Dr. Jesse Olague, PhD

I sought services from Olague Psychological Services because our family needed professional support with parenting and coparenting. Unfortunately, I believe our family is less healthy and less connected after this experience, not more. Families seeking coparenting services are often already under considerable strain. In that setting, clarity, neutrality, informed consent, and a well-defined treatment structure are essential. I did not experience those safeguards consistently. What began as parenting/coparenting work expanded into my marriage, finances, childhood experiences, trauma, medical conditions, and nervous-system functioning. I did not feel adequately informed or prepared for this significant change in focus. During a planned financial discussion involving a Roth IRA—which I was not told beforehand would be addressed—I was told that I needed to “own my trauma.” I experienced this as blaming and psychologically exposing rather than supportive of healthier family… functioning. This was especially concerning because I have documented neurological disabilities, including Functional Neurological Disorder. I have never been diagnosed with PTSD. Stress can affect neurological symptoms, but that is very different from establishing that childhood trauma explains a person’s reactions to current marital or coparenting problems. My marriage spans more than 20 years. There were longstanding adult relationship experiences, current disagreements, financial concerns, parenting issues, and neurological factors that deserved to be carefully differentiated. Instead, I increasingly felt that my disagreement, distress, or attempts to correct disputed information could themselves be understood as evidence of nervous-system activation, unresolved hurt, or dysregulation. That dynamic did not help our family resolve conflict. In my experience, it made communication more confusing and made it harder for me to advocate for myself within the therapeutic process. There were also significant administrative concerns. I signed documentation as a “Parent,” yet the records did not consistently make clear who the actual client was. We also experienced difficulty obtaining reimbursement from our insurance provider because of problems with the documentation associated with the services. The most important outcome for me, however, is the health of my family. We sought professional assistance because we needed greater structure, healthier communication, and better coparenting. I left feeling that the boundaries between parenting work, marital work, and individualized psychological interpretation had become blurred at a time when our family needed greater clarity—not less. Families deserve treatment that strengthens their ability to communicate, protects each person’s ability to disagree and advocate for themselves, and keeps the needs of the child and family clearly at the center of the work. That was not my experience with Olague Psychological Services, and I cannot recommend the practice.