Anyone that has gone to a counselor or psychiatrist knows it's not necessarily the best experience…read more While going to PR&A, I felt like I was a number rather than a client who mattered. This place had a cooperate and uncomfortable feel to it. The clinicians and psychiatrists were "nice" I am not so sure they had my best interest in mind. Maybe I was just going to the wrong people, but that is the feeling I got. I will leave out names because I don't want to point fingers, but as a client, I wish I had read a review like this prior to going because I probably would have gone somewhere else, and much smaller.
The psychiatrist... I saw her for about 2 months. She listened to my problems but was so quick to put me on medication. I personally do not like that, especially when I am totally apprehensive to take medication to begin with (which I told her). I ended having terrible side effects from the medication. Cymbalta - I was put on this medication for anxiety and depression. This made my heart rate go crazy, I had zero appetite, I felt like I had no personality whatsoever, and I would go from complete highs to complete lows. It was not good. When I addressed them with her, she simply took my BP while in the office, said I was fine, and said to continue with the medication. She then told me if it was that bad, just stop taking it because I had not been on the medication that long so it should not have any side effects coming off of it. Well she was wrong. I stopped cold turkey and I literally became suicidal. In addition to that, I would be in the middle of talking to someone and would completely forget where I was, what I was talking about, and in a couple situations who I was talking to. It was very scary! When that happened I went back on the medication and then did my own research. Come to find out, this medication CANNOT be stopped cold turkey! You literally have to open up the pill and take one bead out each day until you get down to the last bead. (It took almost 3 months to whine myself off!) So if you're Dr ever prescribes Cymbalta to you, make sure you really need it. And if you do, make sure you are fully aware of the side effects, and that your Dr will listen and address any concerns you have. After this experience I did not return to her.
The therapist... She was alright. We did talk, a lot. But the first 15 minutes of session she would spend that time "shooting the shit" and often times she would talk about things pertaining to herself. I am sorry, but when I am paying $75 a co-pay, I am not coming to socialize. If that's the case, then the session should go 15 overtime to account for the 15 minutes of BS. I think if she avoided this, I may have had a better experience. But unfortunately because of this, I always ended up leaving more annoyed than helped. After about 2 months I stopped going to her as well.
So to sum it up.... Depending on your needs, do your research. Read reviews. Go to someone who has RAVING reviews. I personally just did not like the practice and as I mentioned, I just felt like a number. I hope if you do go here, you get a much better experience than myself! Part of being a counselor is to make the client feel like you empathize with their problems, and I did not get this feeling here!