Andrea Barclay

As a concerned older brother and family member, I find myself in a position where I must strongly discourage anyone from using Ms. Barclay’s services. My family (sister, father and mother) engaged with Ms. Barclay as part of a court-appointed process requested by my mother wherein Ms. Barclay would reconcile (RT) my sister after years of alienation with my mom. My sister engaged in this reluctantly, but we encouraged her nonetheless as it seemed like a good idea at the time. While there is a plethora of examples to choose from in Ms. Barclay’s repeated repugnant and unprofessional behaviour, I will simply list three. Her unwavering persistence on an inflexible and often damaging visitation schedule with my mother for my sister who was 15 at the time, often led to crying and panic. This is due to deep-rooted family trauma caused directly by one of my parents — which Ms. Barclay failed to understand and acted according to presuppositions of what she felt was best. Her inflexibility expressed this clearly, as the unwillingness to listen to my sister’s concerns left my sister feeling compromised emotionally and morally. Ms. Barclay’s failure to listen and understand the situation she was appointed by the court to handle and to provide counsel and recommendations on, led to frequent problems caused by Ms. Barclay. Including missed times in her rigid schedule (failing to recognize life does not allow one to adhere to an inflexible schedule) and charging $300 per email correspondence as a result of her demanding the other parent not involved in the reconciliation, remedy the issue she caused. Never missing an opportunity to bill my father exorbitant amounts for her mistakes. Finally, my sister expressed to me concerns over Ms. Barclay’s condescending tone and overstepping on my sister’s mental health issues. Having never spoken to any of the medical professionals in my sister’s life, to understand my sister’s mental health. It is entirely unreasonable that she make sweeping statements about said mental health and continue to make recommendations of how the RT should continue. Objectively, committing to something without understanding the facts, would risk (and did in fact) compromise my sister’s mental health for months. Ms. Barclay should be ashamed of her behaviour throughout this process and anyone appointed into her services or looking to explore them willingly should absolutely find an alternative source of therapy. As anyone who willfully forces children into traumatic experiences with no regard for their wellbeing throughout should see not a cent of profit.

Andrea Barclay proved to be the most incompetent and unprofessional social worker I have ever had the displeasure of interacting with. Ms.Barclay was appointed by a court order, at the request of my mother, to work with my family as a reconciliation therapist. She was appointed to aid my sister and mother in rebuilding their damaged relationship, but, unfailingly manipulated my family at every opportunity and ultimately damaged their relationship, and my sister's emotional wellbeing exponentially. I will actively discourage anyone from using Ms.Barclay’s services or, furthermore, simply interacting with her. Ms.Barclay approached the reconciliation with a prescribed theory that is not based in any psychological or scientific truth, but rather ignorance and pride. She consistently ignored the wishes of my sister and advised a visitation schedule that thrust my sister into the same anxiety-inducing environment in which a very short while ago, she felt a desperate need to flee. Ms.Barclay’s overtly biased and harmful approach to reconciliation subjected my sister to intense anxiety and belittling on a near daily basis for the entirety of her time overseeing my sister and mother's relationship. Ms.Barclay’s failure to consult with medical professionals involved in overseeing my sister’s mental health was not only wildly irresponsible, but potentially life threatening. Ms.Barclay’s goal was quite clearly not repairing the damaged relationship in my family, but rather collecting cheques at the expense of my sister’s well being, as well as her relationship with her mother. Ms.Barclay is a self-serving parasite. To anyone who has the misfortune of working with Ms.Barclay in the future, they will find her only professionalism lies in financial manipulation and the utter disregard for and jeopardization of the emotional and physical wellbeing of her clients.

I have had a terrible experience with Mrs Barclay. She is unprofessional, has little knowledge of psychology, makes a lot of dishonest statements, she did a lot of damage to our child while working for our family, and did not care about it at all! She misinterpreted her qualifications when was hired. She took financial advantage as well. She estimated her services would be $2,000. Eventually final bill was way over $10,000. She is really "biased" and with "attitude" like Another reviewer described her.

The previous reviews on Google, and multiple other forums online such as Bark.com and 411.ca, are very much aligned to my daughter’s experience and my personal experience with Ms. Barclay. In my opinion, Ms. Barclay’s practice showed no credible basis in science, peer-reviewed data, or common sense. She appeared to not take history into account, overlooked domestic violence in favour of parental rights, victim-blamed, and undermined children’s rights and voices. Her billing practices are vague and lack transparency. She charged me excessive rates for the quality of the services provided to me, and appeared to hide behind a broken court system, court orders that she seemed to be able to exert influence upon herself, with ethically questionable contracts to prolong her services far beyond what seemed necessary or affordable. In my personal experience, Ms. Barclay tried to distort the reality of an abusive situation and normalized abusive actions. When I stood my ground with her, she resorted to deceitful practices, such as undermining what was discussed in previous sessions or written in emails, and gas-lighting me into believing a different version of my own lived experiences. She appears to have close affiliations with organizations and other questionable family court players who push the theory of parental alienation (i.e. The AFCC & Family Bridges). I have filed a formal complaint with her College, but that process seems to move extremely slowly. I am hoping this review, and that of many others, might help protect families from the dreadful and impacting experience that my daughter and I went through. If your lawyer, or another court-involved professional, recommends Ms. Barclay's services, my personal recommendation is to do whatever you can to NOT sign a contract with her.

WARNING!!! Make sure to do your research prior to going to see Andrea Barclay. I made the mistake not doing so and learnt my lesson. I was shocked to see reviews aligned with the same exact experience that we had with her.