Dr. Harvey Fernbach, MD

I have been with this doctor for 10 years at the least. So funny, very very knowledgeable...He is the greatest..If you are looking for a good Psychiatry..he the ONE..

I was referred to Dr. Fernbach by another physician. I feel he lacked compassion and talked at me more than to me. In my opinion, there was no substantive dialogue. His questions were accusatory and judgemental.

Dr. Fernbach seems to lack empathy for meeting my needs. He refuses to listen to what I am feeling but demands that I listen to what he has to say. It seems that he has short term memory also because I find myself having to repeat myself on each vist about things we have discussed in prior visits. Seems that upon leaving his office I feel worse than before entering his office due to his methodology of making degrading/shrude comments often rather than being concerned about helping me to make progress. After bringing these factors to his attention he denied them and attempted to blame me instead and stating that I should consider finding another psychiatrist if I refuse to listen to everything he has to say to me. Additionally, he is never punctual with scheduled appointment (delayed by 30 min. or longer) and he always rushes me out of his office after about 15-20 min. Poor bedside manners!

Dr. Fernbach is a complete quack. He overly relies on medication and spends most of an appointment's time lecturing you, instead of listening to you. He really likes to hear himself talk. He also has an unfortunate temper. If you say anything that he INTERPRETS as a discredit to his methods, he lose all control over his facilities and will demand that you leave his office.

nice low-key older gentleman

He was nice but the office was a dump. When the 35 min wait was over and the appointment began he was under cutting me quite a bit--not rudely but not the best strategy for a psychologist, so I wasn't able to say as much as I would have like to. Plus I only got a half hour with him (if that much time at all). Between the under cutting, long wait, and very short amount of time for my assessment I didn't really feel like Fernback could help me get things off the ground. Not now and certainly not down the road. Nice but--doesn't really tickle my fancy in the 'help' department. Not at all.

I went to Fernbach after suffering some serious side-effects more than once from the ADD medicines prescribed by my previous doctor, whose care to be watchful and monitor the side-effects of the medicines he prescribes or to pay attention to what I have to say completely was lacking.I had to wait for about three weeks to get an appointment with Dr. Fernbach. In the meantime I had got the medical records forwarded to him well in advance of the appointment. I went there 30 minutes early and filled out all the paper work for a new patient. He saw me after about 15 mnts waiting. I was hoping that as a first time patient I would get more time than I was used to with my previous doctor (which is around 20 mnts.) to tell my story. Though I started with my main problem I got side-tracked by his questioning into my childhood, future plans, parents, previous treatment etc ( apparently he hadn't gone through my records in any useful detail). He was also asking how I got interested in my field of… work and suggested that my difficulty to focus may be because of my lack of interested in the field. I said I had considered that, but didn't get much opportunity to tell my thoughts about that.For a while, I thought he was having some plan. I was surprised when he suddenly said we have to stop in a minute, at which point I hadn't even got to tell all my problems. He said he doesn't think I have any ADD. I wanted to know how he arrived at that conclusion and if anything can be done to feel better. My further questions couldn't bring more information from him other than his saying that if I want I can see some therapists they have in the same building. When told I had cognitive behavioural therapy for a year, he said then I may try some Psychodynamic therapy (never heard of that before). He said 'we have to stop' two more times and to a further question he said something to the effect that I should make another appointment if I have further questions. It was clear that he just wants me to get out of there. The whole thing may have lasted 30 mnts or so, quite a bit of which he spent asking me about my marriage plans (which I was not at all concerned about), childhood, future plans etc. the relevance of which I wonder now. I came out much more distressed and disappointed, even depressed than I went in. The search for a doctor more willing to listen and help goes on. The overall experience was disturbing. I spent an hour, afterward, walking on the treadmill to feel better. I would definitely not recommend this doctor to anybody.~