Build skills to go beyond medication

Dr. Brunner has a well-earned fantastic reputation in Tucson. Highly recommend.

Where do I start. Dr. Brunner is thoughtful, kind, generous with his time, engaged with your child. And most importantly treats your child as they need to be treated while being utterly transparent through the process. My child would not be where she is today... a college graduate that knows where she’s wants to go or at least has a strong idea of how to get there. Thank you Dr Brunner and Denise!

Over a year ago, after doing an incredible amount of research over about a month, my husband and I decided on Dr. Brunner. My husband is a researcher by trade, so we made sure to look at a wide variety of information about Dr. B, and a number of alternatives. Our situation was having a severely challenged son with a big set of academic, emotional and behavioral problems. Dr. B was very up front about how he would do his work, and he spoke with us before we even came into the office. He delivered what he promised. Yes, it took some extra time, but he clearly is detail oriented and IS guilty of taking some extra time to do the eval. If you want "drive through" generic assessment, and you are all about finding the cheapest option, do not go to him. But we had /have far different family Values. We were refreshed by how thoughtful he was in what he did, and how he presented his findings in a user friendly way so we had a road map out of the gate. I had read reviews about his not being on time, and our experience was if he ever started a bit late he had something serious he was doing, and his assistant was very helpful! Yes, the eval. was costly for us, but we saw it as preventing a much, much larger amount of money down the road going into much more expensive care if we did not nail this down then. Well worth the investment! We have friends that have a teenager who got into abusing drugs, and now is in a residential treatment program costing about 10K a MONTH. They never did an eval we recommended they have done. Do a 411 for yourself. He even told us what we had to do differently as parents, and followed through. I could see how people who do not like his opinion could get very angry at him. He does not coddle you, but the caring attitude is clearly there from beginning to end! Do your research!

Dr, Brunner was the court ordered evaluator for our legal decision-making evaluation, after my ex-wife and were engaging in some serious mud slinging. He took alot of time to do the evaluation , and neither my ex wife or I came out looking like angels. But neither of us were angels, we both had things to work on, and Dr. Brunner articulated what we needed to do to protect our children. I am grateful that he brought a cool reflectiveness to a heated and anger ridden situation. I know very few psychologists do court related work because if someone is not happy with the psychologists opinion, then they can write nasty reviews of them, that are meritless. I did get the sense that he is ultimately focused on what is BEST for the children involved. I am so glad he did the evaluation as he gave very user friendly recommendations that helped solve the case so we could all move on.

About a year ago, I was involved in a custody battle because the home my 12-year-old son was living in was very unhealthy for him psychologically. I suspected that he was being pressured to say and do certain things that were very out of character for him, but found it hard to demonstrate that in court without objective professional input from a seasoned psychologist. The other parent felt that I was causing my son’s problems and was coaching my son to believe that I was untrustworthy and manipulative. My attorney and I discussed the possibility of backing off from seeking custody for a while so that my child would no longer undergo this pressure. However, I was deeply concerned about the repercussions for him if he was left in that unhealthy environment for any longer. Eventually, the court ordered a psychological evaluation so they could sort out what was really going on and also have a recommendation for a therapeutic path forward for my child. Dr. Brunner was very conscientious throughout the entire evaluation process and I was relieved to see that he was very objective (this is important because people on opposing sides often vilify each other during these situations). He was careful to interview all parties and include that information in his report, even if his final assessment did not agree with that person’s opinion. He did thorough scientific testing on all of us and he was able to successfully determine what the true situation was and to advocate for the course of action that would be in the best interest of my son. That was extremely important to me because I didn’t feel that everyone in the case shared that perspective. The child’s safety and needs must come before the desires of any and all of the adults involved!! Since Dr. Brunner had built rapport with my child and had the skills needed to work with a traumatized adolescent, I had him treat my son after the court ruled giving me custody. He continued to work carefully and methodically and my son is doing so much better today! I truly appreciate how much Dr. Brunner tailors his approach to utilize the strengths and culture of the family. He found ways to encourage what he saw was working and teach us some new ways to interact. The advice he gave me on how to work with my child was extremely valuable to me and has proven effective time and again. Since my son and I both suffered trauma, parenting is a little different than it would be if one or both of us had not gone through the experience we did. However, Dr. Brunner was able to evaluate that situation and very kindly and gently guide us through and help us with coping skills for if/when things get bumpy. He was able to do all this without ever taking on the parental role himself and was careful to preserve my role in our family. This was instrumental to a smooth and successful reintegration of me and my son into our parent/child roles. Another thing that really impressed me was how much Dr. Brunner welcomed parental input and information. When my son was seeing him very frequently, we would talk weekly in addition to the written updates I gave him. I saw how Dr. Brunner used that information to successfully work with my child. He truly is scientific in his approach and I think that is one way that he stands out among other therapists. Overall, Dr. Brunner adheres to the highest of ethical standards. He was cautious about scientifically evaluating the situation to begin with and has never jumped to conclusions. Instead, I have seen him ask additional questions until he is sure he understands the situation and also makes sure that the person he is talking to has examples of their claims rather than just stating something from personal bias. He is also very careful about confidentiality and is someone whom I feel comfortable confiding in. I am so thankful that he was there when we needed him and that he was willing to report to and testify in court when needed. I know that therapists who do this get a lot of negative backlash, especially from those parents who are focused on their own desires and not what is best for their child. I am so thankful that he’s willing to endure that to be in a position to help families in need. Our court system is not equipped to recognize and respond to parental alienation or parents with their own psychological issues. Unless and until that changes, we will need astute, bold, and caring professionals like Dr. Brunner to come alongside us and help us protect our children! Our custody battle was resolved very quickly once Dr. Brunner got involved and now my son is well-adjusted and happy after receiving therapeutic care from him for the past nine months.

As a pediatrician and mother of 3, I have referred many families to Dr. Brunner over the last 10 years, as well as bringing one of our children to him for assessment. He handled our situation with respect and appreciated the complexity of our challenging child. No one I referred over to him complained to me about Dr. Brunner when I asked for feedback. Other than that he can run late but that is healthcare. I find him compassionate and straightforward, a rare combination. I also referred a few families who were going through divorce over to him, and while some had a hard time with his recommendations, as time passed and they cooled down, they seemed to see that he had their children's best interests at heart. I do not know how he does the emotionally draining work of being a good custody evaluator because inevitably if someone is unhappy in those legal situations they react emotionally instead of thinking objectively about what is best for their child. He is one of the few psychologists willing to do that legal work because of how reactively angry people get. I will continue to refer to him as I trust his judgement.

Dr. Brunner is an insightful forensic psychologist who is meticulous in his attention to the details of the issue at hand. He was involved at the end of my six-year child custody battle. He did an amazing job assisting the court in sorting through the facts and fictions in our custody case. I can tell you through my experience he seems somewhat cold-blooded in nature, however, he is extremely professional, organized, and is dedicated to doing the job right. He is, admittedly, somewhat expensive, but well worth it. After a custody battle that was ongoing for well over six years, he was able to highlight the facts for the court's attention in order to dissolve the matter after only thirty days. He went out of his way to prioritize the safety of the child, for which I am very grateful. His receptionist is an organized sweetheart, who was also very helpful. No disappointments other than cost.

Dr. Brunner flexibly and kindly worked with our military family to help us with our 6 and 9 year olds. We appreciated his making himself transparent by putting so much information on his website, because we wanted to carefully choose the right professional after having the first one not work out. Ugh!! But Dr. B went the extra mile! We have noted several negative reviews that are financially focused, and while we admit it was not cheap, we found Dr B to be fair, ethical, and cost-saving. I agree you should do your research, we did ours (including reviewing his resume , and were very pleased.

Dr. Brunner was extremely knowledgeable and thorough in his assessment and recommendations for treatment and services for my son. I wholeheartedly recommend him.

Dr. B was thorough in his assessment of the issue and provided a number of workable solutions tailored to fit the concerns he was presented with.