Dr. Lucia Szuen-En Cheng, MD

She was extremely rude and condescending. She made me waste months running in circles and getting nothing done. At one point her office forgot to call and check me in, and when we met she claimed it was my fault and that her office didn't do anything wrong and said that she couldn't see me if I wasn't checked in, but this time she'd "make an exception." She clearly only cares about her paycheck instead of actually helping anyone because she charges too much to be treating patients so poorly. She made me feel uncomfortable and demeaned me almost every session, it is inexcusable to be working in mental health with a hostile attitude like this. Save your money and go elsewhere.

I had a perinatal mood disorder and spoke with Dr. Cheng as a perinatal consult. I was very impressed by her knowledge and her willingness to explain everything in detail to me about why XYZ happens, etc. She seems to be a direct person and I really connected with that. She will give you her honest and professional opinion and won’t sugarcoat it. Very thorough and to the point. If you like that approach this doctor is for you. I see a local doctor for medication management in my state however I needed her opinion for planning a pregnancy. If I ever need more specialized care in the future pertaining to female needs/hormonal fluctuations and the effect on my mental health - I will certainly reach out to Dr. Cheng again and work with her alongside my local health team. Very glad I found her.

Dr. Cheng is a knowledgeable psychiatrist in a lot of ways. But she does not practice trauma informed care, which is disappointing in this day and age. After you disclose childhood trauma, being told to stop blaming that person is invalidating and hurtful.

She was very rude, distant, and condescending. It wasn’t even 1 min in, and there was already communication problems between us. I tried telling her that I wanted to look up an address for her, but didn’t want to leave the FaceTime chat because I was worried about the call disconnecting. She said, “just call back then! It’s not that hard!” She didn’t seem to be a very understanding doctor, especially for people who seek out mental health treatment. Her harsh tone of voice makes it hard to engage with her, and doesn’t make her approachable.

Dr Cheng does not display empathy in her communication and does not consider the patient's feelings as she delivers her diagnosis after 4 minutes and advises you to find another program. The cost: $150. Her office staff claims that the "last thing we want is to waste our patients and Doctors time." They don't care about wasting the patient's time since they require you to fill out reams of online forms and provide documentation that other doctors do not require. Nor do they care that you waited 2-1/2 weeks for an appointment and missed the opportunity to seek a doctor who might actually be helpful and caring.

A few months ago I scheduled my first and only appointment with Dr. Cheng. Although the appointment was held via video call, I was still required to go into an office for the initial consultation because of paperwork (didn’t do any paperwork there btw so that was totally pointless). I carefully wrote down the time and address for my initial appointment. When I arrived 10 minutes early as instructed, the lights were off and sign said “closed.” I had waited 3 weeks for this appointment and was afraid that rescheduling would be difficult. I called the office several times with no answer until deciding to look for an alternate number for Dr. Cheng on the internet. It was my understanding that she had multiple offices, perhaps I could reach her at another number. I called the first number that popped up and said that I had arrived for my appointment but the office is closed. She replied in a bothered tone and asked how I got her contact information (turns out, this was her personal phone… number) and then proceeded to tell me that I probably went to the wrong location or that staff was out to lunch and I needed to be patient. I have never been spoken to in such a disrespectful manner by a healthcare professional and was instantly distraught that I would need to confide in this person during my consultation. Sure enough, the staff comes back from lunch and I pay my $150 to meet with Dr Cheng which was my portion of the $400 initial consultation (or so I thought/agreed to via intake forms). As soon as we began the appointment, Dr. Cheng asked me AGAIN how I got her personal number and made me feel like some sort of inappropriate patient/stalker for dialing the first number that popped up on Google. She proceeded to tell me that I do not have an attention disorder, I just hate my job and should find a new one during a pandemic if I can’t focus at work :) Not the best advice. I left in tears about what a horrible decision I made by going to see her. The cherry on top was when I got an extra $75 bill. I called the receptionist and said hey I signed a form that says the initial consultation is $400, where did the extra $75 come from? The receptionist told me that the $400 is what I would have been charged had I paid out of pocket without the help of insurance. However, now that insurance was chipping in, the total is $475. It did NOT say that on the intake forms. Now I need to figure out some way to dispute this charge. Do yourself a favor and find one of the other hundreds of thousands of other psychiatrists out there.

Available and knowledgeable. Very helpful. I highly recommend if you are looking for a telepsychiatrist.

I am Professor of Psychiatry at UCLA, and I recruited Dr. Cheng to healthpiper.com. She is an excellent psychiatrist- knowledgeable, organized, thorough, and kind. She treats her clients as partners and collaborators, rather than people to be "managed". She is appropriately reluctant to prescribe controlled substances, like Valium and Xanax. Previously when she worked at Kaiser and resisted prescribing them, a couple of patients sought them persistently. Her pushing back may have led them to leave critical reviews, but her reluctance reflected her commitment to doing what she believed was right, which one wants in a doctor. An excellent psychiatrist.

Easy to schedule an appointment online. The video connection software is somewhat buggy, but worth the annoyance for the convenience of doing the appointment from the comfort of my own home. Dr. Cheng was easy to talk to, and put me at ease doing an appointment online for the first time. I felt she took the time to listen to my concerns and answer all my questions. I liked that she explained why she picked a certain medication over others for me. I wish she took insurance, but I felt her price was reasonable.

I had not seen a psychiatrist before, and wasn't sure what to expect. Dr. Cheng made the experience easy and comfortable. I really appreciated her professionalism and she clearly knows what she is doing. She was very thorough and asked a lot of questions about my medical history to determine the right course of treatment, and prescribed medication that has proven to be both effective and affordable. I especially appreciated the opportunity to see her via tele-conference because my work makes it very difficult to get away to see a doctor in an office during normal business hours. My treatment seems to be working very well. Doctor Cheng gave me a lot more attention than I get from my insurance's primary care physician, and I look forward to my follow-ups as my treatment continues.