Dr. Kenneth Washington, PHD

Dr. Washington has been my therapist off and on again for the last 30 years. He keeps it real.

My treatment with Dr. Washington was transformative. He uses a cognitive behavioral approach which challenges you to problem solve. With insightful and probing questions, I was able to change and become more assured and productive. He was helpful in instructing me how to channel my emotions and use my thought to power me through my difficulties. If you change your thoughts, you can change the world.

Dr Washington appears to follow a similar script for all new patients. He was wholly unprofessional and maintained a combative and superior demeanor behind a thin veil of politeness. He has no time for pleasantries and after a mere 20 minutes of barraging me with very specific and pointed questions he let me know that he feels he is "wasting my time" and promptly showed me the door. Dr. Washington has no patience for those unfamiliar with the therapy process and was unwilling to understand my mental health status because there was no active trauma or behavior I needed to overcome. He also contradicted himself by invalidating feelings I had, but could not verbalize, because they were not fact grounded then said feelings don't have brains which expresses the exact opposite sentiment. I would not recommend this doctor to anyone unless they have specific physical behavior changes they need to make and prefer to get help from someone with no empathetic tendencies whatsoever.

My experience was slightly traumatic and wholly unprofessional. In hindsight, I’m amused by his lack of basic relational skills. I was TOLD within the first 15 minutes that I prefer a psychoanalytic approach to therapy and this wasn’t his specialty. After relaying to him my openness to try his behavioral approach, he asked me a handful of questions about my stressors and promptly “taught” me that “feelings don’t have brains.” He kept repeating it like he wanted it to be a book title. Some other takeaway moments included him boasting about his work with the NFL to prove to me that he was some sort of expert (despite not attempting to get to know me as most psychologists do during an intake session), telling me that I create my own stress, and assuming that I was unhappy with “the course of my life” because I said I was often anxious and stressed. It was a violation.