William Valdivia, PsyD

When one person says that a business or person has been a «life saver» it is usually a figure of speech. As someone who has battled clinical depression for 9 years «life saver» means exactly what it sounds like.
I have seen probably around 10 different psychologists and psychiatrists over these 9 years of struggle and I have to say Dr. Valdivia has been by far the most professional, intelligent, and insightful one out of the bunch. I can’t tell you how many times he has patiently listened to what I have to say for 30 minutes of non-​stop blabbing and then calming proceeds to either concisely articulate what I have said or provides help for me to come to an understanding of how to address the problems for myself. He never tells me what I am supposed to do he re-​frames the problems in a way in which I can understand and form my own conclusions. Don’t take it lightly that he is a doctor either. I have never come across anyone who has given me such insights into the subconscious mind as he has.
Beyond his knowledge Dr. Valdivia’s manner in which he conducts himself is also impressive. His demeanor is relaxed, yet he focuses on what you are saying with sharp concentration. Not easily excitable or animated he largely remains calm and composed. I always sense a deep confidence about him, but never arrogance. A true professional he is always well dressed, considerate and kind.
In a nutshell you’re dealing with a very high caliber psychologist here.
There is another review on here from a Unilocaler named Clinton who is entitled to his opinion of Dr. Valdivia, but from my perspective I find many of his complaints completely contradictory to my experience.
Parking is a breeze once you find the streets on the north side of Wilshire by Aaah’s to park. I have never had such ease in scheduling appointments with anyone as he quickly gets back to emails and phone calls. I consider myself to be very plant savvy and I have never seen any flies in his office and even if there were he would surely address them. There are indeed pictures on the floor (which is his artwork by the way) that can be hanged but the coloring is overpowering so he uses them as an accent in the room instead of a conversation topic.
Valdivia will only bring up his personal experiences in a session if it pertains to the subject at hand. After a year of seeing him twice a week he has never revealed to me his personal history. If anything Clinton’s review is dangerous as it may make someone in need of help to shy away from Dr. Valdivia, which in my opinion would be a grave mistake.
I truly look up to the man as a mentor and give him my highest recommendation. And yes, he has been a life-​saver.

After about 35 appointments, I couldn’t take anymore. I started seeing him for depression, something he understood from a medical perspective but not from a realistic perspective. If you just want a nice smiling psychologist to smile and nod and talk at you, this could be your guy. However, he’s difficult to schedule with, street parking around his office is complicated, and he just now billed me for an appointment I had five months ago.
In the 5 months that I saw him, his office remained in a state of flux — a fly-​ridden plant remained in the room while pictures lay waiting to be hung. This lackluster commitment to space carried through with his lackluster commitment to finding solutions.
After stagnation happened a few visits in, I pressed for the other options that he kept promising — longer appointments, activity-​based therapy, workbooks — and when they were finally undertaken, they were undermined by his overall misunderstanding of my depression.
If there’s one thing he does understand it’s his own story of struggle, which, while interesting, became annoying upon hearing it for the third through sixth time.
In brief, Dr. Valdivia does care about his patients, he just never seemed to know how to care; his naiveté became dangerous for me.