Dr. Elwin David Hjellen, DO

Great all around doctor. One of the few that seems to look at the whole picture.

This glorified chiropractor is rude and hateful to patients, and has been known to falsely call in suicidal ideation to law enforcement without true cause.

Just finished my assessment and I am very happy. He explains everything up front and gave me plenty of time to ask all my questions. My assessment took two meetings but he took a large portion of that to give me information and help me make my decisions. That part was something I hadn’t experienced before. The best thing though was that he treated me like an equal. He is the least arrogant physician I’ve met. Instead of telling me what to do, he spent the time to give me the information I needed then asked me what I wanted to do. I hadn’t experience that with a physician before, and haven’t had anything close to that with a psychiatrist. As someone with bipolar my condition requires that I do certain things, I know this well. I usually get doctors telling me what I have to do and sometimes even dictating terms to me. There was a total absence of that in the room. It was so refreshing that I actually had to go back after the meeting and check his credentials to make sure he… was legit. He is definitely legit. He just seemed like a genuinely nice person who was more interested in giving me the info I needed to make a decision than he was deciding what was best for me. I hope he never retires and never leaves AK.

Been seeing this psychiatrist in an outpatient clinic in anchorage. I’ve been seen by a lot of doctors in the past and this is the only one to ever sit down with me and not only explain my diagnosis to me, but also ask me my thoughts about it! After 12 years I finally have hope. I have never been doing better.

I found him trough a friend. He took the time to listen to me and EVERYTHING I have going on now as well as my past. We had more Han one meeting where he got to know me and my history BEFORE he started talking about diagnoses and treatments. I liked that he really took his time to get to know my situation without assuming anything and jumping to a diagnosis. I liked that his assessment took longer than my previous doctors. I didn’t feel like I was just another appointment in his schedule. I felt like a real person that he wanted to get take the time to get to know first. I would recommend him

What I really liked about him was how down to earth he was. I have a hard time with doctors that come off as full of themselves and talk town to me. He was a pleasant change. The rest of the experience was great too, but the interactions I had with in stood out.

Our son is in a local hospital and this guy is his doctor. I spoke to him a handful of times on the phone but I am writing this today after a family therapy season. The therapist had started our family therapy session and our son wasn't having any of it. He was sitting there silently at first then when he did participate he was actively ignoring the topic and acting disrespectful to us and the therapist. We tried to address this, but he got more defiant - that is after all one of the reasons why is in the hospital in the first place. Although he didn't leave, he did move himself to a chair in the corner of the room and essentially shut down. Thins were not going good. As the session went on I was not optimistic, but we had known how hard our son is in situations like this so it was almost good that the people at the hospital were seeing it too. When Dr Hjellan joined us our son wasn't talking at all anymore. He had begun to dig his heals in and had essentially refused to cooperate any… more. I was really impressed with how this doctor handled things. I saw him adjust his approach at least 4 times in a matter of a few minutes. First he addressed us and talked about the medications that our son was on and why they weren't working. He talked about the process by which we could get rid of them during thebhoslitalizatikn and start over. We were very relieved by that as we had tried many medications as hadn't seen much help from them. He talked about the types of therapy that would be the most helpful and some of the medication options that should still be considered. He was rational and to the point. It was quick and made a lot of sense. At that time he was mainly addressing the adults in the room, but did so in a way where he didn't say anything that our son shouldn't hear and didn't say anything that would have made our son feel upset or defensive. I don't now if he did this on purpose or not, but the decision to address us first allowed our son some time to recover from his defiance. It may just have been luck, but after seeing the rest of what I saw I'd bet it we intnentional. When he finished with that part it seemed like he was about to leave, but he stopped and shifted his attention to our son. His demeanor continued to be rational and his statements were succinct. This produced a similar response to the response our therapist got from our son. Within about a minute I saw this doctor change his approach to one where he was less rational and more emotional. This was not just in his words but also in the tone of his voice, his mannerisms and his posture. It was a seamless change and I didn't really even pick up on it until after the meeting, but once I realzed what had happened it was so obvious. The tone of his voice started changing as he talked to our son. There were more fluctuations in his voice, his mannerisms were passive and he became almost playful in how he was talking. Within a minute or so our son started talking, but what amazed me was that he started crying. This wasn't a bad thing. He was talking about why he gets so mad and how he feels inside when things get that way. He was crying because he was feeling real emotions and that weren't covered up by anger. He wasn't yelling at us! He wasn't throwing things around the room! He was having a healthy emotional release. This hadn't happened in a very long time, at least not without some type of hurtful statement or violence included. Dr hjellan moved closer to sit next to our son and his approach shifted again. He was comforting and validating. The speed of his speech slowed, his manner slowed and he became so empathetic I though I might cry myself. My son recovered quickly, the crying stopped and the topic shifted into an area not so emotionally volatile. In a matter of minutes I saw the approach change more than once. It was like he was able to emotionally escort my son from where he was to where he needed to be and then get him back to a place of stability again. While this is gong on my 3 year old daughter is in the room. She is pretty well behaved but she gets bored quickly. She had a hard time sitting there for so long and was getting antsy by now. With my son no longer crying Dr Hjellan moved away from my son and sat down on the floor next to my daughter. This shifted the room away from my son. It gave my son a much needed break and gave my daughter some attention. She was shy and stand-offish. He took a lego and while he was looking at her and smiling he casually put it on top of his head and let it fall to the ground. It seems simple, but the combination of the lego falling with his facial expression was funny and it made my daughter light up. He did it again and she started laughing. He handed her the lego and she started doing the same thing. She was very amused by this simple act. He had changed his approach again to a nonverbal and physical one. Once she started in with the Lego we were able to let her do her own thing for a bit and the attention then went back to our son. I am a social worker and have seen many providers both related to our son's care and in other situations related to my job. From what I have seen this doctor is unique. He was an amazing addition to our son's team. I wish he was able to work with us after we leave the hospital. It turns out he only works inside the hospital. If he ever opens a clinic I'll be there. If.i could give him ten stars I would.

My daughter was admitted to the hospital and at first she said she didn't like him. When I asked why I didn't get much from her. I later found out that his approach with her was to be straightforward and blunt about what was going on and what she needed to do to get what she wanted. He said that she was very motivated by her own desires (very true). None of her other providers had talked to her that way before. They always tried to talk her into things and negotiate with her. This doctor told her that if she wants to get certain things then she has to behave a certain way. He provided her with one medication to help her with this (she had been on three before, so dropping that down to one was amazing). Between the medication and the straightforward approach she was able to get out of the hospital early. I later asked him why he decided to take the approach he did. He said that he doesn't do that with everyone, but during the first meeting he realized two things right away. First was… that she was used to getting what she wanted when she wanted to get it. the second was that she was smart enough to see how the choices she was making were actually getting her into places and situations she didn't want to be in. He said he used this approach because it was the quickest way to help her gain insight and accept the reality that she needed to accept. She needed to get familiar again with the idea that the adults around her are running the world and not her. She never told me why she didn't like him at first, but I suspect it was because he presented a reality to her that she wasn't a fan of. I guess she got over it though because by the end of the hospitalization she was asking to see him multiple times a day. It has been over 6 months since she was at the hospital and she mentions things he said to her still. When she mentioned him again today I realized I should write a review. I would recommend this doctor to anyone who needs similar services.

First, I'm not sure this is the right doctor. The one I'm writing about works in Anchorage, Alaska. Second, he called me the first day my son was at the hospital. His nursing staff called me any time anything significant happened. The doctor often called me to about the same things just to make sure I didn't have any other wuestions. We had seen 3 doctors as an outpatient before we ended up in the hospital and saw Dr Hjellen. Between the phone calls and the face to face meetings we got more information about how to help our son than all the other three doctors combined. I only wish he had an outpatient clinic.

I don't usually do online reviews, but this was the first doctor in a long time who talked to me rather than at me about my daughter. Most doctors don't seem to want to take the time to explain anything to me about what is going on with my child. He took the time, explained things. He even drew some pictures and a graph to help explain things when we talked, that may seem a bit weird, but it was actually quite helpful. It was such a nice and new experience with a doctor that I decided to take the time to write a review. I'd recommend him to anyone with a child who needs to see a psychiatrist.