I was a patient of his for over a year, and I think the only thing it made me was worse. It seems like all he cares about is making money, and has no concern whatsoever for his patients. I was diagnosed with an anxiety disorder, and at first he was helpful in diagnosing me and helping me understand what was going on. However, it went downhill from there. It's $220 an hour, so I was expecting to go in there and get tools to help me manage my anxiety. Doesn't seem like a high expectation, does it? Instead, every time I went in, I would try to talk to him about things that I needed help with, and he would interrupt me and ask me questions for 40 minutes about the trivial parts of my life that I didn't need to talk to him about. For example, how my sleep was, how classes were going, if I was having fights with my boyfriend. I didn't need to talk about any of those things, I needed to talk about other things. But he never cared. He just kept interrupting me whenever I would ask him to change the subject to a more relevant topic and he would say "Hold on one minute, I just want to ask you about a couple things". He would talk to me about things like medications I was taking (NOT his job). So he would use up 80% of the time we had basically having a conversation that I could have with anyone else for free, and then in the last ten minutes he would give me reassurance. And for anyone with anxiety disorders, reassurance is not what helps you manage your anxiety. It's the opposite. My boyfriend has taken to calling him the Reassurance Monster, haha.
After a year I got fed up with all of it and told him that I felt like he didn't focus on exposures (the first line treatment for anxiety disorders) and basically didn't do anything therapeutic. He backtracked really fast and told me that if I wanted to still be his patient, we could focus on exposures. It all seemed VERY much like he just wanted money. And at $220 an hour, you're definitely not doing it to help people.
If you have an anxiety disorder and are seeking help, I would really recommend something different than Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, because CBT is very much like one big reassurance machine. Instead, I would look for a therapist who does Acceptance and Commitment Therapy or Dialectical Behavioral Therapy. Both of them are wonders. It's basically the third wave of psychology, and it WORKS.
Another tip I have: don't go to someone just because they have pedigree. Most of the very accomplished psychologists are accomplished because they know a lot of theory, but they don't have any practical experience. The best therapists I've ever had have been licensed therapists, who don't even have a Master's. Because they are there to learn how to treat people, not how to research. Don't be turned away by someone who doesn't have an impressive academic standing, and don't be convinced by someone who has pedigree but feels wrong. read more