Mental Health Professionals - Bethesda, MD

"I felt compelled to review this woman after a one-time phone appt with her. I called and had a brief phone session, in order to go forward with couples counseling for myself and my partner of 4 years, my live-in boyfriend, with whom I share a 2 year old son. There is no abuse or any other major issues present in my relationship; I was simply seeking basic couples counseling for some very general, generic issues. From the start of the conversation, Dr. Kimmel was strained in her tone and manner, sounding very tight with her voice and pausing an extreme length of time to choose her words very carefully. She also sounded, for lack of a better way to put it, a hundred years old, like an elderly lady who had smoked for way too many years, perhaps. I continued on, though, and was polite and well-spoken for the duration of the phone appt. I said nothing alarming, simply stated that my significant other and I needed counseling due to frequent arguments, some strain over medical conditions, and financial differences. Very run of the mill stuff in terms of couples therapy. The only thing this dr had to offer was 2 or 3 comments mentioning that she was somehow disturbed and saddened that I had a 2 year old son (???) and that our situation "sounded sad" for our child and therefore she "would not be able to help" us--at all. I was stunned and tongue-tied. I had said nothing even remotely strange or scary and other than not being officially married to my partner I cannot imagine why this woman, who works as a couples counselor, would flatly refuse and reject me and my partner based solely on having a child. Does this woman not ever encounter ANY couples who have children?! That seems unlikely! She made it clear her SOLE reason for refusing to take us as clients was the fact that we had a child. I am baffled. If you have children, this is clearly NOT the dr for you. Really, seriously odd."

"She's very nice, but she kept falling asleep during my sessions with her.. I felt like she judged me for some of the choices I've made in my life She's not very understanding when it comes to people who are looking for help/don't have a plan yet/already using every bit of courage to seek help - she seems to work best with people who already know what they want and need a sounding board"