Cynthia McReynolds, MFT

I’ve been seeing Cynthia for nearly two years. I’ve seen her individually, my ex-​husband has seen her individually and we also saw her together for marriage counseling. What an amazing experience.
I grew up in a family that poo-​pooed therapy. After some traumatic family events, I tried therapy — after trying 5 different therapists in 3 counties over a period of 8 years, I had pretty much given up and thought it was such a waste of time and money. I figured my friends could give me better advice and at least I knew their backgrounds to know whether I trusted their intution.
That was all true until I met Cynthia. She has been an unwavering supporter of mine from the beginning — the good, the bad and the ugly. She is a consummate professional, never letting me derail our work with too much conversation (something all the other therapists allowed to happen). She is sharp as a tack and worldly, too.
I know four other couples from my neighborhood in Portola Valley who see her. All the men in the couples have in common the fact that they are incredibly bright and reasonably resistant to therapy. Cynthia has won every single one of them over.
Working with Cynthia has been a life changing experience for me. What a luxury the ride has been. I couldn’t be any more grateful. You’d be lucky to have the chance to work with her.

I think Cynthia is highly skilled as a therapist, even brilliant in some ways, but has some shortcomings:
(1) She was seeing my wife as an individual client while also working lightly with us in our relationship. That felt unbalanced for me. Other therapists might call this unethical.
(2) I think she leans toward the feminist view of relationships, and seems to make assumptions about a typical psychological model for men. It may work for most guys, but it didn’t fit for me.
(3) She seems to tell her patients what is wrong, and then ask them what THEY are going to do about it. I think Cynthia would jokingly call that «kicking her patients’ butts,» and a few times I appreciated it, but I think that approach can occasionally be borderline abusive. I’ve experienced therapists who are more effective at being strong and bighearted — without any trace of harshness — and offer clear solutions, not just problems.
I recommend instead finding a therapist from Real Relational Solutions:
If you want to improve your relationship, another great relationship therapist is Daniel Wile (in Oakland):