Rich-Holtzberg Ilene, San Francisco CA

Ilene is certainly not for the weak of heart. She's direct, straight-forward, blunt and gives feedback Most people that seek therapy seem to want someone to coddle them, tell them the world is out to get them and ruin their life. Dr. Holtzberg makes you take a good long look in the mirror to see how your behavior is impacting your life, which is the right way to go! You can only control your own behavior and how you interpret and interact with the world. Only go to her if you're truly ready to take responsibility for yourself and what you've been doing in your life. She's been immensely helpful to me. Sure, she's chaotic and bit unorganized but she's super intelligent and take an educated, research-first approach to care. Highly recommend I've been working with her for over a year and a half. Some sessions are hard, but worth it. She's flexible on scheduling and doesn't penalize you when life gets in the way of self-care. Also she's hilarious, but again do not go to her if you are looking to be told you are right and not ready to face yourself. You won't like what she has to say.

This horrible therapist was extremely offensive, not helpful at all, and billed my insurance $700 for four sessions, 3 of which i never attended because I realized she was awful. She should have her medical license revoked

I genuinely enjoyed working with Ilene.

She's been my therapist for a few months now and I have appreciated her candor and truth-telling. She is without a doubt different from my previous therapists who I also enjoyed working with. She is a highly educated, opinionated woman that was a good fit for me at a time where I wanted someone to "shake me up" and tell me the truth. There have been other times in my life where compassion, patient listening and kinship where the primary needs I had from a therapist to heal. What I can vouch for with her is that if you want a fierce advocate and someone who will fight with you for your freedom from [a relationship, workplace, oppressive culture], you'll have an ally and coach in her.