Dr. Denise Goldsmith, PHD

HORRIBLE!! Do not recommend. Both parties moved together to a remote area. The mother, by choice, moved more than 1 1.5 hrs. away. For almost 2 years the father has had full custody of the kids due to the mother's mental illness. Dr. Goldsmith recommends that both parties live within 10 min of each other. She expects the father to leave his fulltime job, making $50hr, with amazing benefits to move within 10 min of the mother, who needs to remain close to her mental health doctors, whom she has been seeing virtually for 5 years, not once in person, and family members to help her. The mother knows the father will lose his job and won't be able to find something with similar pay. The mother told the father he can get on Medicaid, food stamps and get help from the housing authority, like her. The mother claims her mental illness is better. Yet can't seem to work more than 15 hours a week due to her anxiety and stress. The mother admits the girls go days without being bathed.

I would not recommend Denise Goldsmith to anyone.

I thought she really took the time to understand the situation. She listened and made the best possible choices for our situation and I agreed with her recommendations 100%. She cared about what was best for my children and tried to help us come to an agreement that worked for both of us.

Although Dr. Goldsmith did not recommend the custody that I feel would have been best for my child, I do believe she read and listened to everything I presented her. It's clear that she loves children and takes her role seriously. I think she, like the courts in general, leans havily towards a 50-50 recommendation if it's at all possible, which is what she recommended in our situation. For those going through it for the first time and wondering what to expect, the evaluation included an initial 2-3 hour appointment with both parents separately, one at the end as well. She met with my son a couple times. She did a home observation for maybe an hour or two. She did reach out to teachers, his counselor, and called most family and friend references provided. There is a pen & paper psychological evaluation test. The process takes about 3 months and is the hardest thing I've ever been through. She won't have access to any of what you've gone through in court, so you will have to start o

Dr Goldsmith performed a custody evaluation in our case. She pretended to be an expert in child psychology, but then proceeded to recommend that a one-year-old be separated from his primary caregiver for 7 days at a time, three times a year. Anyone who has a one-year-old knows that this is a stunning lack of judgement. In her defense though, she never claimed that there wouldn't be any psychological harm as a result of her recommendation. Please do not trust this woman, she is not qualified.