Dr. Utako Sekiya, MD

Was in Ceder Hills Hospital for being suicidal. She treated me like an infant and refused to allow me to speak for,myself regarding,after care and instead told me to be quiet so she could make plans FOR me with my social worker. I had to swallow her bull since she was signing my discharge papers but this was the worst doctor ive ever seen. No regard for her patients. This is a bad hospital with bad doctors. Avoid if at all possible.

I understand why everyone at Cedar Hills hates her. She makes you wait forever, is dismissive, and acts very much "holier than thou." But I would like to defend her on the basis that, from my understanding of Japanese psychology and sociology (I was a Japanese major and lived in Japan for years), she is very much a Japanese doctor. She expects respect, and I don't think she gets much because of the clientele she is seeing (largely substance abusers or people with extremely bad immediate circumstances). She seems quite depressed and isolated, and is unable to empathize with patients because their experience is so foreign to her own--and perhaps, just because of her nature. So I wish people would give her a break; I ended up chatting to her in Japanese for most of my visits and actually had great conversations (while she was ignoring the next patients up for visits). It's like if a Martian just landed on the Earth and suddenly had to deal in an intimate, interpersonal way with humans. I… don't know what the backstory is, but just know she isn't a bad person, try to be nice to her (but do be firm), and hope for the best.

Likes to play with medications that are useless and/or harmful while withholding those that are known to actually work. I saw her in-patient for severe panic disorder, got treated like an addict needing detox and ultimately came out worse than ever. Hard to understand with her heavy accent and she rushes.

Unko-sensei prescribed medication that had a serious interaction with one I was already taking, and my treatment needed to be delayed because of it. She is entirely unempathetic and unprofessional, laughing at my crying and just generally seemed like a sadist. I've never dealt with a psychiatrist who was so condescending and just plain mean. She either doesn't understand English well or doesn't listen. DO NOT go to her.