Dr. Brandon Sylvester, PhD

Generously leaving 2 stars because he uses Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), and I have since learned CBT is inappropriate when one of the parties has a legitimate mental disorder. If you are seeking couples therapy and you suspect your partner has psychopathy, narcissism, BPD, or anything that dire and anti-social, the paint-by-numbers methodology of CBT is wholly inadequate. Find a different therapist. . Not knowing the above back then, I attempted to work with Dr. Sylvester's techniques during our marriage counseling sessions. My disquiet arose when he would hold me to account on our weekly homework, but gloss over my wife's assignments. When I pointed this out he said he would address it later, but never did, to the point I started doing that part of his job for him. Then when he started to say he didn't use the term "toxic" to describe behavior or couldn't say the word "weak" when repeating the saying about "weak men cause hard times", I should've fired him then. That's my… fault. Throughout therapy, I had given him multiple very specific examples of my wife flying into a violent rage over outwardly innocuous triggers. His solution: to enable her overwhelming need for validation and for her to be right, despite her constant mental and emotional abuse. It came to a head when he began to lose his temper and angrily bark at me. Why? 1) I spoke more than my wife during therapy and wasn't aware. 2) Before doing the dishes I wanted plates stacked as we had limited space, and anything that would harden solid wiped off, which was "unreasonable", according to him. Later, my wife, ever finding him a sympathetic ear, visited him on a therapy session alone. According to her he suggested she and I move to an "open relationship". (It's only because this is hearsay that I didn't file an ethics complaint.) Wish I could provide a more generous review, but if you hire him understand exactly what you'll get.