During this week's session, I brought up cultural competence and the importance of that for me as a person of color, for me and people working with my children. Dr. Cottam got frustrated and said, "I'm so sick of people playing the race card" to which I told her I'm sorry but this is our lives. She responded and told me, "her best friend is black. She's a director of diversity in Missouri." LOL! I told her to have a chat with her best friend about our conversation and get her feedback. We've been seeing her for about six months and my children don't feel comfortable talking to her and I've tried to encourage them but clearly, they were picking up on what I had been overlooking until she made it obvious for me.

Submitted Dec. 23, 2021

The following in my personal opinion. I hired Dr Cottam to do a custody evaluation. I regret this immensely.

Submitted Sept. 11, 2021

I do not recommend Dr. Glenda Cottam. She was appointed as the child custody evaluator in my husband's custody case. Her reports that she prepared for the Court were not consistent and she was biased towards my husband. For instance, my husband scored a 66BR on the Narcissism Scale on the MCMI-3 and my stepson's mom scored an 89BR on the Narcissism scale. In her diagnostic impression of my husband, she reported my husband has narcissistic traits and did not report that my stepson’s mom has narcissistic traits or Narcissistic Personality Disorder despite her score being 23 points higher than my husband's. Also, according to Hesse et al. (2012) a score > or = to 85BR on the MCMI-3 should correlate with the presence of a disorder yet Dr. Cottam did not diagnose my stepson's mom with Narcissistic Personality Disorder. Furthermore, Dr. Cottam reported in her diagnostic impression of my stepson's mom that "psychological testing suggested there could be a presence of some dysfunctional features" but failed to further explain what features. She also diagnosed my husband with Mood Disorder (unspecified) yet the psychological testing did not indicate the presence of a mood disorder as this was stated several times in her report. She provided no evidence to support her diagnosis of my husband. Dr. Cottam also omitted valuable information in her summary and recommendations. For instance, my stepson mentioned that it would be “odd” to attend a new school but he is able to make friends easily. She omitted his statement about being able to make friends easily. My stepson mentioned that he would like his mom to spend more time with him. Dr. Cottam omitted this information in her summary and recommendations. Dr. Cottam also disregarded my stepson’s mental health and prior social media activity which included suicidal ideation, mentioning of self-harm, sexually explicit conversations, and he was cyber-bullying others. My stepson was associating with some dark and disturbed people that talked about killing others and suicide daily. I am appalled that Dr. Cottam did not consider why my then 11 yr old stepson was drawn to those behaviors. My stepson needed to be restricted from social media, and he was able to open 4 social media accounts under his mom’s supervision which my husband had shutdown. If it wasn’t for my husband, my stepson would have continued to be allowed to view harmful online material. I strongly feel she purposely excluded valuable information in her summary and recommendation as to influence the Court to not award custody to my husband. In addition, Dr. Cottam did not provide a useful recommendation to the Court. Her recommendation provided generalized information and stated more about how the other parent feels instead providing an expert opinion. I am also disappointed that Dr. Cottam did not follow-up with my husband and my stepson’s mom to validate the information given during their individual meetings with her. My stepson's mom does not ensure my stepson receives consistent mental health counseling, does not provide him with proper supervision, and absolutely does not support her son’s relationship with his father. She makes my stepson call his stepdad "dad" and my husband by his first name. She was going across state lines to get CBD oil and giving it to my stepson without telling my husband. It was illegal in Iowa at the time and just because it widely accepted does not make it right. She was breaking the law and giving my stepson an illegal drug. My husband has made mistakes, but he is a good father. He is tired of feeling excluded from his son's life. My husband did not get custody of my stepson. It's so sad what it takes to remove a child from their mother's custody. If we want to get a grip on the mental health crisis in the United States, we need to focus on the mental health of children.

References

Hesse, M., Guldager, S., & Linneberg, I. H. (2012). Convergent validity of MCMI-III clinical syndrome scales. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 51, 172–184. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8260.2011.02019.x

Submitted Aug. 25, 2020

Dr. Cottam was on my side until I refused to pay $1,000 for her to come testify. She said she would write a letter in my favor. My ex agreed to pay her to come testify so she flipped sides. She had to back track when my attorney crossed her. She isn’t ethical. I would not go to her.

Submitted Aug. 15, 2020

Dr. Cottam helped me through some very hard times.

Submitted Oct. 9, 2019

Dr. Cottam is an outstanding psychologist and person. Dr. Cottam genuinely cares about her patients, she cannot always tell you what you want to hear but sometimes just has to tell you what you need to hear.

Submitted Dec. 6, 2018

She needs to lose her license. She is toxic and unethical. She has no empathy or sympathy

Submitted Dec. 1, 2018

Glenda cottam lacks integrity. She is biased, racist, and is full of herself. Stay away from this person professionally. If you are court ordere, use another psychologist since this one works for lawyers but will gladly take your money to evaualte you unjustly

Submitted Jan. 1, 2018