Waterloo Counseling Center

This was a nightmare. The counselor I was assigned to needed counseling more than I did ! I left every session feeling very very frustrated and I endured 4 before I realized this place was not going to be helpful. One of the problems (and I’ll only mention one but I could go on and on) was that the guy I was assigned to seemed to think that by him telling me all of his problems would make me feel so ’ not alone in the world ’ lol. this was NOT a good experience at Waterloo. I’m keeping this review short. Keep looking if you are in need. The protocol and the way paper work and time spent in office just to get to see someone is enough to send one into therapy.

There are no words to describe how wonderful, helpful, supportive, ugh… I can’t express how nice it is to have someone to talk to about issues important to me and relatable to my incredible therapist. I’ve been using this facility and its incredible staff for over three months now. Attentive, thoughtful, and affordable.

PLEASE NOTE I WOULD GIVE THIS PLACE 1.5 STARS IF I COULD, however, I am giving it two stars just to save the full weigh of a 1 star rating for the worst of the worst.
I have long been aware of the existence of the Waterloo Counseling Center and their reputation for working with the GLBT community and members of other subcultures and have always found their mission to be highly laudable. Things also seemed positive when, being uninsured and queer, I qualified for a grant that reduced my payment from I think $ 115 to $ 45 per session, though that really is more to the credit of the grant and not to them, themselves.
My experience was fairly negative across trying to set up and appointment as well as the two sessions I had, and ultimately in trying to cancel my future appts and complain about my therapist.
As far as setting up the appt went, after several attempts, I was never able to reach an actual person by phone to set up an appt and finally had to leave a message on a Thurs stating that I was in emotional distress and would really like to set up and appointment asap. No one returned my call until the following Monday, leaving me very distraught for four days while I waited.
Once I had an appointment and got there, a large chunk of the time on the first session was eaten up by filling out forms during the session because I hadn’t realized that the forms I had filled out in the waiting room all had stuff on the back that I had to fill out, too. I acknowledge that I could have checked the backs, but I will say that the clipboard held down the forms which discouraged readily turning them over and checking the back. Also, there was nothing on the front pages to indicate that there was something on the back.
Losing the first session to this paperwork was especially frustrating because not only did I really need that session, I had had to kill 30 minutes in the waiting room just sitting there due to when my bus dropped me off.
Also regarding those forms, though it does not apply to me personally, I was really taken aback that their form asking about prior drug use was entitled «Substance Abuse History». Any educated person on the subject knows that there is a major difference between occasional recreational use and real substance abuse, and not only are they not making that distinction they are forcing their clients with some recreational use history to either brand themselves as «drug abusers» or to lie on their intake form.
Getting past having to waste most of the 45 minutes of the first session on just going through the paperwork and basic intro and disclaimer stuff, the real problems came on the second session. Basically, I walked in there in an incredibly good mood and rather than focusing on the positive during the session, I was made to walk out of there feeling extremely badgered and very frustrated, and the fact that I paid $ 45 for that was total insult to injury.
Basically, my therapist, Nina (who I only mention by name to distinguish that other therapists might not be this bad, but I don’t think the fact that she has worked there for three years bodes well about their hiring practices) started off the meeting by insisting on filling out a goal sheet.
While this might have been fine for someone else in another situation, the problem was that my only problem was that I am disabled and have to cope with a great deal of physical suffering and had just been seeking out someone to talk to about how much physical pain I was in. She wouldn’t accept that or let up about how I needed to come up with things I needed to change about myself.
My situation is that I am a pretty happy person with a great deal of support from my friends and family. My positive attitude in the face of such illness is frequently commented on, and I take steps to safeguard my own emotional well being such as making a point of going out to events that I know I will enjoy, even when I am in a lot of pain because the emotional pain of isolation can be worse. There really isn’t anything about myself to change, I just needed to talk out loud about how rough it was to deal with physical suffering all the time.
She would not accept this and badgered and badgered me about it for about 10 – 15 minutes, and then wanted to psychoanalyze the fact that I felt like we were wasting time on it. Then, as I tried to clarify that I just wanted to talk to someone about how sick I felt, she tried to make something out of that like I didn’t have anyone I felt I could talk to even though I had already made it clear that I did and I was trying to give them a break and had hoped for some outside insight from a trained professional.
Then, just to wrap up the experience, I couldn’t get anyone on the phone to cancel my future appointments. I left two messages explaining that I was unhappy with my therapists behavior and wanted to lodge a complaint and cancel my appointment, but I received no cancelation confirmation or complaint follow up.