpreted by the courts. This legal familiarity is a tremendous asset while navigating the court process. Though not the most economical of evaluators out there, he provided the best possible service one could ask for. The adage of "you get what you pay for" rings true here. Dr. Kerner and his staff seem incapable of a half-assed job, and go above and beyond to get it right. If you find yourself in a custody challenge, isn't knowing that the most experienced professional possible will determine and recommend what is truly in the best interest of your child(ren) worth any cost? I think so, and in fact, I can't think of anything worth more. I recommend Dr. Michael Kerner whole-heartedly and without hesitation.

One year post trial update: After paying his trial appearance costs in addition to the exorbitant…read more $40+ k child custody evaluation openly paid by my former spouse, I am giving no stars to this evaluator. Not only do I think he got his evaluation wrong. It appeared he had no recollection of viewing the critical child abuse videos that were highly critical material in his evaluation which went entirely overlooked. In my opinion he's strictly motivated by money (who is paying his bill) and not in doing what's in the best interest of the child. It should also be duly noted that he would repeatedly ask me the same questions, and he took what my collateral contact (my brother) said and twisted it around to make it sound like my brother only said horrible things about me and omitted the complimentary things my brother said. Now my brother is going through something I am not at liberty to discuss, and I'm not clear how Dr. Kerner only extrapolated something horribly negative from my brother's interview, but I have come to believe Dr. Kerner has serious problems with his personality and he would be perfectly fine to destroy a sibling relationship with twisting around what he was told because of whatever weird malicious personality problem he himself appeared to demonstrate. Who would cavalierly try to destroy a brother and sister's relationship by painting a vicious attack on me by my own brother? He refused to interview my other brother. Run for the hills from this clinic.

The counseling/therapy profession is a very challenging career that deals with an array of delicate…read moreand emotionally charged issues. It takes a special person to enter this occupation. Marcia Clark represents everything a therapist should be. In addition to being a competent professional, she is an individual with great integrity, compassion, patience, care, and a pleasant sense of humor. She loves her job and ALWAYS wants to act in the best interest of her patients/ clients. She pours her heart and soul into each case. What saddens me is to read some of the complete untruths that have been posted by certain individuals to taint the character of an exceptionally brilliant and caring professional. Any person would be extremely fortunate to be working with Marcia, yet there are people who post damaging comments that are 100% false. I have had the gift of working with Marcia on many levels, and I cannot say enough good things about this woman. There is NO ONE I would trust more to help me resolve my personal issues nor anyone I would trust more to work with my children than Marcia Clark. She is one dynamic and loving therapist who demonstrates professionalism and empathy to the nth degree. So grateful to have you amongst our community to help families navigate through challenging times in our lives.

It's difficult to write about my experience in the family court system, and it would be far easier…read moreto put everything behind me. The problem is that allows destructive people to just keep on hurting others. Marcia Clark is one of those destructive people and it's only ethical that I warn others. The short version is that Marcia Clark is unethical, unprofessional, not the brightest and tries to keep the money coming in at the expense of children. She forces damaging conversations on the children, brings her own problems into meetings and required any in-person meetings during shutdown be held without masks. Imagine that - to see my child in person I had to agree to forgo safety for him. She is simply a bad person and should be avoided. Marcia Clark was handed the job of reconnection therapist for my family. She did everything she could to keep my nine year old son and I apart. As often happens in these situations, my wife was using our son as an emotional hostage. Part of the job of the therapist is to get people past that stage. Instead, Marcia ran with it like it was an opportunity. I had been my son's primary caregiver for some time, but Marcia saw no problem in keeping us separated with no explanation or reason given to my son or myself. When we started sessions I had been separated from my son for a month. When I asked when he could start spending nights with me, she said it could be months to visit in-person and a year to reconnect but she couldn't explain what she wanted to see. Marcia Clark just knew it would take quite some time and she was there to help! And get paid, of course. From the start she tried to insert herself in an intrusive and unprofessional manner in my relationship with my son. She would try to drive every conversation to talk about drinking, constantly berating me to do this. It got to the point my son started crying about it when he and I talked alone during video conferencing. We planned that I would quickly bring it up and then drop the subject so he didn't get so upset. I spoke with two professionals about this at the time, and they were both aghast. It has had an incredibly damaging and lasting effect on my son. And I couldn't do anything about it because of Marcia Clark. Marcia Clark was willing to prescribe a year long reconnection process for a one month separation. Marcia Clark persuaded my wife to contest any increase in time between my son and myself, and would turn away entreaties from my son and I for unsupervised time. There was never any reason for supervision excepting Marcia Clark wanting to get paid. Because of Marcia's weirdness about contact between my son and myself, my son started going behind his mom's back to video call me on Discord every evening. We weren't supposed to do so, but we talked every day for an hour or more and still Marcia wouldn't increase the official time available. My son would constantly cry to me about Marcia having to be around. He couldn't even stand to look at her, didn't answer her questions unless forced and she simply never noticed. She brings that same level of awareness to everything she does. Marcia Clark thought she had a good relationship with my son and myself. She's pretty dumb and says outrageously silly things. We got along because I'd agree with whatever she said. After some communication with Marcia, I'm pretty certain she's unaware of this dynamic in her practice; she - undeservedly - holds key parts of a child's life in her hands and people will try to get along with her and she simply doesn't get it.

What can I say about New Beginnings Family Services? Nothing but praises and gratitude. I have had…read morethe privilege of calling on New Beginnings for various events in my life for 5 years now, and everytime I am grateful for the resources given. A small organization whose fearless leader Jennifer and team are diligently fighting for the rights of parents. You would think. that would be enough of a blessing to the community but they go beyond just Family Services and into advocating for the unhoused, the elderly, the immigrant, the post incarcerated, and many many more. How this organization has not been recognized for the dedication and hard work they do is beyond me, but I thank you again Jenniffer for all you do to make our community a better place. Highly Recommend

Aim Higher Adult Day Program in San Jose is amazing. My son has been attending for over a year now,…read moreand we are so happy with the program and staff. They have educational activities where he learns self-help skills to be more independent, and fun outings. The staff really care about my son and his needs. I toured more than 10 different day programs before deciding on Aim Higher. It is clean, well-organized, professional, and caring. I highly recommend them.

My experience with Aim Higher on Great Oaks Blvd was extremely disappointing…read more The Director confirmed my son's admission, and I have email confirmation documenting this. I was then asked to complete the required TB test and paperwork with his doctor, which I did. I even scheduled an appointment with my son's PCP and completed the requested requirements. My son's case manager was more than willing to complete the POS. However, after I had already completed everything requested of me, the Director suddenly decided not to admit my son -- without notifying me directly. I followed up by email multiple times seeking clarification, but none of my emails were answered. What is especially concerning is that this involves a special-needs adult and a family who had already invested time, effort, and resources based on an admission that had been confirmed. If an organization decides not to provide services after previously confirming admission, the least they can do is communicate that decision professionally and promptly. Unfortunately, in my experience, instead of providing an explanation or having a professional conversation, I was simply ghosted. Families of special-needs adults deserve better communication, transparency, and respect.

I had been to this program back some years ago. When my family member called Lori Johnson she…read moregladly took her overpriced program fees . She had a drug addict coming off her drugs in the house when she should have been in a hospital or under a doctor's care. Did lori care- no. The house is 8 to a small room for 3 or 4 at most. When I decided to leave of house she kept my mother's money who is 98 now. Lori don't care about the person she cares about money first and after 30 days u are on ur own. The toilet had no toilet paper and her house is full of cockroaches like her counselors whom she cheats out of money. I would run from her so called recovery house.

Amicus house broke HIPPA laws while I was there. They fed me rotten food after roaches crawled on…read moreit. They tricked me into stating when my judge said I was free to go. They violated many of my human rights and they are not good people. Please don't let your family members suffer here. They would not call the ambulance when my friend was suffering. They cashed food stamps after my other friend left. They made me "find god" in order to move through the program. i was not safe there. Another resident was stealing knives then wandering around at night. I was afraid for my life but didn't report anything because I was court ordered to be there.

The therapist told us on the first day that she didn't care if we stayed married. Even though we…read moretold her that was our goal. A therapist should help you achieve your goals and at no point did she make an effort to help us work towards that. She also lied and told me one thing and then in a separate session with my husband told him something else. She was also trying to see myself and my husband individually outside of our marriage counseling which I have had confirmed from other psychologists that doing so is incredibly unethical. So I suppose if you want an unethical therapist that doesn't care about your goals and lies, then Melissa is the therapist for you

Nick is a great and talented therapist. He has the ability to work with any population. He has a…read morebag of skills as a therapist that is unmatched. I would refer any friend or family to Nick without hesitation!

Support systems was a life changer for me. From the minute I got there, I was treated so gently and…read morecared for. The Staff is amazing. The counselors are great. My Counselor Georgia worked with my beliefs and nothing was pressured. She was amazing. When she wasn't there, Judy was always willing to listen to me with Years of knowledge and Wisdom. The Groups led by Donna, Judy, Georgia, Dawn, Henry and the Interns were always different with lots of Tools to help you. Russ and Jeff were super helpful in my process. Nurse Dawn did more than just Medical. She was like another Counselor to me. The night peeps are amazing as well. They make it very comfortable and are so good to us. The food... OMG, we ate Gourmet food every day. CHEF Felix is Amazing. Yes, CHEF. He even made us Sushi. I recommend SSH to anyone looking for addiction support.

The staff here are great! They're very knowledgeable and give great advice and support for…read morerecovery. Felix is the chef and the food is absolutely amazing. It's a great facility if you are looking for help with recovery. Highly recommended.

While I did find Mary to be just as knowledgeable and passionate as many other reviewers here,…read moreworking with her didn't turn out to be the best fit for my family. There are a few things that I wish I had known from the beginning, so I thought it might be helpful to share them with other families who are interested in the center: -at this point, fall of 2019, it doesn't seem that there is anyone else working at the center-some reviews mentioned a team of people, so I'm guessing that might have been in years past -because of Mary's delicate immune system, she requested that we cancel sessions if anyone in our family had any signs of illness, such as a runny nose. With my family, this was problematic, as I have a younger son too and work with children in my own work, so we ended up missing quite a few sessions even in the first month -communication about scheduling, superbills, etc can be challenging. Overall, I wish that these issues had not cropped up, as I definitely had the feeling that Mary has a lot to offer her clients and she also can be supportive of parents as well, with parenting tips if they are wanted.

We went to Simoneon for our daughter's AIT (Auditory Integration Training). She was very sensitive…read moreand afraid of harsh and loud sounds. Ms Mary explained us the entire theory of AIT, how to relate the audiogram and the perceived apprehensive sounds, gave us books on the topics, explained us what to expect of AIT. She also explained us how some of these sounds would cause pain in the child's ears and affect them emotionally to develop into a fear of sound. During the entire two week period, Mary was very caring and courteous to our daughter. Apart from the training, helped my daughter get over the fears with a very practical approach making her clean using a silent vacuum cleaner etc. She has given us practical tips of how to eliminate the fear by gradually exposing to attenuated sounds and increasing the intensity etc. the highlight of the entire Training process was the care with which Ms Mary approached and made my child feel comfortable