Helen Davey, PhD MFT

Dr. Helen Davey is the most professional, kind, helpful and brilliant therapists I have ever encountered.
I have been seeing Helen for over 20 years, on and off (as needed). She has been «with me» through key points in my life: graduating college, getting married, buying our home, the births of my two sons, my horrible post partum, my father’s death, countless marital issues (I claim Helen has saved my marriage at least 8 times), work issues, mommy issues, etc… you get the point. I always walk out feeling stronger, wiser and wide awake.
After hearing about my friend’s experiences with mediocre therapists, I have recommended Helen and as one friend stated, «Going to Helen for one hour equals 10 hours with my OLD therapist!»
There is one other review here and I’m not sure to whom he is referring but it is NOT the Helen I know. She never discuses payment, she doesn’t have a «copier» in her office, I can truly say I have never seen her cross her arms and of ALL the people I know who have received care from Helen, neither have they! But, that is the beauty/​beast of Unilocal :), we leave reviews and potential clients take these reviews into consideration when making their choice. I’m hoping you choose to see Helen. You will walk out stronger, wiser and wide awake.

Helen Davey is very Professional, I find the Review By S R from San Fransico, a blast by someone was sent to Dr Davey via her company! Which could mean she may be unstable. This seems like a personal attack on someone, not a review. I personally know that Dr Davey would never conduct herself in this manner.
She is a thoughtful and kind person.

We heard about Dr. Davey through a group we belong to, researched her on line and chose her for counseling with my wife. She turned out to be a caring individual, very pleasant, knowledgeable and of great help to my wife after four hours of counseling. Her help is well worth traveling from Northern CA to spend time with her. It is hard to find someone that you can connect with so quickly for this kind of help. We were initially concerned about the one and only other Unilocal post about Dr. Davey being so negative but found the post to be over reactive and made by a person bent upon making as many negative posts on Unilocal as possible. Our experience was 180 degrees different.

Helen Davey is most definitely the worst psychotherapist I have ever had the displeasure of encountering.
To be fair, I only had one visit with Ms. Davey. She was highly recommended to me by my employer. It was November of 2001, and I had been having trouble processing the events of 9 – 11 since a number of my coworkers had perished that day (although my family made it out of the WTC Towers safely). Upon meeting her and explaining to her why I was in her office, she took on a rather disturbing posture. She sat back in her chair (moving away from me) crossed her arms defensively, and began to scowl at me with an expression that could best be described as «I’ve already got you all figured out and I don’t have time for this.» Now, I have only seen a few psychotherapists over the years… three, including Helen… but I have never encountered someone in her position who took on such a defensive, closed-​off posture… much less on the first occasion of meeting her. I went home and called my best friend in NY… who is a therapist… and relayed my experience. She said, «Whoa! That is NOT good… especially for someone who has been a therapist as long as she has.» My friend has known me for so long, and she is always the first to let me know if I’m not being objective, so I felt a sense of relief that it wasn’t just me who found Davey’s behavior very telling.
I was very open and optimistic about seeking therapy from Ms. Davey, until she closed herself off so defensively. Body language speaks volumes if you pay attention and have learned how to interpret what someones physical behavior means. I mentioned the defensive posture to Ms. Davy, moments after she moved into it, and told her that if she was going to close herself off physically she wouldn’t be able to offer me any objective therapy. She became visibly nervous and appeared to be a little embarrassed that I verbalized her inner thoughts for her. Apparently, she did not appreciate my candor. She clearly could not believe I was calling her out… even though I was very polite and not at all confrontational. I genuinely wanted to know, because I was there to seek her help. I wanted to get past my anguish and begin to heal. I knew this would take time, and I was willing to put in the effort. Davey wasn’t.
Anyway, it quickly became clear that… for whatever reason… Ms. Davey did not like my personality. I was a little shocked, because I have had such close and healing experiences with two previous therapists. I didn’t consider that I would find one that would be so closed off, especially in an introductory meeting, and I found it hard to register that someone could come across as so callous to the recent terrorist attacks and how they have affected those people who lost loved ones or co-​workers. Davey also seemed very concerned about how I was going to pay for the appointment. Hmmm… let’s see… I’m employed full-​time, with an enormous corporation for whom I have worked for over 10 years, that gives me extraordinary health care benefits… including psychotherapy. All of this information she had in my chart… which I watched her review…& the breakdown of coverage was on my insurance card that she examined & copied when I entered her office.
I decided to give Davey some time, in hopes that she might open up and begin to listen, but after 30 minutes, it was clear to me that Ms. Davey was not going to be the kind of objective therapist for which I was looking. I told her so, explained the reasons why, and I cut the visit short. She then mentioned that I would be charged for the entire session, and how could she know if she would ever be able to collect payment from me. I wrote her a check for the entire amount of the visit and told her that I would file the claim myself, just so she wouldn’t have to be troubled. It was the first time she appeared «pleased» during my 40 minutes with her.
I did go back to the executive at my company who had recommended Helen Davey. He was floored to hear about my experience and very apologetic. He agreed that her behavior was odd for a therapist. He should know something about appropriate professional behavior as he was a psychotherapist himself before he went into corporate leadership. Needless to say, all of Helen Davey’s business cards went into his waste basket that day and he thanked me for coming back to relate my experience. He found it especially offensive that she questioned… during my therapy time… how I was going to pay for my appointment. He stated that should have been handled during the appointment phone call or immediately when I walked in the door, and she should have never expressed a concern about being able to «collect money» from me.
For these reasons, I cannot recommend Helen Davey as a psychotherapist. If you choose to seek her out I hope she at least gives you the benefit of the full appointment for which you are paying BEFORE she jumps to judgment.