Judge relied heavily on Dr. Doyne's testimony to help me win my very important custody case in which my ex wife was trying to take my autistic 4 year old son to canada. We won the move away and I won custody and saved my son's life. Thank you Dr. Doyne!!!

Submitted Feb. 19, 2024

Dr. Doyne was professional, empathetic, and impartial in handling our custody case. He applied decades of expertise to help us achieve real solutions. Dr. Doyne’s involvement in our case led to significant changes that are greatly benefiting our son, and will continue to do so for years to come. Dr. Doyne’s Office Manager was also extremely helpful through the whole process. Christine was attentive and caring, which made all the difference during this stressful time.

Highly recommend!

Submitted Dec. 31, 2022

Dr. Doyne is dishonest and horrific to work with . Working with him has had a lasting and devastating impact on my family. Avoid working with him at all costs.

Submitted Dec. 27, 2022

This guy is unprofessional and biased. Not sure if he's senile or duplicitous or both but has allowed my daughters' chaos with their dysfunctional mother to just escalate so he can keep getting more and more money. He is a charlatan and encourages conflict. If I had only known. There's no way to stop him.

Submitted Nov. 20, 2022

AVOID AT ALL COSTS! This guy is an absolute joke! He’s nearly 80 years old, and not a “young 80” either. His thought process is not intact anymore and seems confused with what you are saying. He is very forgetful and needs to be retold the same stories or bits of info over and over. At the beginning of the endless interview sessions he demanded, he did not remember who I was or any details of the case. I had to start from scratch every time. The report he produced was incredibly inaccurate, including the basics like names, ages, etc. By the time he was finished with his evaluation, to the tune of $18,650 !, my ex wife and I agreed alongside the judge to throw out his entire report due to all the inaccuracies and generic recommendations. It is my honest and firm belief that this man is a crook, has been for many many years, and is now too old to be of any usefulness in court recommendation custody cases. He needs to retire and stop abusing San Diego county families in their time of weakness, stress, and heartache. Enough is enough. Your crime spree is over- you’ve stolen more than enough!

Submitted July 17, 2022

Dr. Doyne's job is extremely difficult, and is usually involved where there are significant concerns. It is unsurprising that persons involved would leave negative reviews for the very same underlying reasons and concerns that brought them into Dr. Doyne's office. Nobody likes being told they have an issue or are wrong, and it can be very difficult for people to recognize and address those very concerns.

Submitted June 13, 2022

Where do I start, Doyne will be in my book along with the judicial system!!!! As as a dad, i raised my daughter over 50% from birth till 12 1/2. My ex who shes been calling her Fiance (allegedly) for the last 5 years who don't live together, is a retired lawyer, 71 years old and yes... i would call that more of a "Daddy" They took me back to court and they offered me weekend duty. I told them dont insult me. Went in the court room and instead of taking the weekend duty deal, I ended up with supervised visitation all due to Steven Doynes decision. He said I should have supervised visitation due to my baby girl calling me to wish me a happy birthday as she asked, dad... whats wrong cause I was trying to hold back my emotions and I said your mother has full custody and that was 21 August, 2016, 4 months after my daughter and I had a great 2 weeks in Florida. The judge asked him 3 times, are you sure he should have supervised visit and he responded yes. Below comment freaked me out, he always fell asleep on me. So I asked my daughter, what do you think of Dr. Doyne? She said I hate him, he always falls asleep!!! After the decision, I was stunned as they finally made me leave. I opened the door and. Doyne was in the circle of trust with all the prosecutors and everyone singing KUN BY YA and had the Gaul to say Hi! If still alive, he should have all his assets ceased and sent to Prison. Its 28 Feb 19 and I am still dealing with it. I will have her back very soon as it is inevitable. Lost my house, my retirement savings, property, finally had to use my daughters college fund etc. Lets not talk about the money, time, tax payers money etc. The pain and suffering that has been done to my daughter and I has been unbearable. She was 12 and now will be 15. Im only 1 victim among all, but something has to be done. I can only imagin the benefits he accumulated over the years under the table. Hey Doyne, if your still alive.. you deserve to be tried and punished along with everybody involved for all the pain and suffering you have caused so many familys. Do not try and defend yourself regarding negative matching comments below It not only makes you sound guilty, but weak as well. Anybody know about the true story with AL Pacino in Serpico!!!

Submitted March 1, 2019

I hired Dr. Doyne to mediate a custody dispute. I explained to him that we hired him because it was less confrontational than court, private, and would resolve the dispute quickly. He agreed. We signed a contract.

He reneged on every promise he made. He turned what should have been a three or four hour mediation into a multi-month long "custody evaluation", insisting that I travel from my home in Los Angeles to his offices in San Diego almost weekly. He would also invite both parties to call him to discuss "issues." I simply wanted to end the process as quickly as possible as his practice of encouraging conflict was causing everyone unnecessary stress. He also ran up his bill from an initial estimate of $2,500 to nearly a ten thousand dollar bill.

I objected, and sent him a letter reminding him of the many promises (that he broke). I told him I would continue to participate in quickly resolving the mediation, but he had different plans. He retaliated by reporting me to CPS for entirely ordinary "rough-and-tumble" with my son, which my son loved for years. Dr. Doyne second guessed my judgment and reported me to CPS. A CPS agent contacted me, interviewed me, and told me on the spot that he saw no child abuse. Dr. Doyne, on the other hand, filed a declaration with the family court claiming that I had "frightened" my son. The court immediately shifted custody to my ex-wife and scheduled a hearing. Outside of the courtroom before the hearing, my attorney and I met with Dr. Doyne. My attorney told me "if you ever want to see your son again, you must pay his bill." Dr. Doyne simply stared at me and shook his head "yes."

I was appalled--this man promised to mediate the case for $2,500---yet once I objected to his soaring fees and conflict-inducing behavior, refusing to pay for his conflict-inducing practices, he retaliated. He went into the courtroom and testified falsely, claiming that I held my son over the edge of a balcony. This was an outright lie--exactly the opposite of what he told CPS. My ex-wife used the incident to claim I had abused my son by enjoyable rough-housing with him as was normal for us. Even Dr. Doyne acknowledged it was play, but nevertheless testified that I was a bad father. Clearly he was abusing his authority and intent on inducing me to pay more that our contract allowed.

I was stunned. Clearly Doyne was far, far more interested in lining his pockets than helping our son by helping us to get to a stable situation. He encourage both parties to attack each other. My ex-wife was more than happy to do so--mostly exaggerations, lies, accompanied by crocodile tears. I disproved her lies, but as long as she was willing to keep paying his bills, he was more than happy to do her bidding.

Doyne is simply a crook. He lied in court, lied to both me and my ex-wife, and I later came to find out has lied to dozens of his San Diego clients. His methods are widely criticized by clinical psychologists (which he pretends to be). Yet because his clients blindly trust him, he is (normally) able to pick their pockets with impunity.

Hire Doyne at your enormous risk to your and your child/ren. Family court is a cesspool-more likely than not your attorney is not acting in your best interest. As a co-parent, you have a long-term relationship with your co-parent-like it or not. Every reputable psychologist looks upon the likes of Doyne with disgust--as is appropriate. He is simply evil.

There are more healthy resources such as UpToParents.org, TransParenting, and "traditional" mediation. The key is to identify NON-family court professionals. There are excellent professional mediators who can resolve any type of conflict. Family lawyers will tell you to hire only family law practitioners because non-family law professionals are ignorant. If your lawyer tells you this, he or she is lying. Fire them and find someone who is able to recognize the well-documented weaknesses of family court and protect your interests, which most importantly means avoiding conflict and preserving (or rebuilding) a peaceful, prosperous future for your child/ren, you, and--believe it or not--your child's other parent.

Good luck and God bless--and stay as far away as possible from Doyne and his kind.

Submitted Jan. 20, 2018

It is so hard for me to understand the horrible reviews some people are writing about Dr. Doyne. However, I am happy to see that there are so many deserved positive reviews. Dr. Doyne is wonderful, caring, honest, fair and compassionate. He has gone above and beyond for our family and for many other people. The quality I love most about Dr. Doyne is his honesty. He will always tell you the truth even if you don't want to hear it because he knows that his clients need the truth to heal and move forward with their lives. Maybe that is why other reviewers have said negative things about him on Yelp. The truth is hard to hear, but it is the only way to make real changes in life. I am incredibly grateful that Dr. Doyne became a part of our lives when we needed him the most!

Submitted Dec. 4, 2016

Nearly 10 years ago, Dr. Doyne helped me sort through what our judge called "the most complicated divorce (he'd) ever seen" and to stay focused on what was best for our daughter. Dr. Doyne is intelligent, wise and kind. In the throes of our divorce and custody drama, he even managed to make me laugh a little. I continue to check in with him from time to time, after all these years, because he truly knows my psychology and he helps me feel centered. I trust him. I highly recommend Dr. Doyne. He is fearless in protecting children and takes great care of families.

Submitted June 14, 2015