Berkeley Therapy Institute

I had a terrible, dispiriting experience with Dr. Levine that set me back for years, as he talked me out of treatments that later saved my life. He once even let me wait while he talked on the phone with his stockbroker – I went upstairs from the waiting room to ask the front desk what was going on, and he had his door cracked; I heard him talking to his broker, not even caring if I heard (or assuming I was downstairs and couldn’t overhear). He was the same way inside the office: incredibly dismissive, sometimes contemptuous. I don’t know if she wrote here too, but a user on Levine’s individual Unilocal listing had a similar experience to mine. I wrote there too, and I recommend people considering him read her review as well. Both of us had the fun experience of being told that our experiences were completely invalid.
Dr. Levine took me off of the right medicine for me rather than take me up to a therapeutic dose: this medicine, later prescribed by a good doctor who’s since retired, was the most effective treatment I’ve ever had. I didn’t need it, said Levine, because the illness I have since been properly diagnosed with and came to him having been diagnosed with (Bipolar II) «doesn’t exist.» It was in the DSM IV, but I couldn’t have had it, because he didn’t believe in it or didn’t want me to believe it was possible that this was the cause of my exactly-​the-​symptoms-​listed-​in-​the-​DSM-​IV symptoms. He talked me out of doing an outpatient day program because it would be of no use to me to be there at a place for people with «real problems» (or something similar to that). He told me that he had treated people with serious mental illness, and that I wasn’t one of them, suggesting that I was exaggerating things as though I thought having bipolar disorder was romantic or something. I was so suicidal as to essentially be homebound, and he told me what I needed to do was stop thinking of myself a writer – that’s…my job? – and thinking that I’m some special suffering artist. I needed a real job and to basically accept that I’m no special snowflake. And I’m not: I’m among the approximately 25% of people in this country who’s experienced mental illness in her lifetime – and I experience it every day, severely, to the extent that I’m working on getting on disability. (I’m on the right medicine now and it changed my life profoundly, but this never really goes away for me, and I’m currently adding antidepressants to the medicine (Lamictal) that really changed my life and which I’ll always take.) I’ve been severely sick since my early teens, and I made some little flirts with suicide in elementary school. I brought up a frustrating, near-​incapacitating and very, very real problem with self-​sabotage, and he scoffed and said he always heard from people saying they would be president if not for self-​sabotage, as though this couldn’t be an issue with me at all and that I once again just thought I was special and should snap out of it – that that was my only problem. A side effect I was having from an antidepressant «wasn’t possible.» Well, I had a friend who’d had the same experience, and, as the other reviewer I mentioned said, everyone is different. You’d think a grown man, a physician no less, would know that.
I came to Dr. Levine because he has a great reputation. I regret it deeply. It was only like eight years later – for a while I just gave up on psychiatrists altogether, suffering horribly but not even bothering because I’d had two terrible experiences and felt like no one could ever help me or even pretend – that I got on the very medicines, with the very diagnosis, that Levine dismissed entirely. They were exactly what I needed and exactly what I was suffering from. To this day I marvel at the memory of a widely respected psychiatrist cutting into my appointment, with his damn door partly open, to talk on the phone with his psychiatrist. If you see Dr. Levine, that’s where your money’s going.
I have heard good things about Dr. McKay. I wish I’d seen him instead. To this day I get very upset thinking about Dr. Levine and what those intervening years could have been like if he’d kept me on that medicine and not talked me out of getting the intensive day treatment I needed. I spent the next year in bed at my mom’s house, battling nonstop thoughts of suicide. Thanks, Richard Levine. Turns out my experiences are real.

My initial disorder was sleepwalking and terrible migraines (migraines related to sleep issue). The first practitioner, a doctor I saw at BTI prescribed a rather heavy drug that helped me sleep through the night for a couple of nights but then I found myself sleep walking in a very heavily drugged state. I tried talk therapy with the doctor who I found too brutal and not effective for me plus the doctor no longer took my insurance. The practice suggested Amy the NP and she and I had a couple of sessions but the patient therapist relationship did not take at that time.
I left therapy expecting my primary physician to prescribe the drugs given to me at BTI. She refused saying they were narcotic and addictive. OK, so I stopped all drug therapies for a couple of years.
Perhaps there is a time in life when one is more receptive to talk therapy. My PCP would not prescribe the drugs BTI gave me but encouraged me to try to talk to somebody to help with what she saw as major depression.
Now my insurance covered BTI and I returned to see Amy. When she clarified that an individual in my particular life situation would be wholly insecure and depressed just as a matter of human need, I realized I’d found someone to whom I could relate. I thrive best with a gentle nurturing therapist and I am very grateful to have found this lovely person who helps me on my journey to understanding why the heck I respond in certain ways and how to make my life better.
She is a nurse so she can give practical medical advice. Clearly I am an anxiety ridden individual. After over 60 years of living with myself, one would assume I would have known? But no, I did not have that perception. Amy suggested attention to breath and nourishment (eat breakfast — thanks Amy) habits to combat being controlled by fear. It seems so simple but nobody, general doctors, psychiatrists or psychologists had ever given me that insight. Yes, early life trauma will do a number on one’s emotional and mental health but those issues were decades ago — not completely irrelevant, but after many attempts to fix myself through therapy, I came to Amy’s practice, cynical & hopeless.
Amy has made my life better. I come to each appointment with issues that we mutually consider; maybe consider further, and end with some resolution. There is a contentment and peace to my life in this therapy. I highly recommend Amy, for those of us who need a sensitive and sensible practitioner.
Wishing all who read here, good mental health. Thank you wonderful Amy.

I’ve been seeing Dr. White for several years now. I moved to the peninsula a year and a half ago but I have continued to see Dr. White because he’s the best doctor I’ve ever had. He always answers my phone calls at the end of the business day (usually around 7pm-8:30pm) and at times I have needed to talk to him urgently and he has been available through an answering service, even late at night, to help if it’s urgent. My only (minor) complaint is that the front desk hardly ever answers the first time I call and sometimes takes a day or two to get back. The admin team is great but they are busy.

This review is for Lily Kadosh at BTI who recently graduated with a PsyD degree (She introduced herself as such at our first meeting). After two-​three months of weekly visits, she was not able to produce any insight (that I had not prompted or thought of) or offer any added value in the form of suitable questions or prompts for new chains of thought. There were moments of awkward silence in several sessions where she’d just go «hmmm» or nod. I felt like I had to keep talking to avoid those awkward silences that included her staring at me. I overlooked this for the first three weeks assuming that since I was a new patient, she wouldn’t have much to say anyway. But it went on till my last visit. Very odd. A few other things that make this an inconvenient place: She also doesn’t check her official BTI email and only uses voicemail as a form of communication. I emailed BTI about being matched with someone more experienced but so far only crickets.
Be sure to ask if you will be visiting with a real and experienced psychologist or a recent grad who is still accruing hours in order to be certified completely. Better still go elsewhere more organized if your insurance permits.

I have been a patient of Dr. Richard Levine since 1995. Bottom line, he saved my life. As a depressed, anxiety ridden, drug addicted kid in my early 20’s, I was all set to take myself out as I had no hope.
Not only was I able to get my anxiety, addiction & depression under control with the help & compassionate care of Dr. Levine, but I felt safe there. When I started going to the current office, I was and have been treated with respect, empathy and patience from everyone there including the reception and billing departments.
I have been in quite a few medical establishments, rehabs, hospitals etc. & I have to say that I wish every office/​medical group was as helpful and kind. They deal with a crazy amount of people and they all have issues. I have missed appointments and paid for them. No one was rude or threatened to stop treating me. No big deal.
I have worked as a social worker with lots of doctors and I can say with certainty that Berkeley Therapy is as good as it gets. All the other doctors at this office I have been in contact with have been very helpful when I needed help & Dr. Levine was not in town.
I recommend seeking help at this office as Dr. Levine & everyone there actually cares and will not shut you out like many sub par Dr’s and practices. You also won’t get a bunch of unnecessary medication dumped on you. Again, no exaggeration, Dr. Levine & Berkeley Therapy played an essential role in my continued existence. Thank you!

This review is for Dr. Kevin White. I have been working with him for about a year and half now and hands the best psychiatrist that I have ever worked with. I am saying in all honesty since I have worked with several psychiatrist before and have had the worst luck with them. He is a great doctor to work with, really takes the time to listen to you, ask how medications are affecting me (if I am on only), explains medications well and has not pressured me to take medication I don’t want to, which was a reoccurring problem I had with the last psychiatrist I worked with. His availability is pretty good and depending on your current mental state he will get you in as soon as possible if it is an emergency. He is also pretty good about returning phone calls properly if there are any concerns or questions that need to be addressed. Like I said, he is great to work with and I defiantly recommend him to anyone who is looking to start at BTI.

If I could give NO stars, I would.
My beloved daughter suffered a serious episode of depression – so serious that she was hospitalized for several weeks. Upon her discharge, we needed to find a psychiatrist that could monitor her on her medications. Because she’s an adolescent, this is a serious concern.
I made an appointment with Dr. Kevin White at the Berkeley Therapy Institute. All seemed well – he accepted our insurance (which is a HUGE deal, as we’re not in a financial position to pay the fees and wait to be reiumbursed) and he had availability.
This morning, I bring my daughter in for her first appointment, only to discover there had been a mix up. Either I noted it in my calendar incorrectly, or the person I made the appointment with noted it in HER calendar incorrectly. The first appointment was for YESTERDAY.
Uh oh, says I. So sorry. Can we reschedule?
Nope. We’ve been blackballed. That’s their «policy.»
Again, I explain that there must have been a mix up and take full responsibility. I explain that my daughter’s mental health is at issue here. The answer is unchanged. No. Dr. Kevin White will not see your child – not now, not ever.
If you’re struggling with any kind of mental health issue, do not – I repeat, do NOT – make an appointment with this provider. The idea that they’d leave my teenaged daughter hanging out to dry over a SCHEDULING mix up is unconscienable.
If this is how they treat potential patients, you’d be well advised to find another doctor – ANY other doctor – who has some modicum of compassion. Because this guy? He’s not it.

Okay, so I went here for affordable therapy. What I got was someone trying to bleed me dry for 25% of my monthly income. Why? I don’t know, maybe the young woman working on her doctorate needed the money for school and I was the only one she wasn’t making enough money from. Sessions went well, but were often short due to my therapist being late. I eventually ran out of available monthly funds due to other issues and stopped coming her, but it could have been worse. I did get to talk about a lot of things at a time when I really needed to talk.
CHAD

This is where Dr. Levine and Dr. Shane Mckay practice. Dr. McKay is perhaps the best psychiatrist specializing in drugs in the East Bay.