Reviews of Thomas F. Burns, PhD (Psychiatrist)

Anne Wiesman

If you have a court recommendation to get an evaluation through this "Dr." Run. Do not go to see him. He has no regard for the well being or best interest of children. In our case we went from the GAL ordering no visits for a year with my children's father after an assault on our daughter, to then a recommendation by this doctor separating our youngest daughter from her sibling, me and her stepdad with no warning at all. We put her our 12 year old on the bus one day to go to school and then did not see her or talk to her for over 5 months. No warning, no bags packed, no goodbyes. Dr. Burns if you are going to go against GAL recommendations, don't call it parental alienation. If you are going to separate an innocent child from their mother who has been their primary caregiver their entire life and sibling to send them with no warning to live with an abusive father who they have not seen in a year due to the GAL not allowing it, at least have the decency to not traumatize the child and have a transition from one home to the other in a therapeutic setting so the child can properly process the transition. Can you imagine being 12 years old and getting on the school bus one day and then never coming home again? That is what you did to our child. You are a disgraceful human being and a poor excuse for a professional therapist. I pray you never do this to another family and more importantly another child. When these kids grow up they are going to want answers. I hope these doctors that subject children to this have class action suits against them for the unnecessary pain and trauma they subject these children too. And if you feel the child was being alienated, which is term not even accepted by the American Psychological Association take it up with the GAL who ordered no visits, instead of punishing the child or the mother who asked the GAL for a year for at least supervised visits with the father. Your excuse was that the child was crying when speaking about her father. Of course she was, it was a sad situation. The last time she had seen her father he shoved and grabbed her. It was obviously difficult to discuss and very upsetting. Anyone would get upset discussing such a thing especially a child. If you felt she should be having visits then that should have been conveyed to the GAL, as I the mother had tried to do with the GAL who was in charge. I could not go above the GAL recommendation and force her to go on visits. Also, wanting your children to be safe on visits and not come home crying hysterically with bruises on them is not parental alienation, it is parental protection. Do we want mothers to protect their children or don't we? Do we want GAL's too? Who is responsible if a parent places their hands on their children or abuses them? In this case apparently the other parent. This was a father that threatened for 8 years to take the children. He filed for full custody, not shared custody. He wanted control, he wanted to punish me for leaving him and most importantly he wanted to win. This had nothing to do with his care or love of his children. Why not ask ourselves what sort of father would want to take a child from their mother? In that year that he had no visits he never once asked the judge for visitation or to see his children, not once. Congratulations on helping him gain full custody and accomplish his years of threats while having no accountability at all for his abuse that got him into trouble with the GAL in the first place. You have shown a child that if she discloses abuse she will be punished and taken from her mother. What a sad world we live in where abusers are rewarded for threats and abuse and children are punished. Amazing how if he had just kept his hands to himself none of this would have happened, but once again nobody wants to hold him accountable for his actions, it's always someone else's fault. Do we make him abusive? How convenient for the abusers and the saddest part is that children are the ones who pay the price.I'm not sure how you live with yourself.