It's funny that it took nearly a year and a negative review on Yelp to hear back from Elizabeth S., the owner of this company. I'm sorry, but it's too little, too late. Your receptionist did indeed take my credit card information and though I called back on three different occasions, I never heard back from you all which is why I came onto Yelp.com and wrote a review. In the future, I hope it won't take a negative review on a public forum for you all to get back to a customer. I hope this was a one time offense and that things are much improved with your company since my experience last November. But that's neither here nor there. I've since taken my business elsewhere and if any one asks my opinion of your company, I will be forthright and honest about my experience. read more

My girlfriend and I were seeking pre-engagement counseling. We set up an appointment with Jessica via email for the free phone consultation. She never even called us. And since the appointment was after business hours, naturally when I tried to call her, I just got the voicemail. She never even responded to my follow up email to see what went wrong. Weird. read more

My fiancee and I scheduled a free 30-minute consult with Elizabeth for standard pre-marital counseling, and received a confirmation email for our appointment. Our call at the start of the appointment went straight to voicemail. We left a message, notifying Elizabeth that we were calling into our appointment. We called from my fiancees phone twice with no response. We called back from my phone 15 minutes after the start of the appointment, and left a message to cancel the appointment because she apparently wasn't available. We received a message from Elizabeth about a half an hour later on my fiancee's phone, claiming that she did not answer our calls because she thought we were telemarketers. This struck me as flaky at best (a very generous assessment), and dishonest at worst (more likely). We had rearranged our schedules and declined other plans in an effort to be available for this call. Caring Couples does not seem to be very respectful of people's time. We'll gladly be making other arrangements. read more

What an incredible waste of money, time, and emotion. My spouse and I saw Elizabeth when we were on the brink of separation or divorce at an incredibly stressful and painful time -- infidelity, serious financial deceptions, and dangerous secretive behaviors were at the heart of it. Despite detailing these behaviors and my fears and suspicions of imminent new problems, Elizabeth paid no attention and kept on with her usual, rote, generic approach. SO frustrating. As I warned, financial crisis and more affairs DID happen as I suspected they would, and guess what? We were told to ignore this and focus on 'communication' and watching 'letting go of shame' DVDs. Seriously? She NEVER listened to, or suggested action on, what was actually happening in our lives. At the end (after spending thousands of dollars for nothing), she basically told us she couldn't help us anymore. Unbelievable. In our very first session, we were told the rules, one of which was that if either of us or she wanted to end therapy, we were required to discuss it over in one or two final sessions. Yet - she ended therapy DURING A SESSION ABRUPTLY, basically telling us she didn't think she could help us and we needed to seek out individual therapy. Bye! See ya later! Completely unbelievable. Not only was she no help, this experience was incredibly harmful psychologically and pragmatically. read more

My husband and I had about 6 months of weekly very helpful sessions with Elizabeth Sloan at Caring Couples,Happy Lives. A friend of mine told me about Ms. Sloan and said she was an excellent therapist who helped her and her spouse a great deal. It took a lot for my introverted spouse to warm up to idea of going to counseling in the first place, but once we were in the office, Ms. Sloan put him at ease immediately, got what was going on with us, and was very understanding, empathic and insightful. I was so grateful, because without his buy-in, it wouldn't have worked. She assisted us in learning better communication skills, so that we could get the responses from each other we wanted, and start to resolve some of our many issues. Things felt better from the start and we felt totally supported in making the necessary changes to have a better marriage. It's still a work in progress and we go back for regular booster sessions, when needed. I feel appreciative that our money, time and energy was well spent, and I would highly recommend Ms. Sloan to any one who needs couple's counseling and has some really difficult problems to deal with, as we did. read more

I have seen Elizabeth on and off for several years. She is a competent, caring therapist. She is very thorough and often recommends books or exercises to work on between sessions. These recommendations have been extremely helpful. Not only has she has helped me work to better my marriage, she has helped me develop better relationships with my father, mother, siblings, and friends. If you want to learn how to be a good partner in any relationship, Elizabeth can help you! read more

Caring Couples, Happy Lives is a complete waste of your time and money. The therapy we got from Martha at the Mclean office was OK, but the place is run like a corporation. If you miss a session, you have to pay the entire session fee, even in extreme emergencies. They want their money and they don't care how they get it. We had to miss a session because our two year-old son was rushed to the hospital the night before after an asthma attack and spent 12 hours in the NICU. When we realized the next day that we forgot about the session in all the craziness of the night before, we sent an email to our therapist explaining the extreme circumstances of our situation. She told us that she could have helped us if we had emailed her before the session (you know, when we were watching our two-year old baby being wrestled down by nurses so they could get an oxygen mask on him, we were expected to remember to send an email). She didn't even ask how the baby was doing, she just went through the list of reasons why we had to pay 140 dollars for the missed session. We sent a second email in response to hers, and all we got back was the receipt for the $140 (they make you put your credit card on file so they can take the money without asking permission). Luckily, we were able to find an alternative therapist who charges a $50 dollar cancellation fee (which is much more reasonable), has a very flexible schedule, provides high quality therapy, and makes you feel like she really cares about you. I was able to find this alternative in less than 15 minutes after dumping Caring Couples. They are truly the worst therapists in the area. Everything the other reviews say about them is so true. There are plenty of alternatives, your relationship deserves better. DO NOT GO HERE!!! Update: I received an email from Elizabeth Sloan, the owner of Caring Couples, on May 28, 2014 telling me that she was sorry for what happened. She said that there was a miscommunication with my therapist because the therapist told her that we had simply forgot our appointment, not that we had an emergency with our son. After I provided her with the email chain between me and my therapist detailing the circumstances of what happened, she offered to refund the $140 late fee. She also said that she would work on communication with her therapists to make sure this kind of thing didn't happen again. I told her that the Caring Couples' cancelation policy was not within industry standards and that none of the other therapists in the area have such a strict cancellation policy. She didn't agree but said that it is their policy that, in emergency situations like ours, the fee should have been waived. I have raised my star rating of this business from 1 star to 3 stars. While I think the policies of Caring Couples need to be changed and that Caring Couples should align itself with industry norms, I do appreciate Ms. Sloan's efforts in reaching out to me personally in attempt to provide good customer service and endeavoring to keep clients happy. read more

I am a past client of Dr. Sloan's and would like to offer up some positive input regarding my experience. I was involved in a 17-year marriage that had been in trouble for many, many years by the time I and my former spouse began counseling with Dr. Sloan. We had all sorts of issues and - long story short - the marriage was simply not working out on almost every level. Despite Dr. Sloan's dedicated efforts to assist us in attempting to work to some resolution, it became apparent that therapy was not going to keep the marriage together. At this point, I engaged Dr. Sloan on an individual level, as I had realized that I needed to leave the marriage for the ultimate good of all involved - however was having an extremely difficult time moving ahead with what would be a dramatic, painful, uprooting, and life-changing decision. During four months of intense one-on-one sessions with Dr. Sloan, I was able to come to some very cathartic conclusions regarding both HOW I had ended up where I was in my life at that time, and perhaps more importantly WHY I was completely paralyzed and unable to act upon several excruciatingly difficult but necessary decisions I needed to make in order to move my life in the direction it needed to go...and for me to become the person I so desperately wanted and needed to be. I would like to note that I was pretty much in anxiety attack mode at this particular point in time, due to the slow but steady build-up of unhappiness and dissatisfaction in my life over many years, and the sense that I was completely trapped and could not possibly muster the wherewithal to change my situation. I'm a very smart and confident man at my core, but felt helpless - maybe "hapless" is a more accurate word - when faced with decisions that would forever change everything I had come to know in my adult life to that point. There was no lower time in my life, and I was terrified...yet silently determined to get myself to the right outcome - whatever that might be. Dr. Sloan patiently, skillfully, and compassionately helped me begin to understand some of the key reasons why I felt marooned in my existence at that time, and while not necessarily steering me in any specific direction, she somehow managed to allow me to tap into my own potential to shape my future from that point forward. Most of all, Dr. Sloan gave me the wherewithal to break through what had pretty much become a crippling forcefield of inaction that had stalled me in a no-man's land for probably 10 years or more. Once I was able to finally harness the ability to do what I needed to do for myself, the flood gates opened and since then, life has taken several very dramatic turns - all for the best. Today, five years later, I am remarried and in an extremely happy, healthy, comfortable relationship - and have become the father I have always wanted to be to my 8-year-old son. I have a delightful wife and son, a delightful life, and I am (hate to use this word but I will anyway) authentically happy. Without Dr. Sloan's help, I very much doubt that I would have been able to get to where I am today. Let me conclude by saying that I was right up there at the top of the list of people who come into therapy relationships of this type with a healthy amount of skepticism, to say the least. I have never been a believer in blaming one's problems on one's childhood, or thinking that somehow all the answers to our adult problems can be found in childhood experiences. While I still feel that way in many respects to this day, I would encourage anyone going through serious issues in their lives to simply be open to any and all explorations that might provide some insights into exactly who you are and why you are. There is some incredible power in that discovery, and while the process was not always clear to me - I am sitting here today counting my blessings daily because I allowed myself to be open to a process of true self-discovery. It is never, ever too late to reclaim your life...and while I will be the first one to give myself the credit for changing my life for the better, I owe Dr. Sloan a tremendous debt of gratitude for finally turning the light on in what was a pitch-black room for me for so long. read more