Pedro Guimaraes,MD

I don’t have a bad word to say. I feel safe & comfortable there. And the office staff is top notch. Thank you

I can’t remember ever being treat worse in general. First of all, you barely ever get to talk to Dr. Guimaraes. He must either not spend time with patients by choice or picks only a very select few. So, if you really want to see «The Psychiatrist» you better have an inside invitation, offer to pay alot more (That might do it — Money talks in this office), or have a connection. I had to request his participation twice before I saw him at all and then he spent maybe 5 – 10 minutes. He seems smart and seems to know his stuff but he won’t talk to the patients or at least not to me. You end up seeing his NP — Mary Meiselman. She is ALWAYS late even if you are the very first appointment first of all. Wouldn’t you think that a Psych office would try to keep close to on time with patients that have issues to start with? Second, she is always in a rush, never prepared in knowing your situation, and simply does not seem to care or want to listen. Then the Kicker! I recently went off my Company insurance and on to Medicare. I have a very top notch supplement F program with United Health Care through AARP. After my appointment the other day they informed me that they would not accept my insurance anymore and I would have to pay alot of CASH each visit or go elsewhere with no recommendations. ARE YOU KIDDING? Any and All AARP Members and elderly folks in general should avoid and boycott this office as I will now and always. Just being Honest!

It really disappoints me that there are so many negative reviews about this place because I am seen every 2 weeks and I have NEVER had any such nasty experiences that previous reviewers have reported! I was treated with so much care and kindness and treated fairly by everyone I spoke to in the office.
I called and needed an appointment and i got in the same week that I called, and yes you are seen by both Dr. G & a PA, R, N or NP and after being seen by a few of the providers there, I have no complaints! It’s not like they go in blind. They are all under Dr. G, and you have to understand the only kind of providers that actually NEED an M. D with them, is an R.N. and they all have been trained in the field so I really don’t get what the big deal is. They all were very understanding and not in anyway «pill pushers.» They take the time to listen to your wants and needs and respect your decisions regarding your care as long as you speak up about the kind of care you would like to receive. Most other providers in this area, get you in and out and don’t take their time with you and actually get to know you on a personal level. If you don’t speak up and tell them Hey i’m not comfortable taking x kind of med, can we try something else” Instead of just automatically complaining that it is a bad business… their job is to make you better, and since society looks down so much on mental health, the only people left to make it an important staple is the providers and patients themselves, so by down talking providers for doing their job, that is less funding and access for those of us WHO NEED MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES.
Plus, psychiatry gets knocked down in my opinion just because some people abuse mental health services and ruin it for the ones who need care. Those who are looking for a way to get their fix of meds through this route since primary care won’t give it to them, and then they go on review things like this and complain because the psychiatrists are doing their jobs correctly and doing their best to keep the patient wants/​needs in mind without breaking the bank, not just prescribing hardcore meds up the ying yang to fill their pockets, because it really doesn’t work that way anyway…
anyways…
The office itself is VERY nice, beautifully decorated and one of the providers office’s always smells like cookies, so sorry if you just hate cookies this place is not the place for you… lol.
Regarding the meds that I was prescribed, any time I ever had a problem, If i ever had one, I was able to get in for an emergency apt/​or talk to a provider over the phone about my med issue without hassle. And for those of you complaining about the meds prescribed, do your research more thoroughly. Just because they give you a non psych med doesn’t mean it won’t help your problem. Lots of meds have side effects that will help certain psych issues. And also, please GOOGLE IS NOT A PROFESSIONAL. For ex. Prazosin is a hypertensive med, but the side effect is it effects dreaming/​sleep So if you are having nightmares, boom! Take this instead, which is cheaper anyway than a psych med since so many insurances hardly cover psych services anyway. You won’t necessarily find that on google right away, it takes some digging and accredited research. Google and wiki are not and should not be your dr. You should be thankful there are people willing to go into this literally crazy field and going around the bush to HELP YOU instead of ripping into your wallet. Like I said, people that go into this field are definitely not here for the money…
Regarding the Billing… I mean its common sense people, ALL THE FEES ARE OUTLINED IN THE NEW PATIENT PAPERWORK so by signing the documents you are agreeing to be responsible for any of the fees you procure, so by saying that you got charged x amount etc etc it’s probably because you never gave them the correct insurance info at the initial appt, forgot to pay your copay, or not cancelling your appt atleast 24 hours in advance. Sounds like simple company policy to me, and I believe anywhere else you go, the policies will be similar anyway. They have an entire page just regarding their prices and fees and there are signs in the office, so by saying «Oh i didn’t know there would be fees» is ignorance on your part, not the business…
Being in the psychology field myself I know some of the things that go on in the background and I think a lot of the other reviewers are forgetting that no one is perfect and a lot of people do not understand the difference between psychiatry (medicine) vs Therapy/​Psychology (talk therapy, etc. If you are not wanting pills at all, then don’t come to a psychiatrist… that plain and simple.
P.S neglecting your mental health care just because someone at a front desk who all they do is make your appt, not really having to do anything with your actual CARE shouldn’t deflect you away from seeking services because you are just feeding society’s negativity about mental health.

First of all, the website is completely misleading. They claim to address the biopsychosocial spiritual model, but in all actuality, they are a run of the mill psychiatrist office that is more interested in writing scripts than actually treating patients.
My appointment was NOT with a psychiatrist but with a nurse practitioner (Mary Meiselman) who seemed cold and somewhat rushed in her assessment.
The staff is incompetent and argumentative. The assistant manager (Sean) obviously does not know much about medication (which is absurd because he is the one responsible for calling in medications to pharmacies). He informed me that he would be calling in a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT medication than what was discussed with the prescriber. When i questioned him about his error, he became defensive and completely denied what he had told me not three days prior.
When I inquired about psychotherapy services, Mary Meiselman advised me to look online for therapists in the area. I was in shock.
As an educated person (BA Clinical psychology, Masters Clinical psychology in progress), I know and understand the process that should be followed and the care needed when dealing with those who have a mental illness. THIS OFFICE POSSESSES NEITHER.
It is a shame that they were unable to provide the care that they advertised as I was very hopeful that this was in fact not just another prescription pushing psychiatrist office.
Do yourself a favor and find an office who is competent and caring enough to treat you properly.

Dr. Guimarães is wonderful, excellent, compassionate and understanding. I started as a patient when he had his first office and on to his second office.
The first office just had one receptionist using a cell phone only, which she was on personal calls all the time. Was totally inexperienced. Doc hired a girl to work with her and who eventually took place. This new lady was professional and new what she was doing — I was in disbelief that she was replaced.
Then came the move to the new office on Peach Street (the exact same office I used to work in with an attorney, believe it or not! The atty. joined with another group of attorneys.
Dr. Guimarães’ new office was re-​done and looked beautiful! But I noticed that instead of seeing Dr. Guimarães every time, I would see one of the nurse practitioners (which are very, very nice, by the way, but a patient needs to see an actual PSYCHIATRIST). I felt abandoned by Dr. Guimarães even though he said he would come in at the end if I wanted him to of each session. And I really liked the Nurse Practitioner I had — very understanding and helpful. Just really odd to not be seeing the actual Psychiatrist himself.
Dr. Guimarães, when I saw him all the time at the first office (with the sucky receptionist — lol), was great! I looked forward (sort of) to my meetings with him, but after he moved, I believe all his patients had nurse practitioners. There was no warning this was going to happen. Albeit I really liked my Nurse Practitioner very, VERY much, it was just weird to have a sudden change like that (especially when you’re mentally and/​or emotionally ill — that’s when I felt abandoned.
THE WORST PART and WHY I AM GIVING only two stars is because of the Reception area people, but mostly Ms. Portugal, the biller! She yelled at me on the phone saying I wasn’t very nice when I said I don’t think the receptionists like me, then she said That’s aweful of you to say, and she went on and on how wonderful they were. I had called her because she was mischarging me for 3 appointments and had sent a bill. I found all my receipts for those days I paid for and she was extremely rude about it. And it was for a certain amount, each appt., and Dr. Guimarães and I, since the beginning had an agreement that I would pay a different amount. She yelled at me, «It’s posted ALL OVER THE OFFICE that $_​_​_​_​_​is the amount it costs per appointment.» I was crying by then and saying «You don’t know how to work with the mentally and emotionally ill!!) She RUDELY said «YES I DO KNOW HOW!» I again let her know that the Dr. and I had from the beginning an agreement as I am on permanent SS Disability (including PTSD which her yelling didn’t help at all). She continued to yell the rest of the call and FINALLY she said she would check into it and call me back. (Heck if I was going to answer the phone again). When she called again and left a message (lol) her tone had completely changed which tells me the Doc must have been right there, or other people. She was very nice on the voicemail saying I was right about the billing, that she found my payments, then with sass in her voice she said «BUT NEXT TIME and EVERY TIME AFTER THAT IT’s GOING TO COST YOU $_​_​_​_​_​ ($ 10.00 more than I was paying) per month!
I don’t even remember the rest, I was crying pretty frantically. The billing person should be fired, or replaced while she learns some compassion, empathy, understanding and special course on how to speak with the Mentally/​Emotionally ill.
I will NEVER go back, as much as I loved Dr. Guimarães and my Nurse Practitioner, I will never walk into a negative place again. My last Psychiatrist shot his wife, 7 year old daughter dead and then shot himself in the head.
Yeap, we have some really good mental health care here, we do! NOT!
I am a recluse from this type of verbal abuse and doctors sexually exploiting me (when I lived in L.A.) and another stalking a patient when I looked up his licensing info and there was an active Accusation filed against him by the DOJ’s office. yeah. .. enough is enough.
I go to County now where I went when I was here before (I grew up in Shell Beach, but spent 24 years in L.A.) and the awesome lady, Donna that works there, as she did years ago when I was there, is just perfect. As a nurse practitioner, she sees me regularly and reports to the Psychiatrist on Board with the County at the time of my issues and if med changes are needed. And they are SO organized just as an office should be run! I see the Psychiatrist on there when they say and all is well.
But as for «Ms. Portugal» the billing «human» at Guimarães’ office — she needs a LOT of training, both in BILLING properly AND in attitude as well as learning how to «work with the mentally ill.»
I stopped going there because I was literally belittled, yelled at, told I wasn’t very nice, told me I was wrong, etc., etc. by

Only reason I put a one is due to their system always being down and when I call 48 hrs in advance to cancel an appt they charge me anyway. They then rescheduled me unbeknownst an charge me for missing another appt. Bridget the nurse there is lovely and such an amazing help but I will not be returning because I am tired of fighting obscene charges for mistakes on their end.

Dr. Guimares literally saved my life. He is a PTSD specialist and I recommend him to any Veterans who require treatment. He received his medical degree from Yale University. The doctor is kind, soft spoken, understanding and very knowledgeable. I am a health care provider myself and I have great confidence in his treatment and appreciate his compassion.

he is pretty good at getting the job done.

I recently moved to SLO and was transferred from the behavioral services in my previous country to the services here, where Dr. Guimaraes became my new psychiatrist. I’m surprised at the negative reviews here. I’ve had many psychiatrists because of the unfortunate «doctor of the month» nature of county funded services. Dr. Guimaraes is among the better doctors I’ve met, including private practitioners.
My experience was that a nurse first spoke to me about how I was feeling, and then the nurse, myself, and Dr. Guimares would talk. I haven’t seen this technique used before, but I find it very helpful in expressing my needs to the doctor. Dr. Guimares suggested medication changes and fully explained why he would prescribe those medications in particular. He did not force any change to the medications on me and the decision was left up to me.
I have been to this office both when it was relatively quiet, and when it was quite packed, and the wait time seemed reasonable to me in both cases. I once misremembered my appointment time, came an hour late, and found that the staff were still willing to fit me into their schedule. Very kind people.
Most importantly to me, Dr. Guimaraes seems to be up on his medical knowledge and his knowledge of prescription protocols and office type things. This is very helpful, especially if you have medications that need monthly filling and an insurance company that needs ‘prior authorizations’ 3 days before you’ve run out of pills. Dr. Guimareas – or likely his office staff – have been very quick about responding to those issues. I never feel «left handing,» which has been my experience with many other doctors.
I think it’s fair to say Dr. Guimaraes is a busy doctor that perhaps can’t give every patient the amount of support they might find in more expensive clinics with less patients. That said, the way he’s integrated nurses into patient care, the amazing competence of his office staff, and the way he treats me when he does meet with me, have all combined to make me feel more than safe with this doctor and his staff.
tl;dr: I’m very pleased with the level of care I’ve received here and I hope others aren’t intimidated before their appointments.

I loved him when I first started going there, which was about three years ago. He did my psychotherapy and prescribing. He was very attentive and caring. I was suicidal and he helped me a lot. I was able to wean off of drugs after about a year. I went back after approximately a year of being off of drugs because I started feeling like I could be lapsing. Everything in the office had changed. He had several NP’s and it was all about handing out pills. After not being there for quite some time, I was only seen by an NP who didn’t even bother to ask why I was there or how was feeling. She put me on my last max dose of an anti-​depressant and sent me on my way. That max dose made me incredibly sick. I will never go back.

Save yourself the pain and suffering and DO NOT go here. This Dr basically spends 5 minutes to charge you money and write you prescriptions without even hearing what is bothering you. And then if you have a side affect from the medication he will write you another prescription for that and if that gives you side affects he will write you another prescription for that. I landed in the hospital for a full week because I trusted this doctor. It has taken me 4 months to get to a point on my medications that I feel somewhat normal. These types of doctors are seeing very venerable people who are desperate for help and the doctor should be far more responsible when doing what I would call «pushing» meds. On top of the horrible position I was put in both mentally and financially by this Dr. his office staff is horrible. He has literally one person working there that has any common sense. They are always telling me that I owe them money that I don’t owe them. I have had to spend hours on the phone with my insurance doing the billing departments job. Now I haven’t been there in months and they sent me a past due notice for $ 10. I called them 3 months ago and left a message with the receipt number, they never called me back and now I can’t get ahold of anyone to resolve this. Also, if you are on the medications prescribed by Dr. Guimaraes don’t expect to ever get a quick refill. I had to wait a full week at one point and had to get an emergency refill and go through a lot of frustrating phone calls to just get them to call in my refill. Oh, and now I requested a copy of my records and they are charging me $ 30 to get them. This charge is something I have heard of but they also charge for every other document you would ever want from their office. If you want a note for school or work (a whole date and signature) it will cost you $ 5. Seriously, you already charge enough for your horrible services, now you are going to nickel and dime people. Please Please Please NEVER go here. I would not wish this treatment on my worst enemy.

Our experience at this office has been lackluster. We were initially impressed by the Dr.‘s degree and his apparent experience to diagnose quickly. He attributed the quick visits and immediate prescription to his experience. It took him one visit and less than 10 minutes to prescribe. His «analysis» was according to him done very quickly because of his experience with brain studies. The turnover at this office has been incredible. No one seemed to know about our prescription and they took over 2 weeks to get back to us with our lab results. TWO WEEKS! Plus, we had to call and ask. No one called us about this. Then another new guy called and gave us a «new prescription» which was the same exact one the Dr. already had prescribed. This office is so very confused about the patient in our household.
We are never going back. They really need to get their act together here. I really hope they do.