Charlene R Nemetz, LICSW

I saw her a few years ago for about five sessions. In her favor, I can say:
— she was in network with my insurance, and
— she was aware of community support groups.
She was the first therapist I saw — looking back, I’m amazed that I didn’t completely write off the entire mental health profession based on my experience with her. Therapy is supposed to be a safe place to work on difficult issues; I never felt safe with Charlene. The final straw was the homework assignment she gave me at the last session: write out everything I could remember about my life from birth until present. Putting aside the «I shouldn’t have to do your job for you» argument, does it seem like a good idea to ask someone who’s already depressed and having trouble functioning to do something that may well open up old wounds? I called shortly thereafter and left a message saying «I’m cancelling my appointment next week, and I don’t want to reschedule.» I’ve since learned that most professionals will ask for a closeout appointment to talk about what happened and to ensure continuity of care. As you might guess, that didn’t happen here.

I went to this woman for a year. I was receiving training in therapy while I was seeing her and I can say now that Charlene is the is the WORST. She is often reactive and gets defensive if you confront her about something you don’t like. Her manner is harsh and cold. She often said stuff to suggest that my upsetness was my fault so I shouldn’t be so upset. She was often late to start my sessions by 5 – 10 minutes and continued being late a few sessions after I had confronted her about it. Her office is VERY messy and sometimes smelly because of her dog. She often took time in the beginning of the session to move a number of her plants to the window while I sat there and waited. If I had any problem with her, she would often make comments to suggest that my expectations were too high or ridiculous, but this often applied to things that very very reasonable like being on time or providing simple receipts. She can be very condescending and dismissive. I would advise to find someone else.