Reviews (1)

I had an unsettling experience working with Professor Felder. First, it was very distracting that he is working in what looks like a bedroom, with an open and messy closet behind him and messy personal effects on a dresser. It felt very unprofessional. During one session the door to the room he was in opened and stayed open for the duration of our session.

I am a therapist myself and Professor Felder's clinical skills were not great. He offered interpretations that did not feel like they fit, and rather than listening he often jumped to conclusions. In our last session, we ended up talking about some of my childhood stuff, including some situations with my parents that felt very difficult and hurtful for me. Then, instead of helping me sit with those feelings, offering empathy, or helping me unpack everything I brought up, he immediately shifted to focusing on my body language (me brushing my hair back from my face, and the fact that I was holding a pen) and said that he had been "baited" into talking about the past. There is a time and a place for here and now interventions but this was not the time or place.

If felt off, and I communicated that to him, and instead of hearing me he doubled down on defending the shift into body language interpretation instead of attending to my feelings of my childhood wounds being ignored. I ended the session feeling manipulated and unseen. I would caution others who are dealing with deeper emotional wounds to choose a therapist who is better at listening instead of having an agenda that plows over your own emotional experience.