Expressions of gratitude from our former clients

 I can honestly say the care I received at CSAM is beyond what I could have hoped for.

CSAM has been invaluable to me. It allowed me the opportunity to get to such a better place mentally and I feel like I received the best therapy I could have possibly received.

The service I was provided was top notch to say the least. Thank you very much. It was the best money I ever spent. 

From my experience, CSAM is far superior to most of the mental health organizations available because it has left me feeling that I’ve fundamentally grown as a person, rather than simply been given tools to apply in different situations. I have and will continue to recommend CSAM to others in need.

I want to sincerely thank Dr. Stoddard for heading up such an excellent clinic. I will most definitely refer others who might be looking for a therapist to this place as I believe firmly in its methodologies and the integrity and sincerity of its clinicians and staff. Thank you all for everything you do. 

Coming to CSAM was a very positive move in my life. The experience really helped me in so many ways and I continue to use many of the tools that you provided. Since seeing you I have made gains in so many realms of my life, but most recently I have started my first year towards getting my master's degree. With your help I was able to take the steps I needed to reach greater life satisfaction and for that I am very grateful!

I deeply appreciate the clinic's client focused attitude. I never once felt like I was just another patient and I always felt like my needs and progress were put first above everything else.

The initial phone call was immediately calming and made me feel that I could trust CSAM. The conversation was thorough and specific to what I wanted/needed, and conducted in a professional and considerate manner. I was impressed by, and grateful for, the quickness of the response and the amount of time given to the initial conversation. After the call, I felt confident that your organization was genuinely focused on quality support for its patients and I felt optimistic about working on my challenges. It was quite difficult making the initial connection and my discomfort stayed with me through to this initial phone call. The contrast of that state of mind with feeling safe and supported on the phone while discussing my anxiety and experiences was significant in my journey. 

I just wanted to say thank you for the great care you have provided the patients I have sent your way over the years. I often refer patients from the UCSD Eating Disorders Center to you, but more recently I have also been the go-to person to ask for referrals for kids that go to my daughters' elementary school. Jill, my neighbor said you were "insanely helpful" today and he has had such a hard time finding people who can help with his daughter. And Thi, my friend was in awe of you and how compassionate you were when you met with her son. I regularly hear her recommending you to other people. I really appreciate having a resource to send people to for evidence-based care with expert therapists.

Michelle Lopez is an amazingly intuitive and wise person. I sought out treatment for trypophobia, which seemed to come out of nowhere and was exhausting and defeating. She was able to effectively and efficiently help me with my this. I can honestly say that on most days, I never even think about it. When I come across an image that was previously almost debilitating, I almost shake my head in wonder that these images were ever a problem. They just no longer have a hold on me. What I never expected, however, was that she would be able to help me with a decades-long struggle with my difficult, neglectful and abusive family of origin. I thought I would never be free from their stresses and difficulties. I will always be appreciative of her wisdom and compassion. My life today is happier than it was before I worked with her. She has my sincere thanks.

I am extremely grateful for all the work I was able to do with Annabelle Mebane! I was in a really tough place when we started, and I wasn't feeling like myself at all. I feel incredibly lucky that I found a therapist who was warm, supportive, and shared a similar way of conceptualizing my issues. Annabelle's thoughtfulness and ability to help me get unstuck by taking a different approach or perspective got me through this year! It can be uncomfortable and scary to seek therapy as a therapist, but I immediately felt comfortable and safe in the therapeutic relationship and never worried about judgment. It made all the difference for me. Thank you thank you!!

I want to say a huge thank you to Thi Wlodarski for giving me the skills needed to manage my anxiety and panic disorder. I was very hesitant to start therapy, as I had tried it as a teenager and didn't feel like it helped me very much. My anxiety had been so bad for so long, that I wasn't very optimistic that there was anything I could do to improve it. Thankfully, I decided to give therapy another shot, and am very happy that I did. Thi is incredibly knowledgeable and personable. I felt like I opened up to her much quicker than my previous therapists because of her warm and welcoming personality. She helped me figure out the things that I was avoiding doing to prevent anxiety and panic attacks, and helped me realize that with repeat exposures, I can train my mind to view these things differently. She also helped me realize that the goal is not to 'cure' my anxiety, but rather, it is to get my anxiety down to a level where it is manageable. Because of Thi, I now feel like I have the skills to manage my anxiety outside of the clinic. I am very appreciative for all that she has done for me, and I highly recommend trying therapy at CSAM.

Dr. Stoddard is one of the most compassionate and professional therapists I have ever met. She really does care about her patients and wants to see them succeed.  Since my time with Dr. Stoddard, I have been able to get back on my feet. I graduated from college, own my own business and am conquering obstacles on a regular basis that I had struggled my entire life with. I can’t speak highly enough about Dr. Stoddard and how much she helped to improve my life.

Michelle has been such a fantastic clinician and I had such a positive experience with her. She has helped me immensely.

I had an extremely positive experience with Annabelle over these past several months. I've had therapists before and she was heads above anyone I had worked with previously. She made me feel comfortable and gave me the space to share my feelings and concerns but also provided solid direction and had no problems repeating things to me in different ways so I could better understand them. She was able to maintain a very friendly working relationship with me without giving away too much personal information (which has happened to me with other therapists) but still allowing her "human side" to show to make me feel comfortable and not alone. She was able to answer all of my questions and was very helpful in guiding me to different realizations or answers that we were then able to discuss. She treated me with respect and gratitude. With her help, I now have the tools to work with my anxiety instead of against it. I truly cannot express enough how much I appreciate Annabelle and everything she taught me during our work together. She is clearly an amazing therapist with an excellent grasp of the science behind it and I feel so happy knowing that she will continue to help many more people in the future. 

I developed anxiety over several years stemming from chronic intestinal issues. My anxiety caused me to avoid unfamiliar places to eat and I would not venture too far from home and would only drive alone.I was absolutely terrified of anything that might trigger nausea and vomiting, and I wouldn't dream of getting on a boat for fear of getting sea sick. Did I mention I had a list of foods I would absolutely not eat? Stress would always make my anxiety worse and I actually wouldn't eat when I felt my intestines reacting to stress and/or just didn't feel good in general. I knew that I couldn't and didn't want to live this way for the rest of my life. I had seen cognitive behavioral therapy on television and decided to give it an honest shot. I spoke with Dr. Jill Stoddard over the phone and she couldn't have been more understanding. When I met with her she made me feel at ease and was confident she could help me. We spent the first few sessions in her office getting down to the core of my anxiety and educating me on how CBT works. The difficult  part came when we began to work on  ‘exposures’ that had triggered previous attacks. Jill would go to great lengths to create the most accurate exposures, and she was with me every step of the way. A couple times I wanted to quit, but Jill was always there to help me through it.  She was firm in not letting  me back out of the exposures, all the while remaining calm and supportive so I didn't feel like I was being forced. It's been a year and a half since I finished CBT and I have grown immensely as a person thanks to Jill! CBT was a challenge  because it required me to face all of the things that used to terrify me, but finally conquering them has been empowering. Today I'm willing to try just about anything and now it's rare for any anxiety to creep up. Every so often I still feel a little anxious, and perhaps I always will, but now those anxious feelings fuel me to push through whatever is causing it. I can't thank Jill enough. I no longer have to relinquish control of my life to things that might cause me to feel anxious or uncomfortable, and I feel like Jill has given me the tools to live my life in the driver's seat. 

Dr. Lopez is amazing.  I have been to many other doctors who have all done nothing (over 20 at least).  Dr. Lopez was the first doctor who actually understood and provided me with some viable solutions. Over the last two years, Dr. Lopez has improved my day-to-day life immensely. Further, it seems she always stays up to date on resources, books, ’techniques’, and more, which I really appreciate. Cannot say enough great things. 

Warmly,I had the opportunity to express my gratitude to Annabelle on a more personal note in our termination discussion. Professionally, her skills at listening and making space for me to express myself are phenomenal. Her ability to mold a therapeutic concept to the context of what we were discussing significantly helped me internalize and apply what I was learning. I know there was a lot of work going on in the background for her, but I never felt that she came to a session with her own agenda. She was there for me in that moment, and applied her knowledge and guidance in that context. I enjoyed my time with her and I feel extremely lucky to have connected with Annabelle specifically. We were always focused on working through challenging topics, but there was also laughter and happiness for exciting events in each other’s lives. 

When I had first talked to Dr. Stoddard, I was in an Emergency Room because I had the worst panic attack of my life and was extremely scared. My anxiety had gotten so out of control and I was afraid of what was happening.  I couldn’t hold down a job or go to school, and had become severely depressed to the point where I would go days without eating. I didn’t understand how all this had happened to me, I had always thought this sort of thing happened to other people. It was in Dr. Stoddard’s office that I learned a great deal about what was causing my anxiety.  The understanding of what was causing my problems allowed me to really work towards targeting the cognitions and behaviors that were causing them. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) with Dr. Stoddard isn’t structured like your typical therapy session. Instead CBT is designed to give you the tools to get back on your feet and eventually be strong enough to not feel the need to come back to therapy. 

I was at my rock bottom at the point in my life that I first started seeing doctor Lopez. I didn't think I could ever feel good again. Dr Lopez taught me about my anxiety and depression and with that knowledge we began to recover and come back to life. I learned what triggers my anxiety and depression and was taught a variety of techniques used to recognize these triggers and to be able to put things in perspective and keep myself in the moment. Dr Lopez is a wonderful listener and truly cares about her patients and is extremely knowledgeable in her field. I am better than I have ever been and it's has been a team effort. I am forever grateful that I found Dr Lopez because I could never have gotten better without her help. Thank you Dr Lopez and CSAM.

Today I flew for the first time in over 10 years. That should really sum up my experience with Dr. Lopez. For about 10 years I have experienced panic attacks and agoraphobia dealing with it either on my own or with various therapists. A few months back I decided to give therapy one more shot as previous therapy helped yet I really never overcame the symptoms of anticipatory anxiety and avoidance. I was not sure this therapy, like my previous experiences would have much impact. But I was open to trying again, as I had very little to lose and much to gain. We spent time going over foundation work in office using an ACT book to get a good idea about the theory/process. That was good but really the biggest improvements I observed was with repetitive exposures that Dr. Lopez set up on a weekly basis. We started out with low hanging fruit and worked up to exposures that were more difficult but were still manageable. In the end I just did what she asked, trusting that she wouldn’t ask me to do anything that I was not prepared to do. The results was with me flying for the first time in 10 years today, something I had assumed I would never again do just a few short months ago. Stepping in that office and giving therapy another shot was one of the best decisions I have ever made. One final thing is what really made the difference between this and the previous therapy experiences was the willingness of the therapist to go along on the exposures as opposed to going it alone and then reporting back to the therapist on the experience.

I hope CSAM continues to do video sessions. My resources for quality support were limited by where I live, and I feel quite lucky that CSAM was an option for me. While I was understandably nervous about my initial sessions with my therapist, I was far less stressed and anxious because I was able to talk with her from the comfort of my home. Previously, driving to a location and sitting in a waiting room really intensified my symptoms.