Dr. Connie Collins Licensed Clinical Social Worker - Escondido, California

Adonis

Connie will listen but you must also listen and pay attention to her.

I suggested she read a book pertaining to our sessions so we can have the best possible outcome. She refused and dodged, instead opting out to rely on me to provide her with details. Ultimately, I called her, left a voicemail telling her we'd stop our sessions until she completed the book; surprise, surprise, she called back immediately and said she'd read the book - she later thanked me for requiring her to read it (audiobook).

On one occasion, she had work to complete at 4:30 PM - our session ran from 3 PM to 4 PM. During the session it appeared as if she were not interested and was instead more focused on the clock. As the clock clocked in at 4, she ended the session and dismissed me. Not professional on her behalf.

She did provide some glimmers of hope though. She suggested and encouraged I return to school and even suggested I aim high - I thank her for thank. Unknowingly, she also provided positive insight into who I am and what I am capable of; although, I have yet to maximize my potential. Not only that, but she was somebody who I could be vulnerable - and she had felt my pain on one particular subject.

Keep her on her toes. Be not afraid of speaking your mind and be assertive. She can offer you good insight and good advice if you demand it of her.

Remember this is part of the course, it's on you to take action and be the captain of your ship; the master of your soul.

Khoa Tran

I’ve been debating whether I should write this review or not. However, since I realized the negative effects of how this therapist handled my mental health and the fact that she was paid to do this, I had to cross over. To those clients and colleagues who find Collins to be a good therapist, I’m glad you had a good experience. Perhaps she is good at other areas like addiction, relationship issues, LGBT, etc. However, I am speaking from my experience as a client who suffered years of emotional neglect and abuse from a father and dysfunctional family, only to meet this therapist who invalidated my trauma. I went to see Collins for trauma therapy, one of which she claimed that she can treat according to her website. At the time when I went to see her, I was emotionally dysregulated during my visits with her. On my part, I was dysregulated to the point that I was completely obsessive compulsive with severe anxiety. However, Collins invalidated my trauma and symptoms, and said my PTSD related symptoms to be OCD, when it is obviously trauma and I had research to prove my claim, but she shoved it off. When she misdiagnosed me, I became more dysregulated because I didn’t know where I stood and was unclear how to heal. I was paying for sessions to be treated for the wrong mental diagnosis and hence, having an ineffective treatment. The worst thing that Collins did to me was to side with my abuser and telling me to love him. She believed having a loving relationship with my abuser would help me heal. She thought that I was the problem and not my abusive parent. Nothing is worse than advising an abuse victim to love and forgive the perpetrator that abused them for years. Like playing with the snake again, that previously bit you. Heck, even my father denied responsibility of neglecting and abusing me, so there was no way of improving the relationship. She minimized the fact that my father neglected and abused me, and overly placed importance on my mother’s death, an event in which had no impact on me. When I tried to confront her about how she treated me, she told that it never happened and my memory was distorted. There were unclear boundaries and I felt that I was manipulated. One session she agreed with me, but the next session she disagreed. I never knew what to trust as a client and was more emotionally dysregulated because of it. In one session, she was rude and disrespectful when she ended the session early, when she was 20 minutes late. When she was on time, we would fulfill the complete session. At that session, I was triggered when I talked about my trauma and was crying, she then interrupted me and said it was time to go early. She did not give me time to feel my emotions of my trauma and told me to leave the office immediately for her next session. She did not give me time to wipe my tears nor continued our full session, in which she took 20 minutes out. I was still crying and hiding my tears in front desk as I scheduled my final appointment with her after she rudely kicked me out. In my final appointment with her, she said that I seem to be lost track of time, when I knew that she ended the session as if she was not 20 minutes late. I left her permanently after that session. I felt her treatment towards trauma survivors like me was unprofessional, undignified, and unethical. I am not writing this review to attack her nor discourage anyone who found her to be helpful in other areas. I am writing this to assert the fact that she failed to meet my needs and that she shouldn’t do this to any trauma client. Collins, if you read this, I hope you take accountability for what you had done to me and hope you can improve your practice and won’t be repeating this behavior to any other victims of severe neglect and abuse, especially when they already been invalidated themselves. To victims of trauma, it is important to own your reality and not to let anyone or even a licensed professional disown your reality, because that’s the key of healing the trauma, knowing your story first.