Brad Novak, MD

It’s probably a bit premature to evaluate Dr. Novak at this time, but with the reviews I read, I think he deserves my opinion. I have been diagnosed with major depressive disorder and anxiety and have been taking meds for it over a year now. I’ve been seeing Dr. Novak for the past year for these prescriptions and he was monitoring it every three months. Dr. Novak seemed a bit detached and clinical during that time. However, I now see him for therapy as well and he is the perfect Dr. when it comes to talk therapy. He confronts my thinking when I need to understand myself better. He is the perfect blend of clinician and yet empathy. I can’t imagine a better person to see for therapy. If you find one too empathic, they avoid the questions that you need to think about. If you find one too clinical, they seem like they don’t care at all. Dr. Novak is the perfect blend of compassion, empathy, and knowledge. I’m so glad to be able to see him to help me through the difficulties my life has at this time. He is also very easy to talk to and to trust; which for me has always been the biggest difficulty.

Dr. Novak failed to diagnose me after more than eight sessions. He prescribed excess medication and had me «experiment» with them. This has been the worst I have ever felt my entire life. I should have run away after the first visit but thought maybe he needed time to figure things out. I’ve since found another therapist that got the diagnosis and medication right after the second session and I’ve been feeling great for over a year.

well this whole thing of rating doctors on Unilocal — as one would a taqueria has it’s pluses and minuses. I spent an hour with Dr. Novak and found him to be very clinical. I didn’t really feel that he listened. Probably not the kind of person who i would personally want to council me. But after the appointment he was kind enough to send me a short summary of his observations. Those results were unexpectedly accurate as he reminded me of the elephant in the room. Dr. Novak said that I should really deal with my sleep apnea before working with anti-​depressants. And so even though I probably won’t see him again, his diagnosis is the basis of the work that I am doing with a therapist.
professional, bright, understanding

Dr. Novak is very knowledgeable and compassionate. I’ve been a patient of his for over three years now, and he’s been an enormous help to me. He’s excellent with meds management and helping you figure out what type/​dose is right for you. I’ve had anxiety and depression issues for most of my adult life and have been to lots of different mental health professionals. He’s one of the best out there both for talk therapy and for finding the right medication.
On the downside: like most psych doctors, he’s not contracted with any insurance companies so you’ll have to pay up front and seek reimbursement/​use FSA funds (if you have them.) But to be fair, this isn’t out of the ordinary for this specialty at all.
Bonus: he’s never booked out to a ridiculous degree and has always returned my calls within 24 hours. :o)