Dr. Evelyn Afif Stephens, MD

When babies are born, they are the most happiest human beings on the planet. The first smile, the first giggle - as a parent you wish you could bottle that emotion and feed it back throughout your child's life to remind them how happy they were. Unfortunately, in today's world life is unpredictable and when your child is hurting it is only natural to hurt with them. As a parent of a young, beautiful, smart, adolescent I can honestly say that for the last 9 years I have experienced first hand situations with every type of therapist in Boston, Connecticut, and New York and no one - I mean - NO ONE - has come close to Dr. Evelyn A. Stephens' knowledge, professionalism, kindness, guidance and bottle line - the TRUTH - about what it takes to help someone with mental illness. As a very involved parent I research everyone, everything, every medication - for 9 nine years I made it my mission to try to help my child overcome anxiety, depression and borderline personality disorder. There is… nothing more important to me than the mental health of my child and the ability to function in this world. Ironically I found Dr. Stephens on yelp. It was excellent reviews that forced me to dial her number on behalf of my daughter before they even met. Remember - I just went through 9 long years of driving to different therapists, waiting outside, changing medication - anything and everything - trying to find the right therapist who honestly cared - and it took a 15 minute conversation on the phone to know that I FINALLY found the right doctor for MY KID! That was 3 years ago and although the process is long, Dr. Stephens saved my child's life by providing a place of safety to simply talk, scream and/or cry. But the truth is - THE PERSON GOING TO THERAPY HAS TO WANT TO GET BETTER - THEY HAVE TO WANT TO DO THE WORK AND TELL THE TURTH! The most important part of this process is that relationship between the doctor and the patient, even though the parents may want to know everything - the trust has to be between them alone. Unfortunately, most times as parents we get impatient - how can we not - we live in a NOW NOW NOW society. So it is very easy to quickly blame others when things go wrong because taking ownership of the mistake or failure to try to change your thought process is harder to accept. So it is easier to blame the parent, or blame the therapist but the bottom line - mental illness no matter how minimal or severe HURTS. It hurts everyone involved. My child's BPD has effected the whole family. From the outside, no one would ever know that there any issues - academy award winning performances - but as a parent it has been the most devastating experience because accepting the death of that happy baby born to you and then not understanding how and why all THIS had to happen has been horrible. That was my life until 3 years ago. This review is not to discredit other people's experiences. it is simply to tell MY own truth, experience and appreciation for a doctor who truly cares about her patients!