I began working with Stephanie Stilley and Family Connections in early 2024 during a very difficult divorce involving children. At the time, concerns were raised in court and supervised visits were required. Opposing counsel requested that visits be supervised specifically through Stephanie, and after seeing some of the reviews online, I was honestly very worried about what the experience would be like. Now that today is my last day of supervised visits, I feel it is important to share my experience. For the past 2 years, Stephanie and her staff at Family Connections have been a consistent part of my family's life during an extremely challenging time. My experience was very different from what some of the reviews led me to expect. Stephanie clearly puts the children's best interests first. She is fair, direct, and willing to address concerns no matter which parent they involve. In my experience, she was focused on safety, accountability, and what was best for the children. No one wants to be in a situation where supervised visits are necessary. I certainly did not. But along the way, I came to realize that without services like the ones Stephanie and Family Connections provide, I may not have had any opportunity to maintain and rebuild time with my children in a safe and structured environment. I also want to recognize Kiana and Amina. They are excellent at what they do. They are professional, kind, attentive, and clearly care about the children. Their role is to supervise, document, and ensure safety; but they also interacted with warmth and professionalism, and my children truly adored them. In my experience, the expectations and rules were explained during the intake process and outlined clearly in the contract. If you take the process seriously, show up on time, follow the rules, accept feedback, and focus on your children, Family Connections provides an important and valuable service. I'm truly grateful for Stephanie and her staff. read more

In 2013, I participated in a custody evaluation process that I continue to experience as having had long-term impacts on both my child and my life. My experience of the process is that key historical context regarding caregiving and parenting history was not fully incorporated into the evaluation. From my perspective, documentation and information related to the full timeline of caregiving responsibilities, prior court expectations, and compliance history were not consistently or fully reflected in the evaluator's analysis. I also experienced the evaluation process as placing significant weight on selective or incomplete information, rather than a comprehensive review of the full historical case record. As a result, I felt that the conclusions reached did not fully reflect the totality of the parenting history or the broader context of the case. I also experienced this as having contributed to outcomes that have had lasting effects on my family. This experience has remained significant for me over time and has shaped my interest in custody evaluation practice, particularly the importance of: * thorough review of historical documentation and court orders * balanced consideration of all available data sources * careful attention to continuity of caregiving history * and structured, transparent reasoning in written evaluations Ms Stillley failed us by not using the framework that she was supposed to use and by choosing a personality she liked more to determine my and my son's future. The father has no custody and no visitation order in place from 2005-2013 and somehow Ms Stilley felt that he was the credible and protective parent. This alone is wild. Her reports to the court failed to include the evidence of his numerous missed and unscheduled visits as well as his inability to so much as play a game of candyland with his 8 year old son peacefully. He called our son names and made him cry and she allowed it for over an hour. My son was distraught and his father argued with him over game rules going as far as name calling- yet Ms Stilley still felt compelled to write a report to the court that reflected a positive relationship and a caring father who was "dedicated " to his son. This man had 3 months 2 different occasions to attend therapeutic visits with his son and he only attended the one two weeks prior to the court dates and she wrote positive reports! Even going as far as admonishing me for his behavior. read more

Befriended my abuser. Very unprofessional and unethical. I was the child in the situation, I was kept in an abusive home because Stilley was biased and did not report obvious abuse and parental alienation. Do not befriend your clients as a mediator. read more

Don't listen to the lawyers who tell you her one star ratings are from people who "didn't get what the wanted" from her. I walked into her office for a scheduled appointment and her door was wide open while the blabbered on and on with a client about deeply personal issues. HIPPA violation much?!? So that was my first red flag. Within moments of beginning my session with her she proceeded to tell me about the dynamics in my family even though she hadn't yet asked me a single question. She didn't charge me. She refused to engage in therapy with my family and told me, my child's other parent and the minor's counsel all different reasons why. I asked her to put it in writing for a judge and she refused to do so....but when minors counsel asked her she was happy to do a declaration. Very interesting relationship she has with other "professionals". Not a single therapist in this building has shown my family one shred of respect, support or professional conduct. Stay away. read more

This women should be sued for slander, deformation, malpractice almost any suit you can imagine. She threatens clients to write negative reviews against them if she is threatened by anything you say such as "I feel you've delayed the process by not writing a recommendation in a timely manner can you explain why it is still not done?" She will then respond with "if you even bring this up to the courts that I delayed this I will write this report bad against you." She has written reports making claims telling the courts people are degradative, rude and aggressive when they are not. I have personal knowledge of a list of 100+ people she has threatened or written false reports about. Please if you have had a negative experience with her make a report with the https://www.bbs.ca.gov/consumers/consumer_complaints.html they need to investigate this LCSW asap and revoke her license to practice immediately! I've been compiling a list for 3 years now! read more

It's actually been more than 4/5 years since the meetings me and my ex husband had with Ms. Stilley. I told myself that one day, I would be strong enough to come back and write this review. Ms. Stilley did not listen to my concerns for my children. She did not follow through with the people central to the children's lives to understand what was truly going on. She did not do her due diligence to fully understand my ex. Because of this, my ex-husband got another chance to hurt our children. I know that her job must be difficult. I can't imagine dealing with angry exes all day every day. So, on one hand, I had compassion for her, even some understanding of how she could get the picture so wrong. My ex obviously deceived me for so many years, it's not far fetched to believe he would do the same in mediation. But I remember having mine and my children's trauma dismissed by her. I remember being belittled and told I was wrong to bring up my concerns- only focus on how to work together- dismiss all the times he's shown he won't. Being told I needed counseling because I was unhappy with how my ex-husband was treating me or our children. I remember what it was like to call the police and go to the court to issue a restraining order after he hurt them. Again. All because she didn't do her job. Ms. Stilley had an opportunity to protect our kids. She did the opposite. I would not recommend Ms. Stilley for mediation or any other counseling service. Remember that your mediator will essentially decide your children's lives. Be sure it's someone who genuinely cares. read more

Worst professional I have ever seen, I have heard several attorneys complaining about the same patterns : unethical, do not cross check, being out of line ... 3rd time I had to deal with her. I'm so happy I was not asked to pay for any minute of those sessions. She's useless and make things worst. She plays double game , she's a dirty person on top of being not good at her job. hopefully she will be debarred, shame on this person. read more

she needs to find more suitable employment.... like raking barn floors. In a barn she can't hurt people. read more

Do NOT use if you want to pay someone who is honest and forthcoming! No one wants to use these types of services, but in some cases you have to employ them. Probably court ordered. Obviously I cannot go into full detail of what occurred, but I will say that I would not select Stephanie or her staff again in the future - hopefully services are never needed again. When a court order is in place and a party is paying part of the fee for supervision services, one should feel confident that Stilley and staff are doing what they are paid to keep to the court order. If you have a question regarding the supervised visits and violation of the court order, you shouldn't be retaliated with hostility and false accusations further down the road. We mostly communicated with Stilley on the logistics of the visits and K was the actual supervisor. Apparently, she had just been promoted to this position and was fairly green. We were told that K spoke too much during the supervised visits. We then addressed this with Stilley and all of a sudden a handful of potential court order violations were given to us. More like a CYA because we were inquiring about what had been happening. There were other red flags for using Stilley's services. If I could write them all out, I would. I would be hesitant to use K as your supervisor if you have a choice. When we expressed that she was getting a little too comfortable during the visits, we again were greeted with hostility and negativity. We were only going on what we were told and concerned about the intent of using their services, as supervision only, nothing more than that. These types of services are NOT cheap. They do travel at an extended rate and they charge mileage to and from the location. This is pretty standard. Be cautious with every interaction you have with Stilley or her employees. As what they report to someone else of importance may not be accurate. When you ask them about the accuracy of what was relayed, they will tell you something different -- as it is documented what was told by them. They won't hold themselves accountable, but they will keep all of your hard earned money! read more

Dad's/Husbands BEWARE!! I was recommended to Stephanie as a "Family Therapist" to help mend the estranged relationship between my daughter and her mother. Stephanie saw my daughter once and was verbally aggressive with her. After that, it became "couples therapy." From day 1, Stephanie sided with the mother on EVERYTHING and I became the punching bag at every session. She believed every lie told at trying to make me look like a bad father. Stephanie would tell me in the sessions, "This will not bode well for you in court." She turned a blind eye to anything I said. Even used terms like, "Mexican Standoff", would raise her voice and use swear words. Unbelievable and totally unprofessional. Do not, and I repeat, DO NOT utilize Stephanie's services. Take your money elsewhere. read more

So, we were ordered to use Stephanie as a mediator by the court in 2016, and she began to see my ex and I into 2017. She was not the most approachable or helpful person I have had to use. She was our third mediator. He office is not sound proof and if you are in the lobby, you can hear the entire conversation she is having with whomever. She only saw our children one time ( age 12, 5), although my son (12) said he had more to say to her. The previous mediators saw our children twice, one time with each parent. I advised her our son wanted to speak with her one more time but she refused to see him. Months later, once the report was complete, there were several mistakes. Fortunately, we didn't have to use her report and my ex and I came to an agreement. But don't use this person if you don't absolutely have too. Carol Greenfield is much better. read more

I was forced to use the facilitator and it was the worst thing to happen to me in 34 years on this planet. This facilitator made numerous false allegation against me in a letter and we are now suing her and the center. This women will purposely make up false allegation against you the minute that you address any concerns about her center to the court system. I can not stress enough that If you get this center as a mediator request a new mediator unless you want her to put your child in danger. If you are forced into supervised visitation run as fast as you can from this office...... do not provide her with her ridiculous $500. Retainer that she will waste on ready a two word text message about scheduling appointments. This women and her services are completely bias and she will fabricate complete lies about you to benefit her and hide her illegal tactics. read more

She is not an honest person. She will generally take decide who pays her and she'll see what you want if you pay her extra. She will lie to you and your children. She will break court orders and do prohibitive things and when called out on it July until you show her proof, and then she'll remove her self off the case, but she'll make sure she writes a damaging manipulating report. On our final report, she couldn't even get the children's names correct the incident, correct or anything I had to call to her attention of these for correction. But she only wrote her final report because she was caught doing prohibitive things by law to an ex parte. She doesn't even have a clue what your case is about when you discuss it with her. She's not even paying attention when you discuss things with her. And she changes her story left and right to please the other parent who's paying her. I have it all recorded, she didn't like that so she held my case up. Beware of this person. They should never be working in Family Court services. read more

We don't consider public posts too heavy, in this forum, as we have found that the opposing side or supervised side tends to be unhappy and discontent, hence bad reviews. Our family's situation included a highly volatile situation that has continued for over 10 yrs. We kept open minds. Although we didn't always agree with Ms. Stilley's position or recommendations, we will admit in the long run she always had our children's best interests in mind and she cares about the only ones that really matter...the kids. Our family thanks her for her involvement in our situation and our children want to continue their relationship with her beyond family court, as a friend. That says volumes to our family. You can't fool the kids. Not when they're teenagers. Thank you. read more

If I could give zero stars I would. I believe if you pay her thIngs will be on your side. She was granting my ex so much more custody while he continued to forget our child @ school (she gave him more custody) - if i was going on a trip she would not let me have our child but he could have our child for a trip/s. She was okay with Ex forgetting kid 3 times out of 15 times from school pick up as well as being Late for evening pick up! My ex didn't send child to school & she didn't care.. She got involved with a 100 day prior notification I gave to take our child abroad after it had been posted on Our Family Wizard- an app she insisted we usr - although I used it she still made me go through hoops with ex.? What is the point pf OFW? After 19 months hiring Stilley-my ex under her thumb continued blocking communication with me- she promised a court order signed by a judge. Every day for in addition to the 1 year of seeing Stilley- I quit going & for 10 Months I have begged for the order. The most ironic part was how my ex added 3 things to the order/ which 10 months later still has not been filed. My attorney Margaret Shannon told me not to worry about Stilley's yelp reviews. No! You should listen & read them! Use a court therapist! Seriously!! Stilley would not answer my emails, texts & calls- ironically since that's the order I was waiting for. Stilley should retire. Literally after begging for what was paid for she decided to block me. I know enough legislators who will help make a bill for her- it's going to happen- even lots of other therapists say after her divorce she became a female hater & she is completely lost. It appears this is true when you realize she barely can remember your case info. read more

Stephanie Stilley was recommended to me by my lawyer as someone who he felt was no nonsense and fair, but unfortunately, while he gave me pretty good advice about everything else, this was probably the worst advice he gave me. Stilley's primary concerns are conflict and money. So if she can stir up conflict between a couple trying to develop a plan for their kids as they divorce, she is going to do so. If she can make one or more parties cry as she threatens to remove their kids from their care, she will do so. She schedules sessions in order to earn more money, and she delays making decisions and developing custody plans. In my situation, she recommended both my ex and I get alcohol testing, which made our situation even more costly and a lot worse for us, but the additional delays and sessions in her office worked out financially well for her. Am I biased? Yes. Stilley was against me from the start. She recommended a plan that gave me fewer custody days and cost me an enormous amount of money and time to clean up. Her threats emboldened my ex, which forced us to go to court, costing me even more money. It was only after a lengthy court battle that a judge threw out my ex wife's charges and rebuked her for her behavior. The judge realized what Stilley did not, and I'm fortunate that the law had an objective eye to our situation. After a year of turmoil and anxiety, I can finally say that I've got equal parenting time and my kids have recovered from what she put them through. And Stilley never even wrote a report, thousands of dollars later. With a good mediator from the start, we would never have gone through this. I learned my lesson the hard way, but you don't have to. Find someone else. read more

Reviews don't lie, no wonder she's got nothing but bad reviews. I'm the one who filed for this past hearing to try to get more custody of my son. Between me and my son's mother my son already spends 2-3 nights a week with me all I asked was to run the days consecutive instead of spaced apart. Mrs. Stilley was assigned to make a recommendation for the courts and all she did was come up with her own ideas of what she thought was best. Even against what me and my son's mother both agreed on already. She was about to recommend a parenting plan where I would go 6 days without seeing my son but luckily me and my son's mother were able to agree on a parenting plan. Stephanie didn't do any good for our case. In fact all she did in her report was reiterate all the untrue and negative things my son's mother had to say about me as if they were facts. I brought up a few things I thought were unfair and she literally got snappy and said "the fair is where you can take your kids to buy a corn dog and ride a ferris wheel" "this isn't the fair." Definitely wouldn't want to deal with her again. read more

I agree with everyone here especially if you are a father. She is unprofessional, does not know how to speak with children, and forget it if you are the father and have been the one solely supporting your child and the child has been living with you. She makes up whatever she feels in her reports and recommendations to the court are absolutely ludicrous. There is no one overseeing her practice. No one should be allowed to have that much power over one's child and life. This experience was almost 8 years ago and I thought for sure she would be out of business with all the complaints that should be against her. This just shows you that our children and family services clearly are not important enough if they are allowing someone like Stephanie to continue. Our system is broken and people need to advocate for this and stop all the other senseless things they are doing because these children will someday be the ones in our place. (1 star is even to much!) read more

I have tried to get my money reimbursed since my custody has settle by the court. However she is no where to be seen. She has not answer her phone and has not respond to my text. I will file a formal complaint to BBB. read more

She has done four of my mediations there was a couple that I really didn't agree with because she didn't understand my case and what I was going through with the other parent. But over time she started to understand my case more and what I was going through with the other parent. In the last mediation session she really understood the case may it made valid points in her report about how the other parent was being with me and the child. I appreciate her professionalism and her awareness of my case. read more

We used her for private custody mediation in 2020. Despite the negative reviews, I hired her. She was unprofessional, does not have the children's best interest in mind, demonstrated poor clinical competence, did not take notes during sessions, and her report was not at all comprehensive. The sessions were not productive, at times looked as though she was silently browsing the internet and not speaking. Stephanie offered nothing in the sessions. Her report appeared to be a template from the internet. She took 10 months to complete the custody report, requesting hearings to be pushed out. She has no knowledge of Adverse Childhood Experiences screening which is mandated by the state to signal which kids are living with parents who's behaviors cause psychological or emotional trauma. These affect a child well into adulthood causing healthy problems as adults (and continues cycle of abuse). She awards a blanket joint custody even with parents addicted to alcohol and does not recommend drug and alcohol assessments no matter how many times you discuss or provide concrete evidence. She argued with the father when he was aggressive and lost his temper, yet did not include this in her reports. Father is addicted to alcohol and despite pictures of him drinking with the kids, and him admitting to still drinking, she recommended joint custody schedule. Her sessions were less than 1 hr. She's a state licenses and mandated reporter who is negligent about child abuse. I've reported her to the state board. Her license should be revoked. She perpetuates cycles of abuse. read more

Despite her terrible reviews, I agreed to go to Stephanie for mediation. I wish I could go into detail with how badly she handled our case. She frequently yelled and cussed during sessions. Stephanie will try to bully and intimidate parents into agreements that are not in their children's best interest. We had the judge in our case send us back to FCS mediation after spending 6 months with Stephanie and my ex wasting $4,000 on her "services". Thankfully, we reached a full step up parenting plan agreement on our own. read more

Here is a woman that puts shame to professionals. Let's start by saying my intention was not to fund her with all the money to buy a new car. How she charges and does nothing but hold the mediation over your head is pathetic. MEDIATE what a joke. How can you mediate when you don't have both parties together. She would meet with us supermarket and say the opposite to both of us. We found this out after the fact Check her records with the state. Don't hire her!!!! Home inspections... she only does it when convenient she only Listens when it's convenient, she is entrenched in the courts so much that they use her as a referral person. that should tell you where she gets her money because if she was paid in the basis of her work she would be broke. When it came to private mediate we thought it would be beneficial instead of the courts mediators but this was such a joke. She puts both parties against each other more than we already were. When we finally realized this we both fired her. My situation was devastating while she was involved I was on the verge of loosing custody over NOTHING. I can say this now many months later as I look back and see the situation. Are main problem as a couple was we were both very heart broken nothing else but Stephanie sure added fuel to the fire. She is like a mother that pits her kids against each other STAY AWAY FROM MEDIATION try and resolve YOUR situation yourself. read more

Unprofessional! Missed multiple appointments and never apologized . Then tried to blame me for misunderstanding what time the original appt was. This office will not take responsibility for their actions. Stilley bought my exes "poor me" life, hook line and sinker. Ms. Stilley was unprofessional and constantly spoke to the other parent, yet missed multiple appointments I had scheduled with her. She did not speak to our children in front of me regarding their needs and wants as I had requested through the court and was also approved by the court. The system is broken and Stilley has contributed more than should be allowed. My children constantly ask why Stilley didn't give them what they wanted, and I reassure them I will keep fighting for them because she FAILED. read more

Horrible co-parenting "therapist" She's a con artist. She ripped me and my ex husband off for hundreds of dollars. If we disagreed in our sessions (which were court ordered and she was recommended by MY lawyer) then she kicked us out and still made us pay. News flash? People who are court ordered into co parenting don't get along, so maybe have a little more control over who speaks and when.... she compared me to her soon to be ex daughter-in-law, which then alerted me to the fact that she Isn't bias whatsoever. She accepted phone calls from my ex husbands girlfriend (who he had only dated for about 3 weeks) she allowed this girl to "weigh in" on what she thought the problems were. I mentioned that it seemed like a violation of my hippa/privacy rights, since shes now admitted to some random person i was in therapy? She's rude, judgmental, and doesn't actually take notes. Once i asked her to see anything written down about us, and she had nothing. I finally began secretly recording our sessions... plan on playing them to the state board. Save your money, there's probably a janitor in that building who'd be better at giving co parenting advice. read more

Horrible mediator. She gathers information but doesn't ask questions . She said she remains bias however she gives more attention to the mother than the father. There is no feeling of trust or that she values you as a person in the room. She seems very incompetent with her job she tends to ask trick questions especially with your children in my daughters and very confused even at 15 after we left as the information that she was trying to get out of her... I'm going to turn her into the board myself and put in a complaint read more

Stephanie Stilley is unethical, unprofessional and a crook. I am currently reporting her to the Board of Behavioral Sciences and would encourage anyone to do the same that has reason to do so. Stephanie talked to other clients on the phone about inappropriate topics while she was supposed to be doing reunification with my son and I for a two year period. She never did anything but sit behind her desk, talk to clients and vape on top of it which is illegal. She made false promises to me constantly, said it was inappropriate to my son for talking about his grades and other appropriate Father and Son items and even reached out to my ex wife when I let her know I was filing a complaint to know what was going on. (Again illegal and unprofessional) Obviously from these reviews there are unhappy clients and my intention is to put her out of practice this in 2017 with the proof that I have of illegal activity and breaking violations of HIPPA and her license as an LCSW. read more