I would highly recommend Dr. Skelton to anyone who wants the most honest, authentic and competent mental health professional they can for their child. He helped my son through a terrible time in his life. Although I would have been willing to continue bringing my son to him, as I saw the good it was doing, Dr. Skelton was so honorable that he told me that my son didn't need to be seen anymore. He left me with good advice going forward and an open door if I ever needed it. He gave up a hefty monthly fee as he was being honest and authentic. It would have been easy for him to keep us going and making good money. But he didn't. He is professional and an upstanding man. I personally feel that any negative comments on here are unwarranted and unfair. I would recommend Dr. Skelton to anyone and stand by that. He changed my sons life in a matter of months. The fact that he told us that we didn't need to come or pay for session a anymore spoke volumes to me. He is honest and truly cares. Plus, he was right! My son is now thriving at school, making new friends, secure in himself and happy. The only thing lacking in his life are his sessions with Jay! He truly developed a bond with him and is often keen to "fill Jay in" on how he is doing. Dr. Skelton left us saying that if we ever needed to call him for advice that he would always be there. I believe that and will call him if I ever need it. I am so thankful to have met such an honorable and talented child whisperer! P..S. Please remember that this forum includes all parties. I have a feeling that any negative remarks on Yelp were made by parents who just didn't like hearing the truth. It's easy to blame others. It's much harder to look yourself in the mirror and own the truth. Dr Skelton is so upfront that he calls it how it is. That's important. The only way to allow your kids to heal is to listen without defensiveness and to make changes that are recommended. Recommended by Dr. Skelton, because he knows what he is doing. Thank you Jay for all you have done. read more

My family and I have been seeing Dr. Skelton for close to a decade and he has been phenomenal in his care and attention to my kids and our often complex and delicate co-parenting issues. I've happily recommended him to a number of families over the years! read more

My family continues to see Jay and he has helped my relationship with my daughter tremendously. Also, my daughter has continued to mature into a self confident, relaxed young woman. I am very grateful to Jay. My original review continues to be on point and I need to say that the guy John who is saying horrible things about Jay has mental/emotional issues. He found my phone number and has harassed me to take down my review of Jay to the point where I had to block him on my phone and all social media. Please look past his review. read more

It is unfortunate that anyone would try to disparage Dr Skelton. My family and I saw him about 13 years ago. He helped us navigate a horrible court experience in the most caring, sensible and utmost integrity that we could ever expect. Even 13 years later, he is on my mind and in my heart as one of the most impactful therapists we have ever had. I can't say enough about him. Whether he is "over-worked by the courts" as one review wrote or not. The time you have with him is unbelievably impactful if you come to him with the best intentions and a sincere desire to help your children and your family. While my story did not end well (I battled my ex-husband in court for 13 years- Dr Skelton couldn't, in good conscience continue to be our therapist given the hostility of my ex-husband), I can't say enough about Dr Skelton. I miss him as our therapists and know that we all benefited immensely from his expert guidance and genuine care for his patients. Please do not listen to anyone who has anything negative to say. While I am not sure of their experience or circumstances in most likely a highly emotional situation, I just can't listen to anyone saying anything bad about such a wonderful therapist. Do yourself a favor and book an appointment. read more

Dr. Jay Skelton is a skilled therapist who worked with my children and family. It was the best investment of time, energy, and money I have ever made. He was instrumental in the development of my children and I am very grateful for his care. read more

During a contentious custody battle it was determined that my son had to change therapist to court appointed (Dr. Skelton) because both parents had not chosen the first one. At first I was furious - why change therapists? So I came into the process thinking that a court appointed doctor would be horrible. But it was the BEST thing to ever happen to my family! I was so impressed by Dr. Skelton, he met with both parents individually to get a sense of the child and family dynamics. Then he continued to meet with my son at first weekly and then bi-weekly making sure that he was always available to my son should he need to talk to someone. It was Dr. Skelton who recommended that once my son was doing well that the amount of times he visited him be decreased - Dr. Skelton was always in tune with the appropriate amount of support we all needed. He is kind, calm, smart, funny and supportive person. I credit Dr. Skelton as part of the reason my son is so successful today. read more

This is cautionary statement in the strongest terms. Do not, no matter what person within the family court system suggests, entrust your child's psychological health to this man. Jay Skelton has apparently enjoyed an untarnished reputation in the eyes of the Marin family court system for years and judges consider him their go-to guy for child therapy. So much so that he has far too great a caseload, is overworked, and simply takes on too much. This may be part of the reason why he has been reported by parents to fall asleep in his child-client sessions. Jay is a likable guy. He presents well, and he says all the right things to suggest that he is a competent and caring therapist who should be trusted to treat your child. I believe he really cares about kids and helping them through the therapeutic process. However, there are serious moral and ethical concerns, evidence of incompetence, and significant boundary issues. In my own experience, I believe some of his reticence to take appropriate action to protect a child was motivated by his anticipated loss of substantial income from court-ordered, long-term child therapy. I have personally spoken to a number of families who have shared their profound disappointment in his conduct and inaction, three of which removed their children from his care - one after very disturbing circumstances. His tendency not to return parent phone calls for up to 10 days is well-known to those who have worked with him, as well as to other professionals in the Marin County psychological community. As a parent, trying to work with Jay was an arduous undertaking that at times exhausted me and left me feeling hopeless. He required constant monitoring, repeated requests for follow-up and status reports, repeated reminders for him to come through with things he said he was going to do or implement in his treatment. On repeated occasions, just when it appeared he was going to act on behalf of my child he would get weak knees, talk about his fears, and return to business as usual. He lacked conviction and vacillated continuously on his expressed views and prognosis of my child. To some degree, I felt as though this was in part due to his inability to keep the facts straight and separate one case history from another. It was as though cases became blurred in his mind and he needed correcting and redirecting, constantly. All of this is not to say he does not have skill. He does. But his ability to apply his skills and help child clients has been handicapped by a number of concerns, not the least of which are his own serious personal problems that have bled into his practice and compromised his ability to be effective. In my own experience, he continually contradicted himself, going from one extreme to another, never followed up when asked to, required unreasonable oversight, but never actually took any action on behalf of my child. He showed extremely poor boundaries in his practice, introduced his own personal life problems into child client sessions, including information that was traumatic. He permitted blatant psychological and emotional abuse to continue in a household where my child spent half the custodial time, and he utterly failed as an adequate support system in three cases I personally know of. It should be telling that after 8 years of therapy with Jay and tens of thousands of dollars paid to him, my child is significantly worse off today then when therapy began at his office. I was counseled by two of the top child psychologists in the county to remove my child from his care, and they, too, confirmed they were aware of reports similar to my own experience. I followed their advice. I am sure that there was a day when Jay operated a good and effective practice. But I firmly believe those days are a thing of the past. read more

Dr. Skelton is one of the most highly respected and recommended mental health professionals in Marin County for a reason -- he is, quite simply, one of (if not) the best. Highly ethical and professional, always calm and balanced, he is a consummate clinician. I have never known him to lose his temper or raise his voice, as one of the reviews alleges. (What I do know, is that angry people often project their own anger on to others and perceive that others are yelling at them.) I have known him to be honest -- always. I would encourage anyone thinking about consulting with Dr. Skelton to consider the circumstances of those who are posting negative reviews and how those circumstances influence the reviews. Those who have given 1-star reviews are/were in high-conflict divorces with custody issues and the reviews suggest that the reviewers came out on what they perceive to be the wrong side of custody decisions. So, rather than consider what they themselves contribute to the situation, they demonize Jay. In the 6 years that my children have been working with Dr. Skelton, he has remained an advocate for them. I consider his support a gift and I believe anyone who wants what's best for their children would as well. read more

This post is particularly important for parents to read before sending their children to Skelton: I had a terrible experience with Dr. Skelton when I was a 14 years-old patient, though I had been seeing him on and off for about 6 years, at that point. My parents were divorced and though they shared custody for several years, the catalyst for this new set of sessions was my dad being awarded full custody. I am now 20 years-old (and going into my junior year at college) yet, even now after all of these years, it's still extremely haunting to think of the hell that that man put me through. Skelton was a family counselor for my father & I; I saw him privately and had sessions where my dad was included. Atypically, I was the one who requested therapy for myself, not my parents, so it wasn't the typical childhood behavioral issues that brought me in. Quite the contrary--I was an unusually good kid with parents who were self-destructive & narcissistic, a conclusion with which Skelton had agreed. I used to tape my sessions so I could listen to his advice in between sessions (my idea). During 1 of my last sessions, I immediately knew that something was off with him. The session was supposed to be broken into into 2 halves-he & I would talk alone for the 1st half and my father would join us for the 2nd half. Skelton appeared as if he'd fallen asleep in his chair. Not only were his eyes periodically closing, but he was also physically FALLING off the chair, essentially nodding off during our session, and one that had promised to be a crucial for me. Yet, I was only 14 and had trusted him implicitly and thus didn't question this weird behavior. However, when my father joined us, he wasn't there more than 5 minutes before he asked me to leave the room so he could (I later found out) confront Skelton about his demeanor & conduct. Apparently, Skelton made some asinine excuse about cold medicine as his defense. I have taken cold medicine and, while it can make you drowsy, you don't appear drugged to the world around you. Also, that excuse presupposes that though he was a grown man, he'd had NO experience with over-the-counter cold medicine until this day and had no way of knowing it's creepy side effects. Unlikely. Now, looking back, he looked like he was auditioning for a role as a junkie who'd just "used." If it wasn't so stunning to my 14-year-old self, it would have been funny. My first thought was, "so let me get this straight: my therapist is a drug addict who, occasionally, "uses" during sessions?!?!?" When my father and I went back the following week, I again went in to his office alone first, expecting to go over the fine points of the aborted session from last week, and having my father join us for the 2nd half . Instead, for the first time, Skelton insisted I turn off my tape recorder (which I'd been bringing to practically every single session). Once I complied, he declared a complete reversal of a position he had taken for months about my family situation. Later, I realized that of course his sudden "about face" made perfect sense. He 'd originally planned to take an unpopular stance and defend me to my father who he'd concluded was behaving irresponsibly and immaturely. However, now, having to choose between being popular with an adult or child, why would he deliberately alienate the adult who, a week prior had been horrified by his drugged out, falling-out-of-his-chair self? Of course, he would reverse his position, insist I not tape this session, and try to recover from the image and reputation damaging prior session. This session was now all about him. I never went back to see him again, but the havoc he wrought on me emotionally took years to overcome I can understand how many people find him charming, friendly ("call me Jay") . With the benefit of hindsight and ciritical thinking skills, I can say that even before this particular incident occurred, he was, unimaginative, manipulative, indifferent, resolutely opinionated and psychologically unsophisticated. I have no real axe to grind here--I'm not a spurned parent in the midst of a contentious divorce, who didn't get the ruling I was hoping for. This is not written in bitterness and, in fact, I might have written this type of review a few years ago had I known these types of sites actually existed. Strangely, most of his practice is due to his unseemly cozy relationship with the Marin County Family Court system. Marin County is not lacking in dedicated, professional, qualified therapists. I can't imagine why anyone would deliberately seek this man out. read more

Very few situations are more emotional, polarizing, and draining than a high conflict divorce with children involved. We began seeing Dr. Skelton after moving to Novato during the fourth year of such proceedings. He was supportive and helpful to the adolescents and adults in dealing with co-parenting, absentee parent, custody plan, blended family and other issues. I found him to remain calm and balanced at all times, and to provide useful, insightful counsel that reduced the emotional damage, supported mutual respect at all times, and helped the adults and children form stable foundations for moving forward in their lives. read more

Jay Skelton caused great distress in my life - and only now , years later -when he has been out of our lives and we are out of the Court system, do i feel safe from his unprofessional and unethical behavior. He takes very strong positions and is unwilling to compromise - or work with families. He refused to communicate with me - but communicated closely with the other parent. I felt powerless over my child's life. He profited handsomely off of my child and he took advantage of the other parent's willingness to keep paying him; I know this caused financial distress for the other parent. If you are in a custody battle I would urge you to seek another psychologist. read more

Would never recommend this clinician as a special master. My experience with my two boys was horrific.