David L Smith Mft

I would not recommend David Smith for couples therapy. My boyfriend and I were having an average relationship problem. To make a long story short, we saw David for 15 sessions spread over 4 ½ months, for a total fee of $ 2100 ($ 140 per session). After 15 sessions, my boyfriend and I could not agree on how to move the relationship forward. Also, we could not agree on what David was saying in the sessions. Boyfriend would say to me, «David is saying you need to do X,» and I would say, «No, I didn’t hear it like that. David is saying you need to do Y.» All right, well, no problem, just ask David to clarify, right? Just ask David himself, what are you saying that each one of us should do? Well, after 15 sessions, David could not answer that question. He said that his job is to reflect the impasse. When I kept pressing, he then said that he cannot force anyone to do anything. When I still kept pressing, he said vaguely that there are some things we are avoiding and there is more that each person could do. Nothing more specific, even after I argued with him during the whole session that my boyfriend and I really need clarity. Mind you, we weren’t fighting a lot, only occasionally about a single issue. We weren’t coming into session fighting about 5 different things. We had many common interests, values, and personality traits, and we share a great sense of humor. Just one issue continued to nag at us, and it was important. I’ve had good therapy and bad therapy, and David Smith provided bad therapy. No clear direction, just reflection, and being left to ourselves to figure out what to do, after 15 sessions and $ 2100. Well, spend your money with someone more effective. By the way, my boyfriend is in agreement with me on this. So that’s saying a lot.